Leaderboard

We're all very pleased with the final program, keeping it mind that there were factors that lead into some decisions, such as compact disc length, composer preference, fee increases for tracks over 10 minutes long, etc Programming any expansion includes deciding what to do when there are multiple versions of cues in terms of which goes in the main program and which in the bonus tracks, and by and large sticking to having all the versions used in the film in the main program, and all the versions that were not as bonus tracks, made a lot of sense and led to each program being really strong. Additionally, the careful selection of which score alternates should go at the end of disc 2, instead of disc 3, in order to make disc 3 be the best album it can be, worked out really well. The one change a lot of people will probably do of taking those disc 2 tracks and adding them to the disc 3 album (as John Takis laid out somewhere here earlier), to basically make a longer Songs & Alts program, which is really just as valid as the structure we ended up with. However, when released as three physical discs, I am glad that a big bonus program didn't start on disc 2, have a disc break, and then have it continue on disc 3. It's kind of nicer to have disc 3 be more of its own thing. Like Mike has said, everything just kind of took a life of its own and came out perfectly in that regard. The goal was to make a program that pleased us, the composer, and the lyricist, while adhering to the stipulations we had, and of course presenting the songs in the best way possible. Since most of the songs are piano demos, if they were just lumped together in a row, they don't speak nearly as loudly as they do in the current album 3 configuration where you hear lushly orchestrated versions of the song melodies before or after those demos in the score alternates; it just makes everything work so well that way! Now, when it comes down to it, the die hard fans are going to change things around the way they want anyway, and it's impossible to make a program that pleases everyone. And sure, I'm a diehard fan as much as anyone, so I don't think there's any harm in stating some of my own preferences. For Hook Trailer (Prologue), as much as I like the viola version of Peter's theme, I ultimately think the final performance edit made for the released trailer in 1991 is the strongest version of this music. I am glad that the new track is completely different takes from that version throughout (instead of sticking the different sections into an otherwise same track), but for me it plays better as a bonus track opener, and keeping the 1991 performance edit version as the main version. Just my preference. For Yuppie Sounds (Banning Back Home), I prefer Williams' original version, with the fun improv section, over the revision that was recorded at the last minute because of a picture change. We actually discussed making the original version be main program version, but there actually wasn't space on the discs to swap them, since the original version is a minute longer than the revised one! But since the revision is what's in the film it worked out nicely in that regard anyway. For the first part of Looney Wendy (The Stories Are True), I prefer the original version with the twisted version of the "Childhood" theme, over the later revision that is just a re-done Forgotten How To Fly with the "Mothers" theme mostly removed. This version actually was in the main program for a while, but having the "Childhood" version on disc 3 ultimately made that disc so much stronger. And again because the revision is what's in the film it worked out nicely anyway. For The Lost Boy Chase, I really like the percussion insert section. But John Williams wanted the album version in the main program. I don't really think it matters much either way. If anything, having to present the first two minutes of this cue three times (because it was used in the end credits) is the biggest issue with the final product, but also an issue that just has no workaround. At least each instance is on a different disc! For the entire grand finale, I prefer to have from Tink Grows Up through The End of Hook to just be one single 24 minute track with all cues seguing directly into each other, instead of broken up into 4 tracks. Just my preference. One thing I still haven't decided on after all this time is my final thoughts on the Kensington Extension (the final part of Farewell Neverland (Short Version / Alternate)). At first it was so jarring to hear, but I kind of love it more and more every time I hear it, and am now expecting it when I get to the end of the score. And yet there's something about the simplicity (for lack of a better word) of the original version's ending that can't be denied. So, I'm still undecided which I like better! I think that's about it. I still haven't fiddled with trying to put God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Take Me Out To The Ballgame in the main program or anything. And I don't think there's any merit in trying to put the other songs into the main program, not even "Low Below". Not having Bob Hoskins performing as Smee there would be too weird I think (and you'd have to lose Show Us The Hook, which is one of my favorite parts of the score). Moira's Lullaby seems like it would fit in well if not for the fact that the Saying Goodnight cue effectively replaces it.

