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A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - 2015 3CD set from La-La Land Records


Jay

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The original A.I. album isn't bad at all. It's actually pretty good by Williams OST standards. There are two Goddamned songs, missing highlights and questionable sound quality...okay, some parts sound like pure shit. I don't know what happened except to say Shawn Murphy. But what were you expecting from a Williams OST? Highlights friggin' galore are featured. There aren't glaring edits as far as I can tell. It's a solid hour of Williams bliss, without a lot of the boring underscore from the complete thing. And as I recall, the Academy Promo leaked not long after the OST had come out, so we had very little to complain about with this score for all these years. It makes perfect sense they would do this one, actually, since we have most of it.

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The OST is, actually, a pretty good representation of the score. It has all the major cues, and...er...that's pertty much it... :blink:

Anyway, enjoy.

You're joking, right?

It may have all the major cues from the end of the film, but it sure is missing a lot of highlights from the beginning!

And the 2 versions of the pop song.... :pukeface: I'm glad they're on Disc 3 of the new set :)

It's a good album, as a purely musical experience (not counting songs). Feels almost like a concert work and tribute to Kubrick's eclectic choice of music for his films. All the tracks feel like self-contained orchestral miniatures.

Karol

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Apart from this expansion set of AI it is indeed gratifying to know that LLL through the professional expertise of Mike Mattessino have managed to forge a very good trust worthy relationship with both Williams and Spielberg's offices. LLL has already alluded to this fact that these will forge further releases from them in the near future ( and I guess these are probably in pre-production since revealed last year in an on-line interview and recently on the FSM)

So what's on their agenda? Well I know nothing but I would speculate that the breathtaking restorations of the recent EMPIRE OF THE SUN and AI will surely pave way for release of very Important scores. Definitive 'stand alone' scores from the Indiana Jones saga, Jurassic Park and Lost World and also CE3K and ET. JAWS could already be in the works from Intrada with the requisite re-mastering since we are expecting a major release to tie in with that labels anniversary. They have already issued other JAWS sequel scores except JAWS 2 which could be tied up with Varese but things change at the last minute. Lets see. But right now I'am very excited to grace the new AI set next month.

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The OST is, actually, a pretty good representation of the score. It has all the major cues, and...er...that's pertty much it... :blink:

Er... you're wrong, sorry. While the OST can be a fine listen on its own and surely contains several key highlights, it does not represent the score in all its subtlety, nuances and true musical fashion. As others said, it omits almost completely the music from the first act of the film and some really gorgeous connective tissue material where the thematic material is further explored and taken to new directions (JW is a master of the theme-and-variations approach).

A.I. maybe doesn't have the same tone poem-like narrative flow as Superman, Raiders, Star Wars or Harry Potter--it's a real strange and almost "schizophrenic" score, but when listened in complete and chronological form, it becomes a very powerful and moving musical journey from beginning to end.

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The OST is, actually, a pretty good representation of the score. It has all the major cues, and...er...that's pertty much it... :blink:

Er... you're wrong, sorry. While the OST can be a fine listen on its own and surely contains several key highlights, it does not represent the score in all its subtlety, nuances and true musical fashion. As others said, it omits almost completely the music from the first act of the film and some really gorgeous connective tissue material where the thematic material is further explored and taken to new directions (JW is a master of the theme-and-variations approach).

A.I. maybe doesn't have the same tone poem-like narrative flow as Superman, Raiders, Star Wars or Harry Potter--it's a real strange and almost "schizophrenic" score, but when listened in complete and chronological form, it becomes a very powerful and moving musical journey from beginning to end.

Yes, I'll agree with TownerFan. In fact I even disliked the the way the album begins with 'The Mecha World' track. It should have been the 2nd track on the album like 'Cadillac of the Skies' that begins on EMPIRE OF THE SUN after Suo Gan . The album should have instead started with 'Where Dreams Are Born' cue which is the main theme and perhaps could have been also reprised as the last tarck on the cd. Still the new linear approach to the AI score will be worth it.

