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


Ollie

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8 hours ago, Jay said:

Right, but I don't know why he focused so much on the end and middle of the score and neglected so much of the beginning of the score, or why he avoided almost every cue that has the Blue Fairy theme in it.

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As someone who thinks AI is one of the greatest scores ever written, it's immensely easy for me to imagine why he eschewed so much of that. A lot of those early cues are on the static and portentous side.

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4 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

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As someone who thinks AI is one of the greatest scores ever written, it's immensely easy for me to imagine why he eschewed so much of that. A lot of those early cues are on the static and portentous side.

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First, he called the BF theme the A. I. Theme, fergodssake, and featured it in two concert versions, you would never have guessed that from the OST. Secondly, the only real necessary cue from the first half would have been David's Arrival, and not to use that robs you of the introduction of a vital thematic building block (whatever that soft piano theme was for). Instead, the rather sappy Monica's Theme gets two blah pop versions and a 6-minute Replicas cue that also doesn't generate much excitement.ย 

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I don't think this score is one of the greatest ever written, it's much too conventionalย for that, but it's certainly presented on its original album to its own misadvantage.

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I'm one of the few on this planets who actually enjoys the OST (once you remove the songs). No, it doesn't represent the score as a whole well but it's a nice tone poem kind of an album where each track feels almost like its own miniature. It feels disjointed stylistically, yes, but that is very much appropriate for a Kubrick film. I liked it because it felt like a completely different experience from your average John Williams album. Less like a film score bound to the film narrative and more like a self-contained symphonic suite.

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:music:ย Johnย Williams & "The President's Own" United States Marine Band

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Karol

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Finally resuming my project of listening to my entire physical CD collection

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John Barry - Diamonds Are Forever

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Man, what a legendary title song!ย  After that, the album starts of well enough, and though there are a lot of variants on the main theme for a while, they all sound great, so no biggie.ย  But then it just becomes a lounge album for the second half, until the final track is exciting again.ย  WTF is this?ย  I assume the 2003 expansion is a revelation?

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Marvin Hamlisch - The Spy Who Lovedย Me

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Wowowow, talk about legendary title songs, what a freaking classic of a tune here.ย  Unfortunately after the great song, the rest of the album is mostly slow and boring - though there were a couple funky parts!ย  And it was kinda weird how tracks 8-10 all bled together.ย  I don't think this is considered to be near the top of Barry's Bond output, but damn, that song is aces

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And those are the only two pre-Living Daylights Bond scores in my collection.ย  I think I just came across each used in a Newbury Comics for like $3 once and figured what the hell.

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I'm thinking about grabbing the whole lot of 2003 expansions, since the recent comments from MV and the MGM sale lead me to think any new and improved expansions are years away or never happening...

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@Jay, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was the first Bond score that I bought, and so it has a special place in my heart.

"Slow and boring"? Think not. It's Barry-esque without being an obvious rip-off. JOURNEY TO ATLANTIS, THE TANKER and BOND '77 are standout tracks, and the two Mojave Club tracks are a fun listen. The title song speaks for itself. It's a real shame that this score has not had a proper expansion.

The score for DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER is the best part of a nasty little film, and, yes, the 2003 expansionย isย a revelation. For a start, it contains SLUMBER INC. which was a holy grail for Barry fans. The expanded score really does add a lot to the overall atmosphere, and, as a result, it can hold its own against the other Barry expansions. Get them all.

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Finally resuming my project of listening to my entire physical CD collection

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John Barry - Diamonds Are Forever

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Man, what a legendary title song!ย  After that, the album starts of well enough, and though there are a lot of variants on the main theme for a while, they all sound great, so no biggie.ย  But then it just becomes a lounge album for the second half, until the final track is exciting again.ย  WTF is this?ย  I assume the 2003 expansion is a revelation?