I believe he did make such a claim at one of his film scoring classes. Hint... he doesn't ;-) but I like his stuff anyway. He also taught James Dean to play the piano, hence him scoring Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden, both of which are great. There's a recording of suites from both conducted by John Adams (don't think it's that John Adams although happy to be corrected on that) which is well worth checking out. His LOTR score is pretty great, very different from Shore, but also different from innumerable imitation JW fantasy scores - it's only from 1978 and Rosenman was very much the iconoclast, doing his own thing anyway. I rather like his Robocop 2 score, even if the female chorus singing the titular character's name is kinda weird and a bit cheesy, but it's not as terrible as it sounds (and I agree it sounds terrible as a concept). However, the rest of the score has plenty of striking moments. I have to admit that I never enjoy Basil's score for the original as much as I want to (he wrote much better scores in this style, peaking with Starship Troopers) but am always pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy Rosenman's.

What I love so much about the Bond scores, is that each one has something to offer that the others don't. Be it a positive thing or not. Dr. No: Not really a score, but still a fun album for it's time From Russia With Love: Oustanding thriller score with a beautiful theme. Goldfinger: Some fantastic action music towards the end and Goldfinger will always be iconic. Thunderball: Maybe a bit chaotic at points, but the action here is quite ferocious. You Only Live Twice: Beautiful theme and oriental touches. On Her Majesty's Secret Service: Maybe the most streamlined and best constructed Barry Bond. Love the synth touches. Diamonds Are Forever: love all the big band and jazz in this score! Live And Let Die: Very different from Barry, but this always was one of my favourites because of the way it incorporates the song in the score. The Man With The Golden Gun: A more quieter score, but the two action cues are great (exept the whistle hahaha). Lovely softer moments. The Spy Who Loved Me: I love the disco varient of the Bond theme, but the rest of the score is very hit or miss for me. It feels like multiple scores on 1 album and doesn't always work. Moonraker: The Flight Into Space cue is almost enough to forgive that this film exists. That's Barry writing at his utmost grand! For Your Eyes Only: One of my personal favourites. Love all the disco and funk in the action moments. And the title song is beautiful. Octopussy: This is very basic imo. It has some really nice moments, but this felt like Barry wasn't too inspired. A View To A Kill: Love the added guitar in the action scenes. The instrumental statements of the title song are beautiful. The Living Daylights: Love love this one. Feels like Barry went out on a high note. Love the added drums, really feels like Bond is coming into a different era. Licence To Kill: I love Kamen, so I love this score. Yes, there is some downtime, but when it works, it's some of my favourite music in the series. GoldenEye: Awful. Hate it. But it's unique. Haha Tomorrow Never Dies: Best Arnold score. Perfection to me. White Knight alone assures it's at the top of the list The World Is Not Enough: Still really love this. The electronics aren't to overbearing yet and the emotional cues are gorgeous. Die Another Day: I still like this, but the drum loops etc get a bit much at points. Casino Royale: Arnold back on track. Score works slightly better in the film than on album, because of the quieter cues during the poker games. Action cues here are fantastic and all have something unique and fun to offer + Vesper's theme still breaks my heart. Quantum Of Solace: Short and sweet. Action is extremely powerful, but the score misses a central theme to build from. Skyfall: There are some who don't like this, but I love it. It's Newman through and through, his action music is sublime and I'll never tire of his orchestrations. Spectre: Same as Skyfall. This one is a bit darker, the final action cues are powerful and the madeleine material is beautiful. No Time To Die: Love it. I like Zimmer and I like Bond, so this is a great mix for me personally. The cue Cuba Chase is one of the most fun action cues in the whole series. Love me or hate me, but this is just my opinion. Can't wait to see who scores the next film.

