Tom Guernsey

Yes indeed... I seem to remember some random thread on FSM about the "worst sounding scores" where ST2 came up. Sure, it's not perfect, but there are definitely a whole lot worse. Funny really, when I bought the original album when I first starting collecting, I always thought it sounded amazing. I was always overwhelmed by the cascading string explosion after the tense buildup during the first minute or so of Battle in the Mutara Nebula; it remains a spine tingling moment.

Officially Christmas soundtrack season at Chez Tom (and I generally profess not to like Christmas much, but there are so many great scores to choose from...): Home Alone & Home Alone 2 (JW) - I would have to almost agree that if you have the sequel, you have pretty much the entire original plus lots of terrific "big city" JW does Leonard Bernstein/George Gershwin stuff on top. Plus Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas which is probably hands down my favourite Christmas song that isn't religious (notwithstanding the pretty meh lyrics). I don't think I'd have any hesitation in picking Home Alone 2 as my favourite Christmas score, just so many great moments and terrific tunes, heartwarming without being too cloying (at least to the extent possible with a Christmas score). The Snowman (Howard Blake) - I realised that I didn't own this, mistakenly thinking that it was a narration only soundtrack (which would make it the only score with dialogue on the album but not in the film) however the album presents the score with (Bernard Cribbins, lovely choice) and without narration. Some lovely melodic content outside of Walking in the Air, although I forgot how much it mimics the on-screen action so closely on occasion, so some passages are a bit stop-start but when it gets going, it really is wonderful. Walking in the Air is one of those songs that I think most people have heard too many times to actually enjoy much but it's really quite lovely and surprisingly melancholy considering, even if the not-Aled Jones boy soprano sings it with just a little bit too much over-enunciated church choir diction. Elf (John Debney) - One of those scores that's pretty much exactly how you imagine it to be, but no worse for that, plus it riffs on the much-used Thor swinging his hammer melody from the final movement of Sibelius' 5th Symphony. See also, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (Rachel Portman) who uses the same basis for the song As Long as There's Christmas. There's a score that deserves more than the handful of minutes it gets on album, but I doubt there's much interest from either Disney or labels... shame, it's a delightful score, even if it never reaches the heights of Alan Menken. Santa Claus: The Movie (Henry Mancini) - Mixed feelings on this one. Some of it is super, the Making Toys cue is great fun and the whole thing has lots of typically memorable Mancini tunes. That being said, some of it has more cheese than a wheel of stilton on a cheese board that is formed into tiles on the roof of a cheddar factory. Especially Thank You, Santa, a song which makes me want to rip my ears off. Several of the Christmas Carol scores that were mentioned in my other thread on the subject, the Alan Menken one never fails to put me in the Christmas spirit. The animated score by Julian Nott is lovely, although I'm not sure it's as memorable as I remembered. If that makes sense. Some nice versions of carols and surprisingly good songs performed by Charlotte Church and Kate Winslett (which were apparently quite big hits at the time). I enjoyed the Nick Bicât score, as recommended in the other thread, although not sure it stuck with me that much. Next up... the Santa Clauses. Michael Convertino does Mendelssohn and George S Clinton does Wagner. Really. But first... Spartacus (Alex North), the full length mono score. Very festive. Erm... but hey, it's brilliant.

It doesn't sound bad, but compared to the rest of the Trek scores it's a bit disappointing. As one of my favourite scores (Horner's action writing was rarely better), I'd buy pretty much any new version, but maybe they've reached the theoretical maximum quality that can be extracted from what is available, in which case, fair enough, I'll thoroughly enjoy what we already have.

Haha cool. Hope they are occasionally interesting! It’s a great score even though I think Julian Nott was robbed of the opportunity to get a big break in Hollywood....

I gave it another listen last week with the news of it being more widely released (got it early as a contributor to the Kickstarter) and really enjoyed it. I always used to prefer King of Kings over Ben-Hur although not sure that opinion remains the case but it’s still a fine score and the performance and recording are typically top notch. Well worth the investment as an excellent companion to the original album.

Oops sorry! The excitement clearly gave me a rush of blood to the head! @Kühni?! Thanks!

Haha I try. Where did you find this?! The site died ages ago!

Man that is a less terrible review than I would have imagined. Think I like James Horner more now but still...

Rim of the World, Professor and the Madman, God of War. Honourable mentions: Animal Crackers, Godzilla and Happy Death Day I don't really enjoy horror scores as much so there's a number I've not checked out but probably should!

I have it on my upcoming playlist and looking forward to it! It's the only score by him I have... any others available/worth checking out? (At the risk of derailing by, admittedly not super popular, thread!).

Having just listened to it while writing my original post, it really is delightful, although of the older scores I think I enjoyed the Addinsell marginally more, but both are super. Although as a sucker for cheese and schmaltz, the Menken and Goodman ones get the most play this time of year...

Ah, the always unhelpful "This video is not available" from YouTube! May I enquire what it was?!

I think I enjoyed his score to Gigli more, not that I can remember much about that one... I think he definitely works best on a broader canvas than romantic comedies!

