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Do you enjoy the Force Awakens score?


Gruesome Son of a Bitch

  

106 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you enjoy the Force Awakens score?



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I have to say I'd never predicted we'd get a score like what we did for Episode 7, nor that a new SW score could get the reaction from JWFan (and everywhere, really) it has.

This last 4 days have felt like I'm in a bizarro world in a lot of ways

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ID4's score is fantastically great, always loved it, always will

TFA is good too

If I didn't like TFA, I wouldn't keep showing up every day to post repeatedly about how I'm not liking it like some people are doing...

~

This last 4 days have felt like I'm in a bizarro world in a lot of ways

But do you agree with me?

Huh? About what?

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Which thing you said on the previous page?

I wish I was blown away like some of you guys

I dunno, I keep playing it and nothing sticks except a few moments

finn's motif just doesn't work for me and it's the basis of most action cues. I still can't differentiate most of the action cues after 6 -7 listens to the album

the old themes aren't played in great new ways. The rebel fanfare is just the rebel fanfare, Leia's theme and Han and Leia have inferior renditions than previous scores, there's only one new Force theme rendition I like in Farewell and the Trip, Luke's theme is always understated, incomplete and dissonant

Importantly, I'm not craving the unreleased music, which is pretty much a first time event

I dunno, I keep playing it and nothing sticks except a few moments

finn's motif just doesn't work for me and it's the basis of most action cues

There's something wrong with you!

hey a week ago you swore not to even see the film

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Here's my deal with all this:

Woke up Wednesday and saw it had leaked; Listened to it 3 or so times that day and 3 or so more times on Thuresday. Then saw the movie THursday night and didn't like the movie.

Haven't been compelled to re-listen to the OST since, I've been catching on on podcasts I've been neglecting for 2 weeks instead.

I've been keeping up with all the conversation on the forum and sometimes people mentions sections of tracks they like, and I play them and they are always cool things.

I think this is a dense score with a lot to discovere and appreciate, but I guess I haven't been in the mindspace to really get into it yet.

It's busy with Christmas coming up, still writing Thank You cards for the wedding, all kinds of other little things, Marcy's been sick, etc.

I need to find time to sit down and listen to this with no distractions, either with headphones on on my good stereo but without doing anything.

So far I've only heard it while working or driving around. Or in a film I didn't like.

So I feel like I can't even accurately rate it yet.

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If I didn't like TFA, I wouldn't keep showing up every day to post repeatedly about how I'm not liking it like some people are doing...

They do it because they put more anticipation into it than every other score. It didn't deliver for them, but they're not just going to abandon discussion about it. They want to do their postmortem!

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I agree, but the reaction here is to be expected, it is jwfan.com,

But many of the people loving this score are some of the most hard to please, so that has to count for something.

Well, a lot of folks here are very well versed (is that the correct english term?) in music and I'm sure the score is technically complex and all that. Having said that, I don't believe I've ever seen hard criticism of Williams here, every score is a masterpiece or it's the album that's the problem cause all the great bits are unreleased or it requires multiple listens to understand how great it is and so on. Granted, I don't visit here often anymore so maybe you're right and they're hard to please, having seven months old twin boys takes a lot of your free time. Star Wars mania brought me here as I was curious if anyone else was as dissapointed as I am with the score.

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I criticize Williams all the time. I haven't really loved any of his scores since the finale of Revenge of the Sith and I've bashed the hell out of his bland soulless autopilot scores for Crystal Skull and Tintin.

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It's so weird to me you can't get into KOCS. Nothing about that score is autopilot to me (except for the regretful re-does of exact earlier Indy bits in a few spots)

KOTC might not exactly be auto-pilot but it lacks punch in nearly every area, which TFA has in spades (maybe even more than the prequel scores). KOTCS is too cutesy.

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Indeed. And these new themes don't feel like Williams going through the motions. Not to me, anyway.

Tintin is less offensive because it's at least energetic and it's just for some fucking cartoon movie. KOTCS was for an Indiana Jones film and those scores were always among his best work. I don't care if the movie sucked ass, Williams has scored shit before and delivered great stuff.

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I criticize Williams all the time. I haven't really loved any of his scores since the finale of Revenge of the Sith and I've bashed the hell out of his bland soulless autopilot scores for Crystal Skull and Tintin.

