WampaRat

Welcome to downtown Coolsville, population: us!
 
Join us as we take a deep dive into Michael Kamen's score from The Iron Giant, moderated by Dan Redfeld and Chris Siddall, with special guests Zoe Kamen, orchestrators Robert Elhai & Blake Neely, music editor Christopher Brooks, score mixer/recordist Steve McLaughlin and director Brad Bird.
 
This is a free-to-attend event, so why not head over to ASMAC and sign up, because this is a rare opportunity to hear directly from the people who were in the room, and is sure to be a lot of fun!
 
If you'd like to get hold of your own copy of The Iron Giant score, you can do so > HERE <

With No Time to Die being released shortly, here is my complete (so far) set of covers for the score:















And here are a few covers for WW1984, one for Dune and one for Horner's A Beautiful Mind:

Customized the main program juuust a tad.
 
I dropped “New Shoes” completely. (I love the tune when it’s integrated with the main 54th theme in “Year of Jubilee” though) I also switched “Lonely Christmas” to play before “The Decision/Second Flashback” as that big swelling statement of the “Fragility theme” seems like a great conclusion to the idea started in lonely Christmas.  Also, the eerie build at the conclusion of Second Flashback is a great lead in to “The Whipping”. Just my personal taste:) But it’s worth a try for the curious:
 
A Call to Arms-
After Antietam (Film Version)
Flashback
Flashback Alternate 1 (just like this one here. Not sure why)
Forming the regiment (FV)
Jefferson & Liberty (FV)
Lonely Christmas
The Decision/Second Flashback
The Whipping
Worth A Life 
Year of Jubilee
Burning Town of Darien
Our Time
Battle of Grimball’s Landing
Promise Me/When Do You Want Us
Brave Words and Deeds
Prep For Battle
Charging Fort Wagner
An Epitaph To War
Closing Credits
 
I think this might be the most significant Horner expansion in recent memory. Normally expansions of his scores don’t add a ton to already great scores. But the trio of Our Time/Grimball’s Landing/Promise Me are truly essential cues to this score and I’m so thankful we have them now!
 
 

Here’s my take as best as I can recall:
 
A Call To Arms
After Antietam
Drei Klavierstucke, DV 946 (plays during Shaw family party and fades into “Flashback”)
Flashback
Forming the Regiment
Jefferson and Liberty- Full Version
Jefferson And Liberty(?) (I believe this is used during the drill sergeant montage as well as the recruitment scene)
The Decision/Second Flashback
Lonely Christmas
The Whipping
New Shoes/ Old 1812 (same-ish as new shoes I think? It might play in the background somewhere…)
Hoist the Flag (Parade music that bleeds into “worth a life” in the film)
Worth a Life
Year of Jubilee
The Sicilian Circle - (I Believe this plays after the school children sing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” after the 54th arrive in the South)
Burning the Town of Darien
Our Time
Battle of Grimball’s Landing
Promise Me/When do You Want Us
The Bonnie Blue Flag (This might actually go in between “Promise Me” right after the battle of Grimball’s  in a camp and before “When Do You Need us”)
Brave Words Braver Deeds
Preparations of Battle
Charging Fort Wagner
Epitaph to War
Closing Credits

Love listening to that album. A great survey of all the fantastic tunes that guy has written over the years.

Here’s my take as best as I can recall:
 
A Call To Arms
After Antietam
Drei Klavierstucke, DV 946 (plays during Shaw family party and fades into “Flashback”)
Flashback
Forming the Regiment
Jefferson and Liberty- Full Version
Jefferson And Liberty(?) (I believe this is used during the drill sergeant montage as well as the recruitment scene)
The Decision/Second Flashback
Lonely Christmas
The Whipping
New Shoes/ Old 1812 (same-ish as new shoes I think? It might play in the background somewhere…)
Hoist the Flag (Parade music that bleeds into “worth a life” in the film)
Worth a Life
Year of Jubilee
The Sicilian Circle - (I Believe this plays after the school children sing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” after the 54th arrive in the South)
Burning the Town of Darien
Our Time
Battle of Grimball’s Landing
Promise Me/When do You Want Us
The Bonnie Blue Flag (This might actually go in between “Promise Me” right after the battle of Grimball’s  in a camp and before “When Do You Need us”)
Brave Words Braver Deeds
Preparations of Battle
Charging Fort Wagner
Epitaph to War
Closing Credits

92% fresh
8.3 rating
24 reviews
 
Off to a good start.
 