Nothing Star Wars can excite me knowing that there will never be another Knights of the Old Republic 2. No Disney Star Wars property will ever touch the darkness, nuance, horror, depth and originality that that game provided, and certainly not from the director of Indiana Jones 5: Depression of the Lost Youth. At best it can only... echo it, if you will.

Quantum of Solace is the Bond movie Arnold wrote when he'd finally gotten Barry out of his system. It's so good. If only the movie was as good as the score.

No, that's the transition between two cues, we have them in the leak. The film combines them well but OST combined them kind of weirdly and that was also for some rrason replicated in the main program.

and one more take on the O. Nelson new release Death of a Gunfighter Skullduggery

RoboCop 3 is probably a more enjoyable Poledouris, at least on album. But yes, I find 2 to be really good actually. I don't listen to Rosenman often but I always find him intriguing. Bit odd but in a refreshing kind of way. Karol

I thought Batu Sener was the name of that tiny, cute mechanic in the new STAR WARS films.

Today 50 years ago ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo. And, believe it or not, Belgium gave exactly zero points, even though the song is about a Belgian town .

McCartney saying that Wings doing the LALD song meant that he'd forgiven Bond for the 'earmuffs' line from Goldfinger still makes me smile.

Clever girl!

I got to see Episode III again in a theater last year and went in fully jazzed and ready to give it 10/10 as a fan experience, and I'm gonna be honest, Lucas's direction did kinda make me miss JJ Abrams after awhile. I still think it's a better conclusion to its own trilogy than Rise of Skywalker, and even has more satisfying fan service as a farewell to the saga, in its way. But my memory of that movie was that it's pretty much a roller-coaster between its big moments and oof, all that stuff between Order 66 and the showdown on Mustafar, especially, I just wasn't feeling the urgency at all. I think of those 20-30 minutes as a crucial failure of that movie now, the circumstances of the story are so desperate and yet the movie feels weirdly meh about it because of how stiff it is.

So, Bond scores. When Tomorrow Never Dies came out, I listened and rewatched the movie and happily bought it. When TWINE and DAD were selling out, I rewatched all the Brosnans and decided TND is enough. So now when LaLD and O came out, I listened to the samples and liked LaLD... but is this the right score to jump down the rabbithole with? I certainly knew don't want every single Bond score on by shelf, is this really one to buy? Sure I liked it but what if it's for example just copypastes of Barry cues from better scores and would be redundant if I get those too in the future? The simplest solution of course was... to watch every movie again from No to License, I haven't seen most of them in 12 or more years anyway! And the overall impression is that it's a wildly mixed series of movies. The practical stunts in most of them are insanely impressive, even if many of them had overlong superfluous chase scenes shoved in just to have them. The gadgets are always fun, Q is the best character (was positively surprised to see him in bigger "field work" roles in some of them!), it was sad to see Bernard Lee and eventually Lois Maxwell go. It was also funny to see how little of an effort they put into Felix Leiter, I assume eventually they just decided it's a core element of the Bond formula that he cannot be played by the same actor in any two movies, and they have to have nothing to do with each other! The formula of random side adventures all over the world leading to megalomaniacs wanting to control the world was getting old fast, but when it was dealing with random smaller fish underworld figures, that got dull and kind of small stakes too. Connery's era is endearingly classic, all of them are pretty good, even if Thunderball gets really bloated and YOLT pretty silly. I thought OHMSS was good but a bit bland, and DAF was a pretty weak attempt to go back to the previous feel. Moore was... well it ranged from good but bland (SwLM, FYEO) to stupid but in a kind of fun way (MWTGG, Moonraker) to just plain old embarrassingly stupid (LALD, Octopussy) to whatever AVTAK was, I didn't even finish that one, just had enough by that point. Dalton was a really refreshing revitalisation attempt, I loved his take on the character and loved TLD... but then LTK was kind of a mess. So, why did I do this again? Oh right, scores! Barry was having a lot of fun with the early ones but after a while it felt like he started resenting them? He used the main theme less and less, and most often just in its Gunbarrel arrangement, he was writing good themes but just reused the same settings of them again and again, some of the later scores, maybe due to their spottings, are just not really all that fun at all, most that's left is just murky investigation tension and some love themes with the song melodies. There are of course standout favourites that I'd like to get when they're expanded properly: From Russia with Love is a good varied thriller score, Goldfinger starts off meh but has some really good stuff near the end, You Only Live Twice has some gorgeous writing, Golden Gun was really fun after he took a little break, Moonraker starts off meh but has some really good stuff near the end, Living Daylights' 80s sampled percussion loops put me off a bit but even with that I really got into it. That's still a really good amount even though I was picky. Non-Barry? Well, mixed again. Funny that the two least bad Moores had the worst scores, though neither quite nearing Goldeneye levels where the score is actively working against a great film to make it as uninteresting as possible, making sure to never enhance anything. License to Kill has fantastic Arnold level playfulness and main theme renditions, great action, but also a lot of dull general Kamen stuff, sorry, half of what he does is just not really for me. That leaves Martin and LALD, the reason for this whole exploration... and hell to the fucking yes I'll buy it! When Barry was going down, Martin kicked the fun and groove up to 11, incorporated the song's many melodies well and played with the main theme a lot, and delivered what I think's easily my favourite non-Barry non-Arnold Bond score! It was so good that even Barry had to get himself back together for MWTGG right after.