Strange, I enjoy both of those scores (Crystal Skull does have some boring "ambient music" I'll admit) and feel they have memorable tracks, though obviously they're not in the Temple of Doom or Empire league. To each his own, I'm not getting anything out of TFA, Rey's theme is nice, but not great, and it sounds like Harry Potter (the part with the sorting hat I think), the march goes nowhere, the action cues are usual rithmic modern Williams that are not my cup of tea (there's no Forest battle here), Ren's theme is cool but underdeveloped and I agree with King Mark, there are no great uses of old themes ( no Anakin leaves his mother for example).

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Ok - I'm in agreement with most of you guys.

The first 1:38 of The Jedi Steps and Finale is excellent - it sounds like Tintin/Birth of twins ROTS but it is magical.. but thats all there is folks 1:38 there is no development..

March of the Resistance trys to be some Fugue but unlike POA quidditch or Jaws shark cage fugue it fails. Technically masterful but doesn't compel repeat listens.

Scherzo for X-wings is ok but I think again there are too many notes.. the original triology was never that "busy" with the counterpoint.

I get the feeling he was asked to tone down the themes for this film.. the action scoring is nothing compared to Tintin or even War Horse (No mans land, charge and capture), I was hopeing there would be something new in there a new harmony or sound but theres nothing new.

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Seriously?

It's a far more energetic score then Williams' last two ventures into a beloved franchise (ROTS and KOCS).

It isnt as immediately gripping on album as much of his Golden Age stuff is, but that been the case since the mid-90's, with a few rare exceptions.

The exceptional complexity of his music often don't shine through at first and it takes patience and time to slowly unfold these aspects. There is less to latch on to at a first listen.

Modern John Williams music is NOT for the casual, easy listening soundtrack enthusiast!

Oh bollocks!

If Williams' Star Wars ever was one thing, then the easily accessible film music for the casual listener. Some of you are simply denying to see what everyone not so attached to the man or the franchise can hear, that Williams isn't able anymore at his age to reach the appeal he still had even 10 years ago.

To say TFA isn't as immediately gripping as his golden age stuff is an understatement, just like saying he's as gripping now as the was since the 90s is severely exaggerated. His 90s output is far superior to this score, far and away. Just like most of his 2000 work reached a level of form, intrigue and musical joy, of which only a fraction can be found in TFA. The Potter series, War Horse, Geisha, Tintin, RotS, all of them have infinitely more to say than Episode VII. TFA is a score by a composer who doesn't "get" it anymore. The joy and wonderment is gone. I don't feel that this score comes from Williams' heart.

You're not relevant outside of the Hobbit threads, sorry.

'doesn't "get" it'

Perfecly apt.

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I have to say I'd never predicted we'd get a score like what we did for Episode 7, nor that a new SW score could get the reaction from JWFan (and everywhere, really) it has.

This last 4 days have felt like I'm in a bizarro world in a lot of ways

It's Star Wars by John Williams and you didn't think it would be huge here?

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The first 1:38 of The Jedi Steps and Finale is excellent - it sounds like Tintin/Birth of twins ROTS but it is magical.. but thats all there is folks 1:38 there is no development..

You really know meaningful discussion has reached a dead end if the dreaded word 'magical' enters - in tandem with 'it lacks heart, it's deadly.

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The first 1:38 of The Jedi Steps and Finale is excellent - it sounds like Tintin/Birth of twins ROTS but it is magical.. but thats all there is folks 1:38 there is no development..

You really know meaningful discussion has reached a dead end if the dreaded word 'magical' enters - in tandem with 'it lacks heart, it's deadly.

How about 'spellbinding' instead then? No?

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I have to say I'd never predicted we'd get a score like what we did for Episode 7, nor that a new SW score could get the reaction from JWFan (and everywhere, really) it has.

This last 4 days have felt like I'm in a bizarro world in a lot of ways

It's Star Wars by John Williams and you didn't think it would be huge here?

No no no, I meant I expected a new SW score to be universally loved by JWFan, not the widely opposing viewpoints were getting. Some love it some hate it! A lot of people dint know what to think.

Not what I expected.

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I think we're spoiled. Did anyone really expect another ESB? This is a lush, beautiful, impactful score that serves the movie well. We could've had (choke) Giacchino.

Some of you are such entitlement babies. We got another Star Wars score from the Maestro. Let that sink in a little. Go sit down on the carpet with some old action figures and put it on loud. You can't go back, but this is pretty close.

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Some of you are such entitlement babies.

I really believe that people's unrealised expectatons are overshadowing the score's actual merits for some.

Why not just enjoying the score and stop assuming what's in other people's minds :)

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