artguy360

I finally caught up on the last two episodes. Oh man, the potential/implied retcon of Tom B. speaking Gandalf's famous lines first annoys me a lot for some reason. Now the Stranger almost has to be Gandalf, but I still so much rather he be a blue wizard. Or maybe the show just likes quoting the films as little Easter eggs?

Listening to the soundtrack now, so far so good. Kay's theme is nice and the action music definitely has some JW SW musical flourishes.

I think the slightly faster tempo of the OST performance makes it a better listening experience than this one. This one has a little more flair but also inconsistent with some awkward phrasing. For example, the whole ending bit is quite clunky.

I'm enjoying the season 2 album quite a bit. It's nice to hear reoccurring themes from season 1 get new presentations.

HBO describes him as a dark wizard. I think he is one of the blue wizards since Tolkien says they started dark cults in the East. Fits with the cult magic people in season 1. The not-Gandalf wizard is probably the other blue wizard.

Listening to the album now. The Princess Leia performance is lovely. A great way to start the album. All 3 instruments shine.

I enjoy Tom's song. I think it fits his character quite well and gives me hope that the show will do the character justice. I didn't love the Fiona Apple song from season 1, but I do like how these original songs fit in with the ones from the LOTR trilogy.

Wow! Really well done. The playful motif and orchestrations are spot-on Williams' Harry Potter style. This reminds me of the Hogwarts music in Legacy of Hogwarts which also did a great job with original music in the style of the first 2 Harry Potter scores. Well done!

Not my kind of music, but I'm not upset about it. My only question is, is there any kind of definition for what constitutes a ballad because this is not what I think of when I hear ballad.

The only interesting thing JW did with the Indy theme in that entire score. It was also one of very few moments that sounded fresh to me.

Wow, I've never listened to this score before. Nice theme and not at all what I would imagine for the movie.

The use of choir in the final episode did not work for me. I assume the music was recorded with a real choir but something about the mix or the way the choir came into the music had a strangely fake sound to it. I'll listen again on the album.

Anyone watching this? How's the score?

Yes! I like this JW take on the theme from Exodus, but if he were actually writing a theme for a biblical epic, I think the theme would be a little more focused and less a riff off of Ernest Gold's Exodus theme.

JW has used the phrase religioso to describe a musical quality or feeling of reverence and awe. I love when JW writes in this mode. In my opinion, his religioso stuff is some of his best music, period. In particular, I think You Are The Pan from Hook goes from zero to 100 on the religioso meter in 1 minute and 20 seconds. I love it. I could imagine this music being written for a JW Biblical epic. What are your favorite JW religioso moments?