Jump to content

James Newton Howard's WATERWORLD - NEW La-la Land 2CD Complete Edition!


Jay

Recommended Posts

Mike Matessino co-produced and mastered Waterworld, but this was Dan Goldwasser's baby.  He co-produced and edited it - and did the artwork.

 

I opened mine up yesterday and have listened to most of it on work commutes.  Glanced through the liner notes and read Goldwasser's note - pretty neat that he got demos from JNH's personal archive!  I wonder if the "Three On Deck" demo would line up with the Extended Cut of the film.  I look forward to reading Grieving's main notes soon!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my favorite JNH scores.  Been listening for a couple days.  Obviously the sound quality is top notch.  Been enjoying it immensely.  The horn work in this one is so so good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yup!  I finished listening this morning, it all sounds fantastic!  The demos are an interesting curiosity but not something I'll listen to over and over again, same with the alternates.  The session speech is nice, especially since its both JNH and Costner talking.


Grieving's liner notes are good, too!  They don't really study the score, but cover the production of the film and some aspects of how the score came to be.  I never would have known that the sample libraries used to make the demo and color some of the cues was a gift from Zimmer, that was neat.

 

Overall, a truly awesome release, one of the very best of 2017!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎9‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 8:03 AM, Jay said:

Mike Matessino co-produced and mastered Waterworld, but this was Dan Goldwasser's baby.  He co-produced and edited it - and did the artwork.

Well, then props to him! Simply a fantastic piece of work from all who were involved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
On 9/8/2017 at 2:35 AM, Richard Penna said:

Same - I love the highlights of this - Swimming, some great action material, and some awesome usage of his main themes, but overall even the OST feels overlong to me. I don't know why - the rest of it doesn't do much for me.

 

On 8/17/2017 at 5:20 PM, Thor said:

I have no comment on this particular release (that isn't already known to everyone).

 

However, I would use this opportunity to chime in and say that WATERWORLD is not only my favourite JNH, it's in my list of alltime Top 10 scores! I also belong to the few who actually like the film, and have done so ever since I saw it in the cinema (as opposed to most of my fellow critics).

 

The sound quality of the OST seems OK to me, and it does contain its fair share of mediocre cues, so is there any really good reason to obtain the extended release?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I dont' find that the OST has a lot of 'mediocre' cues. There is a little bit of filler here and there -- between the surprisingly many highlight cues -- but so do almost all soundtracks. I find it to be one of the few long-running albums to sustain a 70-minute running time. Pretty much perfect, in my eyes. So obviously, I would not recommend "meddling" with perfection by getting either an abbreviated or extended release. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/8/2018 at 11:22 AM, Thor said:

I dont' find that the OST has a lot of 'mediocre' cues. There is a little bit of filler here and there -- between the surprisingly many highlight cues -- but so do almost all soundtracks. I find it to be one of the few long-running albums to sustain a 70-minute running time. Pretty much perfect, in my eyes. So obviously, I would not recommend "meddling" with perfection by getting either an abbreviated or extended release. :)

 

I would love to read your review of Waterworld, though. But to make it relevant, you have to review the expanded edition. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/8/2018 at 10:22 AM, Thor said:

I dont' find that the OST has a lot of 'mediocre' cues. There is a little bit of filler here and there -- between the surprisingly many highlight cues -- but so do almost all soundtracks. I find it to be one of the few long-running albums to sustain a 70-minute running time. Pretty much perfect, in my eyes. So obviously, I would not recommend "meddling" with perfection by getting either an abbreviated or extended release. :)

 

My playlist is 40 minutes and has what I consider the highlights. Thing is, the more action material you've got, the more unique the individual compositions need to be, and I don't feel they are in this score.

 

I discovered this score way back during my soundtrack infancy, and Swimming in particular made a huge impression on me. I always have images in my head when listening to scores (it's largely how I judge how good they are - if it doesn't conjure an image, it's probably not for me) and this cue and others from the score were really vivid and inspiring in their imagery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

I would love to read your review of Waterworld, though. But to make it relevant, you have to review the expanded edition. :)

 

You wish! ;)

 

I "mini-review" it in my very first episode of Celluloid Tunes, which is about my top 10 favourite soundtracks of all time (but don't listen to that -- it's slow, sluggish, poor sound quality and whimsical!). I also briefly touch on the score in my interview with JNH a few years ago.

 

But yeah -- would be nice to review it, to get all the thoughts sorted in one place. The original soundtrack, of course.

