Richard P

I still think he overall did a good job with this era. Season One is really solid, and Season Two turned out okay, given the apparent provlems. I enjoyed the finale, unlike most Whovians it seems. But the problem now is there is no Doctor (while I enjoyed Piper's return, she was last-minute, desperate, 'what the fuck do we do' stunt casting - she's not the Doctor) and with Disney having pulled out, it feels inevitable that the BBC want a totally fresh showrunner. Also, with no new Who music to compose any time soon, Gold's got no excuse to delay the new albums. He really needs to get something out over the summer, at the latest.

I think the oddest thing about the album is "disclosure" being the final score track before "reprise". In general the album doesn't feel like it has a flow as much as most of his albums. The individual pieces are thematic and conceptual explorations, but the ordering feels bizarre. If this isn't in film order, he's outdone himself in how to fail to create a narrative. Where this score lacks almost any action, it makes up for in rhythmic scoring that seems to appeal to me a lot more than DoD's did, and dramatic scoring that doesn't suffer from what KotCS does in its middle stretch (i.e. almost nothing happening). It might be his most interesting work to me since War Horse. Weirdly, this score feels a bit like what Powell would've come up with, and he's a composer who I feel does well with 'music under dialogue'.

"reprise" is my favourite track on the album so far. "celestial" is also better than preview in that unofficial YouTube link. JW also does some really nice build-ups to orchestral busyness - "unseen" is really fun, particularly the ending. In general, the more I listen, the more I like it - I'd give it a solid 4 stars at the moment.

All of your points are very valid and respectful of the source, but I think they also point to a general fear of filmmakers doing something that doesn't match a specific creative vision for a source material, and the only thing we know about about this film so far is a modern score. I felt Columbus' Potter adaptations were too safe, with the story barely changed substantially from the books. Respectful, yes, but cinematically a bit on the dull side for me.

I realised the A.I. thing after several hours of searching my brain for where it was from. I'm surprised by the lack of big emotional payoff at the end of the album - it feels like the score just ends, then goes into reprise... I suppose it's a given that the album's out of film order, but there still don't seem to be any big climactic/emotional type pieces at all. However, extended 12-minute finale cues tend to outstay their welcome for me, so that may be a good thing. One full listen and there's a lot of interesting rhythmic material - I suppose the story lends itself to 'moving forward' propulsive music. Thankfully minimal low key tension music (I often feel his low string meanderings go into filller territory), and I do think he carved a unique sound for this score - it reminds me surprisingly little of MR/WotW or even AI largely - more the style he's had from the last decade with a few modern/synth touches. Overall I like it - many times I perked up from my current task and rewound a bit. I'm not sure it's the cinematic miracle some were banking on due to the limited opportunities for really operatic/sprawling music, but I think it's a very satisfying last score. signs... (the crop circle bit) and reprise... (most of the other bits)

Given the hunger for John Powell to receive an oscar, I really don't think the issue is composers upping their game. Lots of composers are producing quality work - it may just be that most of the films spotlit by Hollywood are asking for Zimmer-like scores. Also, composers are writing what they are asked for - it's not as simple as someone deciding to study classical composing more, if that won't get them hired for a movie.

I suppose were this the first modern Narnia adapation, then I'd be more with you - the story is such a great canvas for a score. But we got an awesome one from HGW, and arguably a Narnia-like score from Desplat. So this would effectively be a bonus Narnia score, and if Knight's Tale turned out great with a bunch of modern songs in it, then I guess I don't get such a feeling of cynicism towards it. We'll probably have to just disagree about this pre-judging thing - I think a lot of films have been made that sounded like awful ideas at the time, that turned out great. And those that didn't...well... that sucks, but we can't linger on terrible films.

I'm rewatching the music video and I immediately get vibes of a poor man's Earth Song, except that I find his vocals a bit irritating when he goes into the upper registers. The instrumental version on the OST is much more pleasant.

I'm not comparing the stories, I'm comparing the notion of scoring a historical (in one way or another) movie in a modern manner. There's no inherent reason it couldn't work for Narnia - it depends what Gerwig has done.

A Knight's Tale is fucking awesome.

It worked for A Knight's Tale. Might not work for this. Darest I suggest actually waiting until it's out tho.

I've ordered the Blu-ray so I'm going to do the same thing. I'm not in any way familiar with the unreleased music, so either I'm going to discover a ton of cues I really want, or it may tell me that the OST is sufficient. I did like the source during the parade at the start, which it looks like is included. I think the main thing stopping me just ordering is the overall price with international shipping, and it doesn't have as much personal meaning to me as Skyfall, which I would probably have got by now.

The entire oscars machine doesn't really work as it should, with its politics and performatism. I think people are just desperate to see JW publicly awarded - name in lights, and all that. There's nothing more pleasing to the heart than reading 'John Williams, 94, receives sixth Oscar for his 30th collaboration with Spielberg'. I totally get it. Unfortunately, it does somewhat change the nature of what the oscars represents to automatically say that because of the nature and circumstances of the project, he should win, irregardless of the musical output. That's why I think a perfect recognition would be a special career award.

A lifetime achievement award to acknowledge JW's career - definitely. But given that we haven't (at time of writing) heard most of the scores in contention, nor even heard JW's full score, isn't winning best score a bit presumptuous?

Not in any way condoning an illegal purchase (which is worse than just an illegal download), but if we want to encourage legal purchases, you'd think they could just drop the album this week, rather than just a single. Having a gap like this may build hype, but it also creates a window where people have been teased with the tracklist and a few samples and just want to enjoy the score.