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Looks like a fantastic release... can't wait! I never did hear the original A.I. CD... because I owned the DVD-Audio release. ;)

The DVD-A of A.I. is just an upsample version of the 44.1kHz/16bit CD, encoded as 88.2kHz/24bit. So, yes, you did hear the original A.I. CD, and only the CD! ;)

Do you have proof of this? The CD does not contain a surround mix. The inside of the DVD-A's back paper insert:

"This album was mixed and mastered especially for DVD-Audio.

Playback is possible with all DVD-Video or Audio/Video players. Your hardware set up determines the mix you hear:

DVD-Video compatible Dolby Digital Surround

or

New for DVD-Audio, Advanced Resolution Surround or Stereo"

Yes, sir, I do. But I'm at my work now, so I'll post the prints from the Adobe Audition spectral view later today.

As for the surround, I only have a 2ch equipment, so I didn't experience the full surround yet, but the downmixed 5.1 to 2.0 didn't sound good to me. I've read reviews out there that this is one of the worst surround remixes from the early days of the format, like weak channel separation, wrong channel placement, stuff like that. But I'll double check this too. I'm saying this because the E.T. SACD, when downmixed from 5.1 to 2.0, sounds very good (a volume normalization may be handy, though).

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On the Joseph Williams stuff--I woul imagine he'd of been credited on the OST if he were significantly involved, since JW is his father an would probably want that. I'm guessing ppl have checked the OST and there's nothing there?

Joseph Williams definitely composed the techno music heard in the "Moon Rising" track on the OST album.

(0:53-1:32)


There aren't glaring edits as far as I can tell.

The cue ROUGE CITY was, wasn't it?

That track had a (presumably last minute) edit to remove the Strauss quote

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I think both versions are terrible. My ipod only has the score; Not the songs.

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I have never, ever played either of the songs. And I never will.

I bought the 1 CD FYC promo to have a copy of the CD without them!

Now that's dedication!

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We only hear it during the end credits, right?

Neither version of the song is included in any part of the film at all, not even the end credits.

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Are JWfanners fan of the 'For Always' song? If so, I'm not really representative of JWfan.

Alexandre

I generally dislike "theme songs" by any composer. They all seem to overstate the point which music itself already makes. Usually with quite bizarre results.

Karol

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The lyrics and the polished pop performances are awful to my ears. But then i never liked this glossy Alan/Marilyn Bergman kind of Hollywood lyricism.

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Are JWfanners fan of the 'For Always' song? If so, I'm not really representative of JWfan.

Alexandre

I generally dislike "theme songs" by any composer. They all seem to overstate the point which music itself already makes. Usually with quite bizarre results.

Karol

Indeed. There are of course songs that became huge hits that were based on the music from a film score but I too generally find those an awkward addition to the music by the composer, a bit of extra for the pop market if by some chance it might catch people's ear. Michael Kamen did this quite a few times in the 90's and it felt almost like he was writing the song first and then using it in the score which didn't mesh well at all.

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So somebody decided not to use it in the movie. Smart!

Agreed, it would have hurt the film, even if it was just in the end credits.

I hope the liner notes will illuminate whether it was commissioned to be in the film and then they decided against it, or it was only ever going to be an album thing.

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For this movie it feels like a cop-out. And Spielberg can tell me what he wants, this was not a Kubrick mandate.

LOL. Can you imagine?

Maybe there was a reason he never completed this project?

Karol

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I want to make this film but it needs a perfectly cheesy song. Who knows, maybe all this trouble stopped his heart in the end?

Karol

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Are JWfanners fan of the 'For Always' song? If so, I'm not really representative of JWfan.

Alexandre

I'm generally not a fan of songs that have been based on previously composed music, and not originally conceived as songs.

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My Heart Will Go On is a brilliant song!

Horner was never shy about those melodies..though i never could stomach the cheap elevator whistles. Did Horner ever record a more classical version like A BEAUTIFUL MIND or that NEW WORLD song? Both are much superior aesthetically.