Having pondered which stories get remade the most frequently, my conclusion (based on nothing more than my ridiculous iTunes library of soundtracks) is that A Christmas Carol has got to be up there. In terms of movies or musicals that are versions of A Christmas Carol, to a greater or lesser extent, I counted... A Christmas Carol: The Musical (Alan Menken) - I have both the TV movie version (with Kelsey Grammer) and the original cast recording. While familiarity is probably a factor, I return to the TV movie version more often, but any fan of Menken should run to their nearest online retailer and acquire one or other version. It really is terrific. A Christmas Carol (Alan Silvestri) - A bit bombastic at times, but typically tuneful Silvestri and I like the mixture of sly to outright references to Christmas carols in his main themes. A Christmas Carol: The Movie (Julian Nott) - Somewhat more gentle than some of the others, but an utterly delightful score from Wallace and Gromit's regular composer. Some terrific songs too. The Muppet Christmas Carol (Miles Goodman) - A Muppet classic and the songs are winning. A Christmas Carol (Nick Bicât) - Forgot I had this one... need to listen again, but seem to remember it being quite lovely. Scrooge (Richard Addinsell) - Suite from the David Newman conducted compilation on Telarc and the same one on the Chandos album conducted by Rumon Gamba. The former also includes selections from Tiomkin's It's a Wonderful Life and Mockridge's Miracle on 34th Street (although the Bruce Broughton version is hard to beat). Weirdly, the Telarc album lists it as A Christmas Carol (including prominently on the cover), but it was clearly released as Scrooge. Odd. A Christmas Carol (Stephen Warbeck) - From the TV version with Sir Pat Stew... at the lower key end like the Nott version, but somewhat darker and more brooding. In many ways, probably more appropriate to the story. A Christmas Carol (Franz Waxman) - One I'd totally forgotten about, but Waxman at his more whimsical and balletic, with some lovely arrangements of carols too. Sounds more contemporary than its 1938 pedigree might suggest. Lovely suite on the Legends of Hollywood Volume 4. Scrooged (Danny Elfman) - Squarely late 80's la-la-la Elfman, but humorous and spiky fun, if a little choppy. At the more tenuous, but still worth a mention, end... Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (Murray Gold) - I think this was the second Matt Smith Christmas special but easily one of my favourite standalone Gold scores for Doctor Who that fully justifies its full length release, capped by the utterly gorgeous Abigail's Song (Silence is all You Know) performed by Katherine Jenkins. Utterly winning. I realise I've missed Scrooged by Leslie Bricusse. Sure I've heard it, but seem to remember the sound being dreadful... sure there must be others?!

Enjoyable and tuneful, and while it doesn't exactly scream Powell, an engaging enough urban comedy score. I'll buy anything be releases but it's kinda left in the dust by HTTYD and Solo really!

From a recent episode of the generally excellent Sound of Cinema on BBC Radio 3, which focussed on "Secret Places" I gave the below a spin. On a random aside, he described Howl's Moving Castle as being about a girl who gets lost and whose parents are turned into pigs and then turned into a witch... now I've not seen either film for a few years, but I'm pretty sure that the first part is actually the plot of Spirited Away. If so, a rather odd error. The Secret Garden (Zbigniew Preisner) - lovely but also quite quirky, not heard Marianelli version although the clip sounded charming). Pan's Labyrinth (Javier Navarrete) - one of those "really enjoyable while it's on but don't remember much afterwards" scores, but always worth a listen. Howl's Moving Castle (Joe Hisaishi) - classic Hisaishi, although I think enjoy the above mentioned Spirited Away more, especially the Sibelius (5th Symphony last movement, inspired quite a number of film scores) inspired Reprise (even if it's not, in fact, a reprise...). Lost Horizon (Dimitri Tiomkin) - suite from the Gerhardt album. Not sure I'll ever get that much into Tiomkin compared to Herrmann or Rozsa, but still good stuff.

Yeah, that's a good way of describing it. To be honest, The Three Musketeers isn't really that similar but I kinda pair them as swashbuckling historic scores, but I just really enjoy the mock-baroque stuff in Musketeers. Hopefully that'll get a longer edition at some point.

Interesting thoughts on the orchestrator influences, will have to give them a listen... Davis clearly had a bit of a background impact with his orchestration jobs in the 90s! I don't think that RH:POT has aged badly more, as I said, it doesn't quite gel for me, but as I said, will give it more listens and hopefully develop a greater appreciation. That said, I do still find his Three Musketeers score more engaging that RH:POT.

I thought it might be but wasn’t sure. I don’t have the previous release any more. Bit of an odd change of title!

Really enjoying this set although I agree that it’s a touch repetitive over 8 discs. The scores are somewhat similar but kinda fun. The original albums really seem to misrepresent the scores as a whole though, missing off larger chunks of the orchestral stuff. Random question. The originally expanded version of the first score had a track called Hollywood Boulevard Chase (which I recall being good fun) but this set doesn’t seem to have a track named as such and I can’t satisfy myself as to which track it is on the new set. Not sure what I’m missing?! (Sorry if I’m being lame!)

That looks like it would have been pretty amazing if the animatronics were effective... whatever happened to it? Fun mix of quotes from the original and Giacchino scores too.

Reading through this thread earlier I gave AI another spin today and I must admit that it's one of those scores I want to enjoy more than I actually do. I appreciate it, but a lot of the first half can be quite slow going, genuinely haunting though it is. While I like having the expanded score, I think there's probably a happy medium between the length of the original album and the full 2 hours.

Still loving this... having re-listened to some of the sequel trilogy scores, I have to admit that the performances on those often feel a bit lacklustre, more in terms of energy rather than on a technical level. OK, Powell does have a slightly hyperactive style at times (too many notes!) which perhaps demands a higher level of energy, but even comparing the 20 seconds or whatever of the opening to the end credits, the Solo performance is pretty damn thrilling.

Aside from Solo... over and over... The American President (Marc Shaiman), Dave (JNH), JFK (JW), LBJ (Shaiman again), Nixon (JW again) and Frost/Nixon (Hans and friends). Can you see the pattern!? All pretty great scores to be fair. Might have to work my way through House of Cards again, some of Jeff Beal's scoring is pretty great. NP: The Coolangatta Gang (Bill Conti) - great mix of orchestral bombast, cheese, that weird baroque style thing that Conti does and, well, more cheesy bombast. Lots of fun.

Haha. That must be it.