I can see a raptor lurking out of the undergrowth...

New updated artwork: DELUXE EDITION SACD/Bluray https://store.universal-music.co.jp/contents/shop/um/img/goods/G10/UCGG-9233.JPG

Andor has a strong emphasis on visual storytelling. not sure how it's even possible to have missed that any point about how it doesn't feel like Star Wars needs to explain what feeling like Star Wars even means, you may as well just say 'I wasn't interested in it', it's just going to beg the question as to why specifically

In my opinion this is Hisaishi's very best. It really feels like a symphony. I love the themes he created and the Merry-Go-Round Of Life is his best theme I think. But what I find so great about this score is the orchestration. He does so many incredible interestimg thimgs with the orchestra. One moment the woodwinds get a chance to shine, the next the brass is dominant while the piano slowly sneaks in to grab a hold of you for the strings then to break your heart in the best possible way. Love it so much!!

His score to Phrophecy is one of my favorites and The Car is a solid effort as well, love the use of Dies Irae through it.

It is, actually: https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=140489&forumID=1&archive=0

Are you saying Indy 5 is a experience? JW score is the pleasure part?

At least it wasn't resolved with a spanking.

Thanks for implating in my mind the image of Burroughs ejaculating in Tolkien I'm pretty sure somewhere in the internet people you could find this. After all, Rule 34 exists

Not even a prequel to the "live-action" Lion King and the Moana remake starring a seminude The Rock?

Saw the film today, basically it’s Kong’s Story but it was mindless Showa Style fun. The pace was good, just enough human interaction to catch your breath between the monster mayhem. The music was a slight improvement, they used an orchestra as well this time. But there moments where it sounded like cheesy 80’s synth. I don’t understand how they claim Godzilla’s original music wouldn’t work but then allow a lousy pastiche version to represent Godzilla and someone else. I'm disappointed that as the films progressed they moved away from the tone of the 2014 film and Skull Island too. I’d give this one 3 out of 5 stars.

JP to HZ.... “When I left you I was but the learner. Now I am the master.” It certainly has better characters and makes more sense ;-)

His name does sound like the name for a Star Wars character "We must confer with Master Batu Sener about the dire situation in Utapau..."

Something like 5000 live tarantulas used in the filming. Kudos to the cast ... there wouldn't be a fee high enough for me *shudders*.

I have a Total Recall of that.