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The OST is, actually, a pretty good representation of the score. It has all the major cues, and...er...that's pertty much it... :blink:

It sounds like shit.

I generally dislike "theme songs" by any composer. They all seem to overstate the point which music itself already makes. Usually with quite bizarre results.

Goldenthal excepted.

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We only hear it during the end credits, right?

Neither version of the song is included in any part of the film at all, not even the end credits.

While the melody is a gorgeous cantabile that seems to cry out to be sung, the song was never meant to be in the actual film. If I remember well, it was conceived as a tie-in product by the record company, hoping the success of the film would drive sells of the OST album and maybe help push the celebrity of the two up-and-coming popstars.

The song itself is not that bad--the melody is still great, I mean, maybe the lyrics are sappy, but they're simple. The main problem is the typical schmaltzy over-producing by David Foster, a.k.a. "the master of bombastic pop kitsch", as Rolling Stones magazine once called him. The rhythm section for example is dreadful.

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the song was never meant to be in the actual film. If I remember well, it was conceived as a tie-in product by the record company, hoping the success of the film would drive sells of the OST album and maybe help push the celebrity of the two up-and-coming popstars.

Ah, thanks for that! Makes sense!

Man, what a bummer "Under the Ice" and "Almost Human" had to be dropped to make room for the record company's hopeful money-maker. I wonder what J Dubs thought about it all.

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the song was never meant to be in the actual film. If I remember well, it was conceived as a tie-in product by the record company, hoping the success of the film would drive sells of the OST album and maybe help push the celebrity of the two up-and-coming popstars.

Ah, thanks for that! Makes sense!

The strange thing for me is this:

So, Williams doesn't agree for a few seconds or a couple of minutes of great film music to be released in some expansions (eg. Hook, Indiana Jones etc.), but he does agree on the release of some pop songs based on his melodies?

:blink:

(or maybe these were imposed without his consent from the studio?)

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We only hear it during the end credits, right?

Neither version of the song is included in any part of the film at all, not even the end credits.

While the melody is a gorgeous cantabile that seems to cry out to be sung, the song was never meant to be in the actual film. If I remember well, it was conceived as a tie-in product by the record company, hoping the success of the film would drive sells of the OST album and maybe help push the celebrity of the two up-and-coming popstars.

The song itself is not that bad--the melody is still great, I mean, maybe the lyrics are sappy, but they're simple. The main problem is the typical schmaltzy over-producing by David Foster, a.k.a. "the master of bombastic pop kitsch", as Rolling Stones magazine once called him. The rhythm section for example is dreadful.

If you want Lara Fabian in a good pop song, based on a theme from a movie. And from the same year. This is the one:

And yeah, I said this before. But just came back from a part-Goldenthal concert and he, yet again, stole the show. As he usually does.

Karol

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the song was never meant to be in the actual film. If I remember well, it was conceived as a tie-in product by the record company, hoping the success of the film would drive sells of the OST album and maybe help push the celebrity of the two up-and-coming popstars.

Ah, thanks for that! Makes sense!

The strange thing for me is this:

So, Williams doesn't agree for a few seconds or a couple of minutes of great film music to be released in some expansions (eg. Hook, Indiana Jones etc.), but he does agree on the release of some pop songs based on his melodies?

:blink:

(or maybe these were imposed without his consent from the studio?)

It will not sound very romantic, but maybe it's because the pop songs might "generate" more money than a couple of minutes more of great film music!

Anyway, the musical theme as appears in the score is really gorgeous. The version in the End Credits with the female voice singing without words is just "the right way" to do it.

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Just finished listening to that track actually - boy, is it lovely!

How have I been neglecting this score over the past 14 years?

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I have to say, my favourite cue from the score (and one of my favourite post 2000 Williams cues) is the chorus piece heard in the Journey through Ice scene. (which in reality is the 2nd version he did)

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