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

[Faleel 5,345]

[Edmilson 7,424]

Tinker Taylor Soldier Zzzzzzzzzzzpy.

[GerateWohl 4,349]

Moby Dick - Philip Sainton

 

Golden Age score in a great re-recording by William Stromberg, which has a wonderful sea adventure feeling, colorful, melodic.

Who ever has a crush on those Golden Age score should give this a listen.

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

3 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Moby Dick - John Morgen

 

Golden Age score in a great re-recording by William Stromberg, which has a wonderful sea adventure feeling, colorful, melodic.

Who ever has a crush on those Golden Age score should give this a listen.

 

Yes, but it's composed by Philip Sainton - John Morgan "only" did the reconstruction.

[GerateWohl 4,349]

5 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Yes, but it's composed by Philip Sainton - John Morgan "only" did the reconstruction.

Thank you. Fixed.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

It's a great score. Some of the best seafaring music I know.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

After seeing Remains of the Day, the score by Richard Robbins caught my ear, so I decided to look up the Filmtracks review, but Clem says the album mastering was so bad, it rendered most of the score unlistenable. Is this true or did Clem just get a bad copy?

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Who Clem?😗

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

The reviewer there, Christian Clemmensen.

[publicist 4,643]

[bruce marshall 1,315]

THE SPACE CHILDREN - FSM

Van Cleave

2 hours ago, The Big Man said:

The reviewer there, Christian Clemmensen.

And you go buy his word?

Some Internet nobody!

Shame!

😉

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

50 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

And you go buy his word?

Some Internet nobody!

Shame!

😉

 

That's why I'm asking. Can anyone else here confirm his claim or did he simply get a bad copy?

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Fwiw

 

 

[A24 4,330]

14 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Alberto Inglesias' TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY is a brilliant score, from an outstanding, and very classy film.

 

It looked good from a photographic standpoint.

[Jurassic Shark 12,051]

Now Richard is just being pretentious. The book is probably good, but the film and score try to be smarter than they really are.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1 hour ago, bruce marshall said:

Fwiw

 

 

 

That tells me nothing. I just want to know if the sound quality is shitty on the CD itself.

 

 

Quote

Unfortunately for the album experience of The Remains of the Day, there is severe audio distortion during moments of even moderate volume. You first hear this distortion during the timpani-pounding moments late in "Opening Titles, Darlington Hall" and it eventually swallows up the whole soundscape in the final three score cues. Nearly unlistenable is "Loss and Separation," those sax performances rendered useless by low-end garbling of the mix. The same effect diminishes "Appeasement/In the Rain" as well, though perhaps some solace can be taken in the fact that the most dynamic cues, like "The Cooks in the Kitchen," do not suffer this problem. If not for this terrible distortion of the bass region on album, the score would be worthy of a four star rating, but so much of it is unlistenable that it's ultimately impossible to recommend the product.

 

https://www.filmtracks.com/titles/remains_day.html

 

I mean, this isn't the guy's opinion on the score. It's a fairly empirical observation on the album's sound quality.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Not one review on AMAZON complained about sound quality.

 

[publicist 4,643]

15 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

That tells me nothing. I just want to know if the sound quality is shitty on the CD itself.

 

I found Robbins' music always to be serviceable at best, so i never added him to my collection, but here you can hear some of the cues in question (which i certainly don't find brilliant-sounding but given the awful wall-of-sound of many modern scores i don't see the issue here, especially the supposedly overbearing bass):

 

 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

Good film!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I really liked it.

[A24 4,330]

I like how you want to step out of your comfort zone. Gruesome would have fallen asleep within the first 20 minutes. 

 

Music is very effective. Can't imagine anything that would work or sets the mood any better. 

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Well, I dunno, look, I can't speak for Justin, of course. For all I know, he might find some merit or value in it too. But there was a deep and universal theme of lifetime regret in ROTD that I connected with (and Emma Thompson was kinda cute in it), which transcended being just a boring 90s British butler flick.

[Jurassic Shark 12,051]

Would you care to elaborate on your regrets?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

That sort of shit is well documented on this forum if you're game enough to do a search.

[Jurassic Shark 12,051]

You regret getting an erectile dysfunction, tinnitus, knee problems, and back pain? What have I forgotten?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Yeah that shit, plus more.

