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What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (older scores)


Ollie

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In the Heart of the Sea by Roque Banos

Meh. Not sure why this type of film gets this kind of imitative RC dreck. Banos is capable of more. The last couple of cues does showcase some rather poignant Americana though.

The Danish Girl by Alexandre Desplat

Very typical Desplat, but what else did you expect for this type of film anyway? Yet another cousin in the vein of pretty drama scores like The Girl with the Pearl Earring or Lust, Caution, but too long. Despite his usual his usual dainty elegance for the genre, you've got to appreciate his insistence on harmonic sophistication, which is more than can be said for other go-to composers with the same sound (cough Korzeniowski cough).

Suffragette by Alexandre Desplat

A score with more promise but ultimately falls a bit flat in the end. It's more interesting than the former score thanks to its unconventional theme and instrumentation combined with its flair for rousing the "power of the human spirit". But like many of his earlier scores, it offers plenty of interesting ideas without really exploring their full potential.

Inherent Vice by Johnny Greenwood

Ah. That hits the spot nicely. Please score more films Johnny.

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Batman Returns is amazing, for me its in the trifecta of perfect Elfman scores (along with Nightmare and Scissorhands). He was just at the top of his game on those 3 scores!

Anyways, the expanded Batman Returns set is great, yea. I love playing the entire main program and don't skip anything (I don't always listen to all the alternates at the end).

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Pee-Wee's Big Adventure just edges out Batman Returns for me as best Elfman. But they're both great and any Elfman from that era is vastly superior to the utter shit composed nowadays, including from Elfman himself.

:music: Interview with the Vampire(: The Vampire Chronicles) OST

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Batman Returns is amazing, for me its in the trifecta of perfect Elfman scores (along with Nightmare and Scissorhands). He was just at the top of his game on those 3 scores!

Anyways, the expanded Batman Returns set is great, yea. I love playing the entire main program and don't skip anything (I don't always listen to all the alternates at the end).

Batman Returns is one of those rare scores where even in complete form I don't skip a track at all. Elfman didn't write a boring note.

However my only frustration with the LLL complete score is that they use the edited film version of the end credits in the main program. I prefer the extended album version that appears on track 16, so I have to punch that number in when I reach the end of the score.

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In the Heart of the Sea by Roque Banos

Meh. Not sure why this type of film gets this kind of imitative RC dreck. Banos is capable of more. The last couple of cues does showcase some rather poignant Americana though.

You and Pub were unimpressed. That's too bad. I'm in no rush to hear it now. If I had scored it, it would have been for six trombones, four tubas, a piano, a couple of percussion odds and ends, and 32 strings. And it would have rocked.

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Nothing's stopping ya from still whipping something up Grey ;)

It's a shame though. Zimmer's score would probably have been a lot more interesting than Banos'.

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In the Heart of the Sea by Roque Banos

Meh. Not sure why this type of film gets this kind of imitative RC dreck. Banos is capable of more. The last couple of cues does showcase some rather poignant Americana though.

You and Pub were unimpressed. That's too bad. I'm in no rush to hear it now. If I had scored it, it would have been for six trombones, four tubas, a piano, a couple of percussion odds and ends, and 32 strings. And it would have rocked.

I await you concept album with great anticipation. When will it be out TGP?

Home Alone (25th Anniversary Edition) by John Williams: Yes I am that sucker who bought the score for the 3rd time but for my troubles I have now the definitive version of this JW Christmas classic. Until LLL releases another version that is. The music is among my personal favourites for this season and in film scores in general.

Star Trek the Motion Picture (LLL set) by Jerry Goldsmith: Impressive, most impressive. Almost needless to say that this is a classic. So much material to go through but the complete score was a fascinating listen. I thought the 20th anniversary edition had a nice 65 minute programme which flowed well but this version gives you a bit more of everything. I have to delve further into this and see how the original 40 minute album fares as a listening experience and explore the unused material and alternates. Seminal work from the LLL crew on this one.

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OK I'm starting my run of trying to listen to all the 2015 scores I can to make an end of the year top 10 list

Today I started with

Christophe Beck - Ant-man

As I expected I like this score even more now after seeing the film. There's no way it'll make a top 10 list, but its a really fun score with a catchy main theme!