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John Barry - The Spy Who Lovedย Me

ย 

Wowowow, talk about legendary title songs, what a freaking classic of a tune here.ย  Unfortunately after the great song, the rest of the album is mostly slow and boring - though there were a couple funky parts!ย  And it was kinda weird how tracks 8-10 all bled together.ย  I don't think this is considered to be near the top of Barry's Bond output, but damn, that song is aces

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And those are the only two pre-Living Daylights Bond scores in my collection.ย  I think I just came across each used in a Newbury Comics for like $3 once and figured what the hell.

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I'm thinking about grabbing the whole lot of 2003 expansions, since the recent comments from MV and the MGM sale lead me to think any new and improved expansions are years away or never happening...

...but The Spy Who Loved Me is by Marvin Hamlisch?!

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Typo fixed

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James Horner - Legends of the Fall (OST)

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Wow.ย  I liked it so much I listened to it twice in a row!ย  This is actually my first real time hearing the whole OST album.ย  Parts of it reminded me of Dances with Wolves!ย  I love how there are many recurring themes throughout the whole thing, and how some of them really grab you every time.ย  I can't believe I never knew this score back in the day.ย  I'm glad I know it now!ย  I'll get around to opening the expanded album at some point :lol:

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Lots and lots, but currentlyย Hoffaย by David Newman, which I thought I knew well but I don't think I'd ever quite realised how John Williams-y it is... can't quite pin down which JW score though. Maybe just the tone. Still, one of Newman's finest efforts. Just need a complete release of his score to the animatedย Anastasiaย which is really terrific.

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21 hours ago, Jay said:

And yea, it would have been a strange idea indeed to open the film's end credits with that - I'm glad Spielberg changed it!

Even MM avaoided that on the LLL and put Opening End Credits to the bonus section.

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Oddly enough, it's the opposite of what Spielberg did with WOTW!

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With AI, JW wrote an action-oriented end credits opening to be followed by a mellow and introspective second half, but in the film Spielberg completely rejected the action opener and started with the mellow introspective piece.

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A smart choice, because following up the melancholy sadness of the reunion scene with an action banger would make no sense.

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For WOTW, Williams only recorded a mellow introspective piece for the end credits, but Spielberg elected to begin the end credits with a huge chunk of tracked action music, and only plays the mellow introspective piece at the end.

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A bad choice, because following up the teary street reunion finale with an slam-bang action end credits makes no sense!

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18 hours ago, publicist said:

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First, he called the BF theme the A. I. Theme, fergodssake, and featured it in two concert versions, you would never have guessed that from the OST. Secondly, the only real necessary cue from the first half would have been David's Arrival, and not to use that robs you of the introduction of a vital thematic building block (whatever that soft piano theme was for). Instead, the rather sappy Monica's Theme gets two blah pop versions and a 6-minute Replicas cue that also doesn't generate much excitement.ย 

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I don't think this score is one of the greatest ever written, it's much too conventionalย for that, but it's certainly presented on its original album to its own misadvantage.

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Admittedly, I've never listened to the vocal versions, as my first exposure to the score was from the one-disc Oscar promo that I received as a gift. Similar to croc, I love the OST as a tone poem, and when I listen to it--cannonballing into the Thor pool here--I don't care about what thematic strands are omitted from it, or if X theme isn't introduced in an "introductory" way. Hell, I'm fine with thinking a theme in the score is just a one-off idea because that's how it's portrayed in the album. I'm grateful all the music was released--one of my few score expansions--but practically every time I want to listen to the score, I go with the OST. Opening up with bangers such as The Mecha World and Abandoned in the Woods just can't be beat.

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As to your second paragraph, I find your use of the word "conventional" here to be odd. I've seen you give effusive praise to a number of scores that I would put in the "conventional" category, or at least how I'm assuming you mean it. This isn't a diss on you, I just don't see how this excludes AI from the runnings where some of these other scores presumably aren't. As has been said multiple times before by many people, AI hits a spiritual resonance that I hear very, very seldomly in the medium...hell, probably a good chunk of music in general.