[Thor 7,490]

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY is one my favourite films. Here's an old (Norwegian) article I wrote about it: https://montages.no/2012/11/the-remains-of-the-day-1993/

 

The score is great, and the CD sounds absolutely fine.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

8 hours ago, The Big Man said:

Well, I dunno, look, I can't speak for Justin, of course. For all I know, he might find some merit or value in it too. But there was a deep and universal theme of lifetime regret in ROTD that I connected with (and Emma Thompson was kinda cute in it), which transcended being just a boring 90s British butler flick.

That was a period of time when Hopkins was on fire. Great roles for him#

8 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Would you care to elaborate on your regrets?

He neglected to get the JP BOX before it sold out!😔

[Naïve Old Fart 9,511]

12 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Now Richard is just being pretentious. The book is probably good, but the film and score try to be smarter than they really are.

The film is very smart. It doesn't have the depth of the T.V. show, but it's still very good.

 

 

 

THE REMAINS OF THE DAY should have romped off, with Oscars for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design.

It's a work of art.

[Jurassic Shark 12,051]

4 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

It doesn't have the depth of the T.V. show

 

Is that the one with Alec Guinness?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

1 hour ago, bruce marshall said:

He neglected to get the JP BOX before it sold out!😔

 

I have it!

[Jurassic Shark 12,051]

The A.I. box?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Got that too.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,511]

Just now, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Is that the one with Alec Guinness?

Yes, it is. TTSS is quite brilliant, and is easily in the top 5 drama television programmes, ever broadcast.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

4 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

 

I have it!

So, you CAN die without regret

 

" Regrets, I've had a few....but i did it MYYYYY WAYYYY"

4 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Yes, it is. TTSS is quite brilliant, and is easily in the top 5 drama television programmes, ever broadcast.

Great show.

The sequel book was terrible, but the tv series actually improved it!

[bollemanneke 3,342]

Manchester by the sea. So why exactly did they put a mono recording of Albinoni's adagio on this album? It's one the most poignant moments of the movie and now it sounds rubbish.

[Edmilson 7,424]

X-Men: The Last Stand by John Powell

 

Being one of Powell's first fantasy/sci-fi blockbuster with a lot of CGI, it has the same qualities and problems for scores from young composers to big movies like this: it has a lot of energy and it's fast-paced, but it also sounds a little anonymous, like Powell trying to emulate the sound of people like Danny Elfman, John Williams and Don Davis.

 

Still, it's a funny album with some terrific action music and surprisingly effective emotional moments. 

 

If Young Powell managed to write a score as good as this one, I want to see what Current Powell, now that he is experienced enough, would do in a similarly big super-hero movie. Marvel, DC, Netflix, please hire him while we're still at Peak Powell!

[gkgyver 1,645]

Too much orchestra. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

I thought the first two X- MEN films were really good. Scores also.

They were REAL films, not just a series of scenes filled with cgi and stunt work.

Sadly, the next two, esp. FIRST CLASS abandoned any pretense of seriousness.

I haven't seen any since.

[Romão 2,274]

19 hours ago, The Big Man said:

After seeing Remains of the Day, the score by Richard Robbins caught my ear, so I decided to look up the Filmtracks review, but Clem says the album mastering was so bad, it rendered most of the score unlistenable. Is this true or did Clem just get a bad copy?

 

It's not brilliant sounding, but it has never bothered me in the slightest. 

 

The score is fantastic, though. It had to be pretty much unlistenable for me not to recommend it. The music somehow really captures both the confort and frustration of a daily routine, I'm not quite sure how to put it. You can easily find some tracks on youtube to have a sense of the sound quality. But I find the music to be marvelous.

 

1993 was a great year for film music

[bruce marshall 1,315]

I told Tin Man not to take " Clem" seriously.

😎

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

5 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

So, you CAN die without regret

 

Nothing can undo my regret that you're still here!

[bruce marshall 1,315]

16 minutes ago, The Big Man said:

 

Nothing can undo my regret that you're still here!

Hey!

Who else stands with you in our battle against Jaython?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Just because Godzilla and Kong fight Mechagodzilla together doesn't mean they won't duel again!

[HunterTech 989]

8 hours ago, Edmilson said:

X-Men: The Last Stand by John Powell

 

Being one of Powell's first fantasy/sci-fi blockbuster with a lot of CGI, it has the same qualities and problems for scores from young composers to big movies like this: it has a lot of energy and it's fast-paced, but it also sounds a little anonymous, like Powell trying to emulate the sound of people like Danny Elfman, John Williams and Don Davis.