I've never actually heard this score. Will listen later, thanks! Karol

You keep his name outta your f***ing mouth! (in case you thought that I was insulting you)

If Beau Willimons writing is anywhere close to what appeared in Andor then that gives me hope this could actually be good. A part of me feels that the protagonist will be a white brunette female with a British accent. (Not saying this is bad or good but just an observation of characters that have appeared in Lucasfilm productions). Annoyingly I can't find the vhs releases that I grew up with, but they were pre special edition. I'll never forget the excitement my dad had at watching the special edition release of ANH in the cinema, being so excited that he got a parking ticket because we were in a hurry to get to the cinema. And I missed TESB but can remember my mum took me and the son of her work friend to go watch ROTJ. For DOD it certainly is interesting to have such a high audience score while losing a whole lotta money but also having no fanfare about views on Disney Plus, almost as if the scores given on sites like rotten tomatoes are pretty much worthless.

No need, it's just a very good film.

Yes, he also conducted Superman march, Imperial march and Throne room without the scores 🙂 Conductors often do so. Seiji Ozawa conducted full symphonies without the sheet music for example.

I don't even remember having any conversations about the name, but the film version is actually different from what's on the LLL set. The LLL set debuts Williams intentions for this pick-up take, which was to start isolated but then be mixed over the original cue's pizzacato section. In the final film dub, they muted the pizzacato strings, letting the pick-up take play clean during that part. So I guess technically calling it an alternate makes sense.

Yes, I went down that particular rabbit hole... I procured a supported blu-ray player, bought an aging MacMini and read thousands of posts until I was able to get my first SACD to rip properly. And it seems to work just fine! Files are saved as .dsf which I convert (losslessly) to .FLAC for storage on my server. I mostly went through all this trouble to get to the multichannel programs on certain SACDs I've taken advantage of the new-ish Vocalion re-releases of the Charles Gerhardt discs to get hi-res and multichannel rips of some of the best film music collections ever released!

Fixed.

@Jurassic Shark spent a whole weekend creating numerous accounts at Rotten Tomatoes to give a high score to Indy 5 As for the box office, I still remember a year ago when some people thought Dial would be the Top Gun: Maverick of 2023

I don't think they still feel love for Indy 5 after this: And especially not after this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2024/03/31/indiana-jones-whips-up-130-million-loss-for-disney/ If (and that's a big if) Disney decides to continue with the project, there's a huge chance Mangold won't remain onboard and they'll just hire some other sucker director. Also, Mangold has a Swamp Thing movie for DC, which Gunn described as a "passion project" for him. So, which one of these two career-killing franchises he will embark: Star Wars or DC?

https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/movies/star-wars-beau-willimon-co-204420432.html An Andor writer co-writing this, he wrote the Prison Break episode and two others.

Harold and the Purple Crayon OST album drops Friday August 2nd, the same day the film opens https://5catstudios.com/listen

Great fun, that one. Love the scene of Shatner picking live tarantulas off the car seat before getting in his truck.

Really surprised that no one posted this but here's the Raiders March performance

Just had my contribution taken and email confirming that it was all funded. Hurrah! Now just need to wait to see my name in lights (well a thank you in the credits). Oh and can't wait to hear it, obviously. Decided to give all the clips a miss, feels like one of those things I will enjoy more when the whole thing is there to enjoy.

This part is not always accurate. The M style are not fake. What they are.. are the ME's version of the slates (and also 'their' version of the titles) based on how they work the score into the film. Sidebar--these are only deemed fake because they are not what people are used to seeing and thereby result to calling them fake(d) or inaccurate. Yes, a lot of the 'Zimmer crowd' use the ascending/non-ascending slates. Typically, a lot of the M style are utilized by ME's of Warner Bros Pictures and Walt Disney Studios. FYI.