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/no_time_to_die_2021

Its rawness appeals to me.

Ford officially back on set. 
 
 

That could very well be the case.  They might have never come back to nail down a better take once it was decided to rewrite the cue, so all we can get is early takes before they really nailed the performance

Yea, the section of the main program in between "Burning The Town Of Darien" and "Brave Words and Deeds" is just terrific!
 
Not having listened to the OST album a lot prior to getting this edition, I didn't go into it knowing offhand which tracks were old and which were new.  But when I noticed something really awesome and went to look at what track I was listening to, it was definitely that entire section plus Worth A Life that made me take notice as far as previously unreleased cues go
 
 
I think the more I listen to "The Battle Of Grimball’s Landing", the more I find it to be exceptionally awesome.

So what’s everyone’s favorite previously unreleased cue on this release?
 
If I were to just pick one, “ “Battle of Grimball’s Landing”takes the cake for me. 
 
But the trio of “Our Time”, “Battle of Grimball’s Landing” and “Promise Me” really flesh out the narrative flow. I’m also a complete sucker for “Worth A Life”. Boy what a moving score. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Miss you James!

So what’s everyone’s favorite previously unreleased cue on this release?
 
If I were to just pick one, “ “Battle of Grimball’s Landing”takes the cake for me. 
 
But the trio of “Our Time”, “Battle of Grimball’s Landing” and “Promise Me” really flesh out the narrative flow. I’m also a complete sucker for “Worth A Life”. Boy what a moving score. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Miss you James!

Are there any lame animated movies coming down the pipes? It’s probably Ice Age 8 or something. 
 
Even so, I will automatically listen to any new Powell release. He has my “brand loyalty” 😊

So what’s everyone’s favorite previously unreleased cue on this release?
 
If I were to just pick one, “ “Battle of Grimball’s Landing”takes the cake for me. 
 
But the trio of “Our Time”, “Battle of Grimball’s Landing” and “Promise Me” really flesh out the narrative flow. I’m also a complete sucker for “Worth A Life”. Boy what a moving score. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Miss you James!

Alternate cover I made based on the fantastic penguin book edition. I plan on using this for my personal edit of the score once all the recordings are available.
 

Austin Wintory talks about Thomas Newman in this video:
 
 

Alright. You inspired me. Here’s my “matching set” for the two Horner scores. The original mask of Zorro key art is so iconic. So I only gave it a little face-lift here. Tried to think what Jim Titus might do (add a bit more depth/texture/ clarity) Then I needed to create an entirely new cover for Legend of Zorro that could fit right in with Mask. I think it turned out decent.

This one usually gets split between Glory and LotF.  
 
Imma say Glory. I have vivid memories of being moved to tears watching that film in my 7th grade history class. And I knew it was all James Horner’s fault;) But Legends is a terrific melodrama with a equally great score.
 
I do really enjoy Zimmer’s Last Samurai though. Waiting for an expansion of that one.

I haven't had time to go back into analytical mode, but I just want to say:


This album is really really great!  The sound quality is fantastic, and the new main program is just a great listen.  I honestly never really listened to the old OST album that many times, so basically going in fresh I just find the main program to be an extremely solid 57 minute experience.  That 54th regiment theme gets me every time.

I also ended up liking the source music more than I was expecting, which is more than I like the source music sections on most releases.  I always enjoy HAVING all the source music, and listening to it maybe 1 out of every 20 times I just enjoy the main program and that's it.  But in this case, I might trying a combined playlist with them all integrated in.  There's already plenty of drum & fife stuff in the main program, so more from the source section will probably fit in nicely.
 

Great release, one of the year's best.  And one of Horner's best scores!

@Tizzeres, thank you so much! Totally agree on the saga consistency, that was a huge motivator in starting this project. An initial goal of mine was just to temp scenes I disliked as a book fan with Williams just to see if they could fit in and achieve the same emotional impact before we conceptualized a whole arc. It's really great to hear all this work for continuity is working out for you now! We hope you'll enjoy the rest of what we have planned!
 
MS

Alternate cover I made based on the fantastic penguin book edition. I plan on using this for my personal edit of the score once all the recordings are available.
 

As I said there were at least two if not more occasions where it would have been wise to leave the picture unscored.
 
I love the fact that the word "Dune" allows for these abstract depictions.

Alternate cover I made based on the fantastic penguin book edition. I plan on using this for my personal edit of the score once all the recordings are available.