 

Still, it's a funny album with some terrific action music and surprisingly effective emotional moments. 

 

If Young Powell managed to write a score as good as this one, I want to see what Current Powell, now that he is experienced enough, would do in a similarly big super-hero movie. Marvel, DC, Netflix, please hire him while we're still at Peak Powell!

I think that ends up being the inherent problem I have with the score. In spite of some great themes and moments, the whole underscore just doesn't stick with me. I would've mentioned on the old HZ.com website that it certainly feels like Powell trying to find his footing, even if I was told that key prior projects already had him finding some of his grooves for action scoring. I prefer X2 and X1, but it is a score that made an impression on me when I was a kid, so I'm grateful it was projects like these that pushed my interest towards film music.

I was honestly wanting JP for Dark Phoenix just for the meme of it (hot take: Zimmer's DP is stronger than X3), but I'd be happy for him to do a superhero film in this age. I just don't know what he'd be best for, given I doubt he'd have the same flexibility for it like he might've had in the 2000s. I'd love to be proven wrong though.

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

Terminal Velocity (Joel McNeely) & Drop Zone (Hans Zimmer) - A couple of scores that were added to my "up next" list that have only just turned up after my (now quietly defunct) thread on years where two almost identical films were released. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I got much more from Terminal Velocity, even though it's probably more of a hodgepodge of riffs on other scores (notably Die Hard, which I clearly wasn't familiar enough with last time I listened to TV as the use of the Die Hard chord is pretty obvious), but McNeely's orchestral action writing is typically solid and it's a fun half hour. Drop Zone is pretty typical 90s Zimmer, but I guess it wins points for being clearly Zimmer rather than McNeely's mix of other composers. Having said that, it doesn't have a great, cheesily anthemic main theme to latch onto. It also has a few moments where Hans attempts Mickey mousing (notable the long action cue, "too many notes, not enough rests" - haha). All those string runs and crashes just sound dreadful with his synth orchestra. There are a couple of moments in the Lion King that are like that which don't work that well (the elephant's graveyard sequence is one I remember offhand). His musical palette is much more effective when the strokes are broader and the synths employed more idiomatically. He'll probably write a drunken message to me on how wrong I am now...

 

Star Wars 7, 8 & 9 (John Williams) - There's probably nothing new to say on these scores now, but I still can't get as excited by them as I'd like (sorry, I still enjoy Solo more). Much like the prequels where The Phantom Menace presents the lion's share of the best of the new material and the other two feel somewhat less inspired, The Force Awakens contains most of the best new material and for me is the most dynamic and interesting of the three. Neither The Rebellion is Reborn or The Rise of Skywalker (the cue) sound quite right in the Star Wars sound world, nice though they are on their own terms. I can't put my finger on exactly why. Of course, it's all relative, compared to many other contemporary scores, they are works of genius and I can't blame JW for not being entirely inspired by the lacklustre, borderline incoherent movies.

 

Currently on The Postman by JNH. A fine companion to Waterworld that I really must listen to more often...

[Jurassic Shark 12,051]

12 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

All those string runs and crashes just sound dreadful with his synth orchestra. There are a couple of moments in the Lion King that are like that which don't work that well (the elephant's graveyard sequence is one I remember offhand). His musical palette is much more effective when the strokes are broader and the synths employed more idiomatically. He'll probably write a drunken message to me on how wrong I am now...

 

Cue @Lord Zimmer...

[Tom Guernsey 2,282]

6 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Cue @Lord Zimmer...

Haha... I should emphasise that I mostly enjoyed Drop Zone (albeit not enough to get the expanded version). But it's not a patch on the Postman which I'm now further through and really enjoying. Superb, expansive, JNH score. I'm guessing an expanded version due sometime...

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

The TROS theme sounds more like David Arnold, which is fine by me.

[Edmilson 7,424]

7 hours ago, HunterTech said:

I was honestly wanting JP for Dark Phoenix just for the meme of it (hot take: Zimmer's DP is stronger than X3), but I'd be happy for him to do a superhero film in this age. I just don't know what he'd be best for, given I doubt he'd have the same flexibility for it like he might've had in the 2000s. I'd love to be proven wrong though.

 

Yeah, I agree that in 2006 Powell was somewhat "inexperienced" yet for a big movie like this. But nowadays he delivers one great score after another: Ferdinand, Solo, HTTYD 3, Call of the Wild... It would be great for him to be hired to another super-hero blockbuster now that he is on the best point of his career.