@Mattris Please, please, please help us to understand Darth Vader's plan! "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope." - Princess Leia Organa, from Star Wars "Tell us. Tell us now!" - Anakin Skywalker, from Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones "Somebody has to save our skins." - Princess Leia Organa, from Star Wars "The greatest teacher, failure is. We are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters." - Yoda, from Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Funny, I was just listening to this this week. I have THREE configurations of this score in my library. One is the Intrada and one is a straight reconstruction of "as heard in the film". I think the third is a mish mash. This is a hard score for me to pick the "best" way to listen to. I'm not especially tied to much in the way of "But that's the way I'm used to hearing it in the film!" There aren't many of the creepier or more action oriented pieces that I know that well in the film. (And I've seen the film a LOT.) I don't need any of the Freud cues. It's kind of like Blade Runner for me. There are five or six really melodic pieces and the rest is just serving the film and I don't listen to them separately. I'm 50/50 on "original opening" or "film opening". They're both great? But (and this is a tad sacrilegious and I'm sure it breaks Jerry's heart) I need to end this score with Howard Hanson. That's just the way it is. Maybe I should take some time and really dig into what's in the film and what's not. Or even figure out what versions I actually like to listen to the most.

By looking at the spectrum (that is, frequency content) of the recording and also quantization level analysis (that is, looking at the distribution of the amplitude levels of the audio samples). With the spectrum, if you have content sampled at CD quality (44,100 samples/second or 44.1 kHz) and you simply resampled it to 96 kHz, you're not actually gaining any new spectral content above 22.05 kHz (the peak of a 44.1 kHz sampled signal). The spectrum would show a brickwall dropoff at 22.05 kHz and either no content or noise between 22.05 kHz and 48 kHz. A recording originally made at 96 kHz, however, will not have the brickwall dropoff. And regarding the bit depth, if you take 16-bit data and simply convert it to 24-bit, you are not adding any detail to the recorded audio samples. You're simply multiplying the 16-bit values by 256, or in the digital sense, you're adding eight 0s to the 16-bit values. So when you look at the distribution of the amplitudes of the samples, you will see that they only appear in multiples of 256 (0, 256, -256, 512, -512, and so on). There are no samples in-between these values. But if you record at 24-bit originally, you will (likely) have samples with amplitudes at all different values at the full 24-bit resolution. Graphically, here is an example from the Qobuz offering of Intrada's 3-CD release of Inchon, reflecting 44.1 kHz content upsampled to 96 kHz and 16-bit data directly up-quantized to 24-bit (note: I've added vertical markers at 22.05 and 24 kHz to reflect the crossover points of content recorded at 44.1 and 48 kHz, respectively): And here is an example from the recent On Dangerous Ground re-recording from Intrada...

Totally agree! The flaw of the show was from a marketing point of view, Seth MacFarlane is a comic strip creator, producer and writer of the Family Guy. So they pushed it as a sort of sci-fi comedy. Great sci-fi shows have great heart and sometimes use comedy to tell story. Star Trek OST had lots of humor AND drama! But he's so much more than that! He's a professional musician (member in good standing of local 47, same union with John Williams) and was given an award for his contribution to the local scoring scene because his shows always feature large orchestras which is very rare these days especially for tv/streaming. Just think about it...Orville just used a 95-piece feature film orchestra recorded at 20th Century Fox's Newman's stage. That's what 200 million dollar films get not an episodic tv show in the age of synths and remote recordings! He's also very brilliant in how he incorporates astrophysics, philosophy, pop culture, etc., in to his stories. He's a modern day Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry hiding complex morality tales behind sci-fi allegory. He's passionate about the arts, sciences, etc. I attended his concert of big band songs he commissioned with LA Local 47 and Joel McNealy and he kept on heaping praise on their talent and wishing to keep the arts of alive. The crazy thing is I've seen him do the same about science. He's awesome! I'll also add that Joel McNeeley is a wonderful composer and teacher. I personal memory I'd like to share. I had a session where he was the mentor. I felt it went horribly. I was so embarrassed and looked back at him to see him with a big smile enjoying the music and waxing philosophically about music and its transcending qualities. It was deeply humbling that he had such a big smile on my music and how supportive and encouraging he was on what I considered to be a failure because of wrong notes or poor writing. He gave me so much confidence. I captured that moment in a picture so will look for it later.