Naïve Old Fart

So did that henchmen with the toupee!

THE MACHINE AGE sounds like typical late 90s Horner, which sounds like a souped-up, proto A BEAUTIFUL MIND, and, at around 3:10 goes all BIRD OF PREY DECLOAKS.
THE MECHA WORLD, on the other hand, is among the finest single pieces of film music, in the last 30 years.
Absolutely no fucking contest.
Williams stamps all over the Horner track, and goes "Cock-a-doodle-do"!
Good day, to you, sir.

Perhaps JT has already been tapped to redo a new cover for "The Swarm" seeing as LLL were going to initially release it as part of their Black Friday batch last November?   In any event MV has announced that LLL will release a new definitive version of that particular score some time this year. One would expect stellar audio restoration work too if the great Mike Matessino was also involved in this project.  Looking forward to a new edition of this Jerry Goldsmith gem. 

I know you were asking Richard, but as someone who considers this track not just a Williams highlight, but one of his favorite tracks ever, I'll say why I love it.
 
The track is like you're a tiny Innerspace version of yourself riding on a river. It starts with a steady, yet small stream, with this sense of chugging and churning anticipation. It's light for a little while, but Williams gradually introduces the deep, lower end, building that anticipation even further. The chords start getting more dissonant, and that almost neutral sense of anticipation from before gets colored, and ominous; like that little stream you've been riding on is expanding, and you feel yourself starting to go down a slope, unsure if you'll quite make the drop. You do, and the track keeps building, and building. Come on, Williams, can you push it any more than you have?
 
The answer is yes. After a brief respite, the music suddenly inclines even more, sharply, getting intense, more intense, more intense, then! 3:08 hits, and you see the whole vista in front of you has expanded into this beautiful, wide view of paradise. Bliss. The water is white levels of intensity, before calming down to a tranquil trickle, and your ride stops there. 
 
AI is a very spiritual score for me, and The Mecha World is one of several tracks that hit really close to home.

THE MACHINE AGE sounds like typical late 90s Horner, which sounds like a souped-up, proto A BEAUTIFUL MIND, and, at around 3:10 goes all BIRD OF PREY DECLOAKS.
THE MECHA WORLD, on the other hand, is among the finest single pieces of film music, in the last 30 years.
Absolutely no fucking contest.
Williams stamps all over the Horner track, and goes "Cock-a-doodle-do"!
Good day, to you, sir.

How soon is Marr going to record his parts?
How soon is now?

Johnny Marr is as talented a guitar player as there is out there.

Every time I watch a Nolan film, I want to stand up, in the cinema, and shout "...but he's naked!".
 
 
BLADE RUNNER 2049 has some good ideas, and good performances, but the whole is, distinctly, less than the sum of the parts. I think that it's going to be a film that I admire, rather than like.

The Black Hole (1979)
I saw a few films between 6-11 years of age that I likely shouldn't have, like Blue Thunder maybe but though this is a Disney film, there was something about Black Hole that was and remains...beyond dark. It's a film that as you work your way through, you wonder what the Hell and why you're bothering.
Anyway. When Robert Forster died a few months back, sure I had seen Jackie Brown but I felt embarrassed that I knew him more for this film and how...as is typical of what I saw as a child, be it the original Galactica, Buck Rogers, whatever, I wanted to be the hero type and Forster's Capt Holland was one such guy, especially when he rescues Yvette Mimieux from being lobotomised by the robots. What made it work was the John Barry score, until now moody, dark and horror-like, bursting heroically into life (the track is "Laser"). Holland leaps into action blazing away with his laser guns and saves her. 
But what made this film terrifying to a young me, was the Hell sequence at the end after the ship enters the black hole. Where Max Schell's crazed if creepy scientist becomes immersed with his robot-killer Maximilian ("You obey me!"...wait that line is from Moonraker?!) and you see this fiery landscape...God, it gave me nightmares. 
A note on the Barry score, it's one of his best. Yet listening to it this week, there are certain notes that sound out of Moonraker and one or two tracks fore-shadow his Raise the Titanic score. Either way, it's fantastic as a score.

 
The film is a bit of fun somehow. Neil DeGrasse Tyson said in 2013 or something the physics and science is the worst in any sci-fi movie, so be it. I like a crew that is heroic, especially when they flee across a gantry as a huge meteorite is coming at them.

“I've smelled that aftershave before, and both times I've smelled a rat.

Every time I watch a Nolan film, I want to stand up, in the cinema, and shout "...but he's naked!".
 
 
BLADE RUNNER 2049 has some good ideas, and good performances, but the whole is, distinctly, less than the sum of the parts. I think that it's going to be a film that I admire, rather than like.

I actually don't mind technical virtuosity for its sake, as entertainment. James Cameron made some great entertainments that way.

Contrived feelz are the worst.
 
 
The Sound of Music, actually.

I get a nostalgic kick out of it.

Yo mama. 

Stargate (LLL release) by David Arnold: I really like this expansion. Sure the added unreleased music doesn't fill too many minutes but the film versions and alternates with more choral chanting and whispering are a welcome addition to my personal playlist of this score. Considering that this was only Arnold's second big film scores makes it all the more impressive.
 
The Disaster Movie Soundtrack Collection box:
The Poseidon Adventure by John Williams: A grim, claustrophobic and mostly moody and suspenseful outing from Williams. Very much establishes the recipe for the two following scores dealing with these disasters and humans caught up in them. An attention calling dramatic main title piece, a whole slew of pop music inflected writing for source music and character moments in the establishing half of the film and then a lot of dark, mournful and moody underscore for the survival half of the movie ending with another bookending rendition of the main theme for the finale and end credits. Despite its grim and dark nature I actually appreciate this score a lot. It strikes a good balance between the dark atmosphere and a subtle thematic throughline which keeps it afloat its brief running time.
 
The Towering Inferno by John Williams: My favourite of the three. Has great orchestral writing mixed with the 1970's pop music source music and love theme material. The score is obviously afforded more opportunities to support the action (a lot of it was dialed out of the film though) and it is the longest and I feel the most ambitious of the three in terms of scope and thematic development. The main title is such a terrific busy piece of music that is afforded magnificent 5 minutes to develop and Williams really makes most of it and the Planting the Charges is first rate musical build-up before the relief and release of the optimistic finale.
 
Earthquake by John Williams: This is a score that either on album or in actual film score form feels most disjointed of the three. Williams' excellent busy and fateful sounding main title music is followed by what is a series of individual character themes that are all mostly self-contained in their tracks and are very much 1970's in their style which isn't exactly my cup of tea for the most part. Then this pre-earthquake material is followed by the other half of the score which is sparsely scored, terse, gloomy and suspenseful music for the subsequent survival part of the film ending in the almost elegiac aftermath music. It is great to hear the original film score for the first time but on the whole to my mind this is the least of the three disaster movie score JW did.

But is she supposed to be almost perfect, or just hard to identify as a replicant because she doesn't know she is one?
 
 

But shouldn't it be?

That's "naïve old farts"!

Phew! Not the Bangles!

I'd be impressed if I knew who Billie Ellish was.

What's next for JW? Decline, retirement, dotage, death.

Go fuck yourself!