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29 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

As to your second paragraph, I find your use of the word "conventional" here to be odd. I've seen you give effusive praise to a number of scores that I would put in the "conventional" category, or at least how I'm assuming you mean it. This isn't a diss on you, I just don't see how this excludes AI from the runnings where some of these other scores presumably aren't.ย 

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That's easy to explain, i never consider a recommendation as anything near the pedestal of 'best of all time' and as good as A.I. is, it's also offering a lot of well-tread stylistics, though it is certainly one of Williams' strongest post-2000 score.

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39 minutes ago, publicist said:

hat's easy to explain, i never consider a recommendation as anything near the pedestal of 'best of all time' and as good as A.I. is

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Thanks for the clarification. I recognize that I was conflating the two, but I don't want to put words in your mouth by misremembering which scores you think earn that place.

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39 minutes ago, publicist said:

as good as A.I. is, it's also offering a lot of well-tread stylistics

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True, but I consider these channeled in a way that feel very fresh, where the sum far exceeds the parts. I see this a la Star Wars and Close Encounters, with their precedents found in multiple scores such as Black Sunday and Family Plot.

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3 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

True, but I consider these channeled in a way that feel very fresh, where the sum far exceeds the parts. I see this a la Star Wars and Close Encounters, with their precedents found in multiple scores such as Black Sunday and Family Plot.

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I think the humming chorus is very close to Empire of the Sun. But it's a score I like very much, just find it not nearly as cutting-edge as it is made out to be here (and elsewhere). I remember only two things that struck me as new back in 2001, which was the Morriconesque Blue Fairy theme and the Mecha World cue.

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3 hours ago, publicist said:

I think the humming chorus is very close to Empire of the Sun. But it's a score I like very much, just find it not nearly as cutting-edge as it is made out to be here (and elsewhere). I remember only two things that struck me as new back in 2001, which was the Morriconesque Blue Fairy theme and the Mecha World cue.

The thing that fascinates me is the multilayered emotional resonance - the score is very precise and still pleasantly subtle. In that regard, Williams is playing in the Goldmsith league this time. To some extent it works as kind of an antithesis to the sumptuous Williams we know and other times it is the sugarfree perfection of exactly that. For me, it is the equivalent of Goldsmith's Reincarnation of Peter Proud. Your thoughts?

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8 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

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Admittedly, I've never listened to the vocal versions, as my first exposure to the score was from the one-disc Oscar promo that I received as a gift.

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The vocal version of the Blue Fairy Theme concert arrangement is what's on the OST (and Oscar promo); it's the instrumental version that we didn't know existed until the LLL

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Bruce Broughton, John Debney, Joel McNeely, and Andrew Cottee - The Orville (Season 1)

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I listened to my physical LLL 2CD set yesterday afternoon and it was glorious.ย  Such fantastic music.ย  Highlights of the set are the suites fromย If The Stars Should Appear, Majority Rule, Firestorm, and Mad Idolatry.ย  If you're curious about this show's music at all, check out those tracks on your streaming service of choice!

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

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The vocal version of the Blue Fairy Theme concert arrangement is what's on the OST (and Oscar promo); it's the instrumental version that we didn't know existed until the LLL

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I meant the Josh Groban performance, haha.

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5 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

The thing that fascinates me is the multilayered emotional resonance - the score is very precise and still pleasantly subtle. In that regard, Williams is playing in the Goldmsith league this time. To some extent it works as kind of an antithesis to the sumptuous Williams we know and other times it is the sugarfree perfection of exactly that. For me, it is the equivalent of Goldsmith's Reincarnation of Peter Proud. Your thoughts?

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I don't see similarities, Proud is monothematic, A.I. is, like croc said, a stylistic hybrid. Rather like a concept album of separate pieces. Which is of course a Kubrick 'mandate'.

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1 hour ago, publicist said:

I don't see similarities, Proud is monothematic, A.I. is, like croc said, a stylistic hybrid. Rather like a concept album of separate pieces. Which is of course a Kubrick 'mandate'.