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Daniel Pemberton - The Man From UNCLE

Well, I like this more than I did the first time. Some fun music here. The OST, at least the spotify version (which seems to have tracks the CD version doesn't) is way too long. There isn't enough variety to the underscore to remain interesting for such a long runtime. A lot of it is very similar.

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Desplat wrote a ripper of a score. There's so much in that one I love to explore.

But yeah, I'll always love Arnold's fourth and final eargasmic masterpiece.

We have been robbed of another in 2016 thanks to a dithering director and his Austrian pub buddies.

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Roque Banos - In The Heart Of The Sea

Well, this did absolutely nothing for me, it was all really generic stuff.... until the end! The final three tracks - Homecoming, The Story Is Told, and The White Whale Chant are really nice! Worthy of a best cues of the year compilation for sure. I have no interest in seeing the film and probably won't revisit this whole album again, at least not for a long while, but those final three tracks are really quite lovely! :up:

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Ludwig Göransson - Creed

Well, this was OK, but not great. It basically falls into the category of "better than most scores being written today, but not good enough to get super excited about" It's nice that it has some nice trumpet themes, a reprise of some Conti music, some cool drum stuff, etc. But it has a lot of dead spots, and the dialogue over the music is awful! Why is this still happening in 2015?

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Daniel Pemberton - The Man From UNCLE

Well, I like this more than I did the first time. Some fun music here. The OST, at least the spotify version (which seems to have tracks the CD version doesn't) is way too long. There isn't enough variety to the underscore to remain interesting for such a long runtime. A lot of it is very similar.

The digital release has 4 bonus tracks that wouldn't fit on the CD. The score will be in my Top 10. Love it from beginning to end, including the source songs.

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It's some of his "richest" music I reckon.

And Don Davis'es, so you get two for one.

Yeah, I noticed that he orchestrated this one. Interesting parallels with Warriors of Virtue, right there. BloodBoal, if you're reading this, that Davis score is something for you to consider.

:music:Braveheart (La-La Land). I haven't listened to this score in years, nor have I seen the film since around its release. And while I knew the original album quite well, having heard it so many times, it's actually refreshing how good this score is. I was never quite comfortable with Horner's grasp of drama, he tends to overscore these things. And, to an extent, it's also a case here. But, on a purely musical terms, this score just kicks ass and I can't really find a fault in it. The themes are all great and Horner for once feels genuine in his emotional underscore, which he often fails at with these types of films. For me, Legends of the Fall. Enemy at the Gates and more recent For Great Glory are prime offenders in his overindulgent melodrama of his historical epics. Here, he manages to do similar things... yet they feel more effortless and appropriate. While two hours might be a tad too much, I'm glad that this release gave me a chance to re-acquaint with this abandoned masterpiece of his (abandoned by myself, that is). I can now remember why this one is regarded so highly.

Karol

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens, by John Williams

After the feeling of finality of ROTS, I didn't think an entirely brand new SW score was a possibility, let alone one from the Maestro! But how is it? Well if you were expecting ESB quality, you'll be sorely disappointed. It has a nice theme or two, an eargasmic moment here and there, but it's mainly the same bland modern Williams we've come to know and groan at. It's mostly more of the same interchangeable orchestral noise heard in KOTCS and TinTin.

As for the OST, it's too frickin' long. So many coma-inducing tracks thrown in there to maximise the run time. If the complete recordings are really 100 more minutes of these bland moments, they can keep it.

On the other hand, I felt the Hollywood musicians kept it together far greater than the LSO.

3/5

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I don't think that the simpler and shorter work as well here than in something like Tintin. Star Wars needs long lined classic melodies. The score is ok but nothing to write home about. Enjoyable and elegant, but does not leave much of an impression.

Karol

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Spot-on review. Snoke's theme is pretty impressive, and Finn's theme is probably the best thematic idea in recent years, but other than that, there's too much meandering music to make it a satisfying listening experience. The fact that the end credits appear in the middle of the album sure doesn't help the listening experience.

Yeah, what's up with that, some strange decisions here ! And don't get me started on Jar Jar's theme appearing in track 5... This does not bode well. :angry:

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Craig Armstrong - Victor Frankenstein

I think this was the first Craig Armstrong score I ever listened to? Unfortunately, it did nothing for me...

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