 

I've also been an avid defender of the movie, ever since I saw it in the theatre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a compromise, you could do a comparison between the extended edition and the OST. That gives you the opportunity to bash the extended. :)

 

I'm guessing you also like Kamen's Robin Hood. It's great to hear it's being released in expanded form! That's a score which definitely should have been better presented on the OST.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love Kamen's ROBIN HOOD. One of my favourites of his, and acquired on CD around the same time as WATERWORLD (actually a bit earlier). I've deliberately not commented on the recent expansion (for obvious reasons), but if there is one thing lacking a bit from the OST, it's the sound quality....and those weird fade-ins and fade-outs of certain tracks. Wouldn't mind to have those fixed, at the very least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Btw, what do you think about the Back to the Future complete edition? That surely is an improvement over the OST. :)

 

Partially, yes. Love the movie, and love the score IN the movie, but on album, I much rather prefer the straight-up western score for 3. The suites on the OST really capture the essence of the score. There is a lot of "start" and "stop" in that music, if that makes sense. That being said, I've always wanted to try and make a playlist of the OST suites, with a few added cues from the expansion, to see if that would result in a good listening experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree that the complete score to the first is a tad disappointing on album, but at least we get more of Silvestri's music than on the OST, which to me didn't have enough of it. The third entry definitely is the most satisfying of the three scores. I don't own any edition of the third, and I'm debating with myself whether the expanded is worth buying.

 

Looking forward to your playlist. You could make a podcast out of it! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

So is this one gone now? (except for the odd copy possibly floating around in an obscure webshop or two)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

So which ones are the standout tracks of this expanded Waterworld release, that could convince me to purchase it?

 

On 1/9/2018 at 10:50 PM, Thor said:

Love Kamen's ROBIN HOOD. One of my favourites of his, and acquired on CD around the same time as WATERWORLD (actually a bit earlier). I've deliberately not commented on the recent expansion (for obvious reasons), but if there is one thing lacking a bit from the OST, it's the sound quality....and those weird fade-ins and fade-outs of certain tracks. Wouldn't mind to have those fixed, at the very least.

 

I can't see how the sound quality of the Robin Hood OST is bad. It's the orchestra playing that's dodgy in places.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I can't see how the sound quality of the Robin Hood OST is bad. It's the orchestra playing that's dodgy in places.

 

I have no issues with the orchestral performance, only the sound and those aforementioned fade-ins and outs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't know about 'miles'. The SUPERMAN OST sounds absolutely fine. But obviously, there's almost 20 years difference between them, so it benefits from the development in recording technology.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, Jurassic Shark said:

I wouldn't call the significant distortion in some tracks absolutely fine.

 

Not something that has bothered me. I've had the CD since the mid 90, and not once have I been bothered with 'distortions' or other things. I guess it's different when you've grown up with the album.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

Not something that has bothered me. I've had the CD since the mid 90, and not once have I been bothered with 'distortions' or other things. I guess it's different when you've grown up with the album.

 

Of course, the nostalgia factor is significant when it comes to appreciation of a record.

 

Btw, I just listened to the Robin Hood OST, and agree that it could have sounded better. Perhaps this is a factor that could finally sway me to buy the expanded release, although I don't find the score to be very good in extended form, and it's regretful that they included repetitive film edits in otherwise fine tracks.

 

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

I have no issues with the orchestral performance, only the sound and those aforementioned fade-ins and outs.

 

It's actually the score with the most noticeable flubs that I can think of right now, if disregarding the many Silva/Prague rerecordings where the orchestra struggles with "basic" stuff like playing together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Feel free to post timecodes, if you have them. In the 25 years of owning this, I've never noticed any particular flubs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, I'll try to be on the lookout for them the next time I listen to it (haven't listened to it in years, come to think of it).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Thor said:

Not something that has bothered me. I've had the CD since the mid 90, and not once have I been bothered with 'distortions' or other things. I guess it's different when you've grown up with the album.

 

It's also different when you've grown up in the vinyl and cassette era with it's compressed, trebley (is that a word?) sound and assortment of snap, crackle and pop / tape hiss. Just being able to listen to S: TM OST without those anomalies was amazing back in the day.

 

It's something that only people that grew up with analogue pan-and-scan broadcasts and VHS/Betamax rentals viewed in glorious mono on a convex CRT TV could appreciate.

 

19260634_307350363041492_535137947657663

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

But we can still have appreciation for imperfect things

 

Thing is, I never even thought of it as an imperfection. In fact, the evaluation of 'sound quality' wasn't even something that ever appeared in my mind; everything sounded perfectly fine. That's still the case, even though there have been many expansions and reissues and restorations over the years.

 

Really, the only times this makes much of a difference to me is when they rerecord crackly, old scores from the 30s and so on, in sparkling clear sound. Like KING KONG or whatever. Then, I'm interested; the score suddenly comes to life on a whole other level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Yes, but if you can improve it further, why not?

 

Well financial considerations for one. Not everyone can afford to rebuy everything just because it's better, incrementally or otherwise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

Well financial considerations for one. Not everyone can afford to rebuy everything just because it's better, incrementally or otherwise.

 

I sold my copy of the OST and the Japanese OST, because I don't want them anymore, and I'm waiting for a sale to buy the new, ultimate release.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I kept my OST and my Japanese edition and my Debney re-recording and my Rhino and my Blue Box and I have the LLL. If I had decided to sell them off it wouldn't have helped anyway as I have no way to recoup the financial outlay. I'd basically have to give them away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.