Well, I kinda listed the similarities and you added the differences.

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I don't know, whether it's just me knowing the score for too long, thus seeing it more or less as one homogenic whole, but I've never looked at it as a concept album of separate pieces. The dips in the Kubrick universe are of course easily audible.

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4 hours ago, Bespin said:

Marc Shaiman this morning:

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- A Few Good Men

- Speechless

- The American President

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20210117_075458.jpg

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Which of these is the best? I've only got Speechless.

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I've also got that Django box, btw.

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And finally, Exodus, a score i refused for a long time cause it is attached to a dreadful, never-ending movie. But Gold's long and suitably epicย score is very good, with the right amount of pathos and exotica. Time to buy me some cues of it.

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Someone posted a cue of this album in the temp track or similarities thread, and I had to check the complete score after that.

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Sure, it's a very temp track-y score. Listeners will be reminded of Thomas Newman's "Brooks was Here" andย "Any Other Name", and also Desplat's Benjamin Burton and JNH'S Water for Elephants. However, the fact is I love all of those scores, so I really liked that one too.

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^

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Oh wow, this isย lovely.

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You're right, it's very Thomas Newman-y... but that works for me.ย :music:

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Jerry Goldsmith - Looney Tunes: Back In Action (Varese Deluxe Main Program)

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Huh, that was one wacky score with a lot of different ideas thrown in the blender!ย  I liked the Powerhouse appearances and the Psycho parody

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Jerry Goldsmith - The Swarm (LLL Main Program)

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Just starting to get into this score.ย  Wow, I love it, it's got elements he would later expand on in Alien and First Contact.ย  Cool score!

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David Arnold - The World Is Not Enough (LLL)

FanTAStic!

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:music:ย SeaQuest (The Deluxe Edition) by John Debney. There is nothing particularly brilliant or original aboutย music for this series but it's a much higher level of musicianship than we see these days. I can certainly remember the main theme from the time when I was watching some of the series as a kid and that must have been over 20 years ago. Debney manages to make the 30-60 piece orchestra sound quite large and sprawling and the music has that epic sound that could easily pass as big budget film.ย The composer will put that toย an even greater use later on in Cutthroat Island. It's solid and quite enjoyable stuff all the way through even if there's a sense of deja vu like we've heard all of this before.

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Karol

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40 minutes ago, Jay said:

Jerry Goldsmith - Looney Tunes: Back In Action (Varese Deluxe Main Program)

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Huh, that was one wacky score with a lot of different ideas thrown in the blender!ย  I liked the Powerhouse appearances and the Psycho parody

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Jerry Goldsmith - The Swarm (LLL Main Program)

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Just starting to get into this score.ย  Wow, I love it, it's got elements he would later expand on in Alien and First Contact.ย  Cool score!

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David Arnold - The World Is Not Enough (LLL)

FanTAStic!

Spooky, I listened to those three over the weekend too. I never really appreciated the Swarm before, the sound on the old expanded release was quite harsh from what I recall so it was hard work to listen to, but now with a much more flattering mix, it's much more enjoyable. I find it a lot more fun than JW's disaster scores I have to admit.

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Really enjoyed Looney Tunes too, given how much is in there, it's actually got a good number of recurring and pretty memorable themes. It's certainly a very respectable entry alongside his otherย Joe Dante collaborations.ย Given his health and age at the time, it's wonderfully fun and zany score, certainly suggests that he had plenty of mileage left in him. :-(

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And TWINE... couldn't put it better myself! TND. Fingers crossed. Just saying.

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I never heard any of the old editions of The Swarm so don't know what the sounded like, but the LLL edition truly sounds great.ย  Neil and co really worked some magic on it, apparently!

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Yea some of the recurring themes in Back In Action were nice.ย  I really enjoyed Debney's finale cues too

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I dunno if you saw the news, but MV specifically said that TND almost happened last year but is now on indefinite hold.

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