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


Ollie

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Frozen Planet (George Fenton) & FP II (Hans & Co) - Fenton's score for the original Frozen Planet is a typically superb mixture of grandiose/sweeping, threatening and a couple of more humorous cues. Against this and the original Planet Earth, I think his score for Blue Planet is perhaps the best, particularly the Deep Blue reworked version (performed by the Berlin Phil years before JW got them on board...), but they are all superb. I don't really know why he is no longer involved in BBC/Attenborough documentaries but I have to admit that I quite like the Hans & Co scores (I can't bring myself to type out their horrible moniker, honestly, it's a terrible name) but the epic stuff is perhaps a bit OTT and the action starts sounding a bit Marvel-esque at times, but a lot of it is pretty good. Impressive how Fenton managed to write the original scores all himself but the new series needs a composing team to write something not quite as good...

 

Parc Oceanic: Jacques Cousteau (John Scott) - Interesting mix of grandiose orchestral music, with some inspired writing for church organ that sets quite a different tone to the type of music that Fenton wrote for aquatic based documentaries. Some of it sounds a bit like Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass with the arpeggio sections, genuinely haunting stuff.

 

The American President (Marc Shaiman) - Brilliant, instantly memorable main theme, crowns (pun, sorry) a wonderfully charming, sentimental but occasionally grandiose effort. I mean, I quite enjoy Shaiman's musicals, but I really wish he'd get back to film scoring, he was really terrific at it.

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9 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Frozen Planet (George Fenton) & FP II (Hans & Co) - Fenton's score for the original Frozen Planet is a typically superb mixture of grandiose/sweeping, threatening and a couple of more humorous cues. Against this and the original Planet Earth, I think his score for Blue Planet is perhaps the best, particularly the Deep Blue reworked version (performed by the Berlin Phil years before JW got them on board...), but they are all superb.

 

I love both versions of Blue Planet, but I could never get into Planet Earth or Frozen Planet. Fenton was tremendously successful with scoring BP (and later 2009's Life, although he apparently was only the main composer on that) like an action drama (I've posted the avian dogfight sequence from Life here before), but the follow ups always seemed rather wallpaperish to me I'm afraid.

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14 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

I love both versions of Blue Planet, but I could never get into Planet Earth or Frozen Planet. Fenton was tremendously successful with scoring BP (and later 2009's Life, although he apparently was only the main composer on that) like an action drama (I've posted the avian dogfight sequence from Life here before), but the follow ups always seemed rather wallpaperish to me I'm afraid.

I guess it must be challenging to score lots of vignettes with no overarching story whereby you can reuse melodies so almost by default some sections aren't going to be especially interesting and/or thematically a bit less interesting, but I do think both of his other efforts are worth revisiting, especially Planet Earth. If nothing else, the opening title theme which swells as the sun appears from behind the planet is spine tingling. However, as I said, totally agreed the Blue Planet/Deep Blue are his finest efforts for Attenborough documentaries.

 

I know he did some earlier ones such as the Trials of Life, but I have a feeling they were predominantly synth, but can anyone confirm? I've not seen that series in ages (but I remember it being, as expected, amazing).

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A Far Off Place (James Horner) - Very much one of those Horner scores that sounds a bit like various others of the same period (1993) but isn't quite as distinctive as any of them. It nicely straddles his 80s and 90s styles with busy action, a fine (if, by his standards, somewhat generic) main theme and a few bits of vaguely ethnic percussion and instrumentation.

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4 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

A Far Off Place (James Horner) - Very much one of those Horner scores that sounds a bit like various others of the same period (1993) but isn't quite as distinctive as any of them.

 

Musically, it's quite ahead of them. What you call busy action is occasionally quite advanced Bartok, much more bold than Horner's monotonous Apollo 13-snare beats and the ethnic parts are also quite good, just listen to the distinctive parts that make up the main title (the lilting flute and percussion part leading into the brutal dissonance finally rising into the glorious  swelling main theme by way of the hammered piano hits, i mean, that's really quite advanced wrting).

 

Whoever wrote it out, i don't believe for a minute that it's a simple matter of ghostwriting-so-it-sounds-different. That's a much too simple explanation. It rather sounds as if Horner was told that he could go more wild on this one than was usually the case on his children's movies. 

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55 minutes ago, publicist said:

 

Musically, it's quite ahead of them. What you call busy action is occasionally quite advanced Bartok, much more bold than Horner's monotonous Apollo 13-snare beats and the ethnic parts are also quite good, just listen to the distinctive parts that make up the main title (the lilting flute and percussion part leading into the brutal dissonance finally rising into the glorious  swelling main theme by way of the hammered piano hits, i mean, that's really quite advanced wrting).

 

Whoever wrote it out, i don't believe for a minute that it's a simple matter of ghostwriting-so-it-sounds-different. That's a much too simple explanation. It rather sounds as if Horner was told that he could go more wild on this one than was usually the case on his children's movies. 

I will clearly have to give it a bit more air time. It’s just one of those Horner scores that passes me by I think. My comments probably came across more negatively than I meant but as a fan of Bartok and James Horner that’s definitely a similarity I’ll have to root out!

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18 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I will clearly have to give it a bit more air time. It’s just one of those Horner scores that passes me by I think. My comments probably came across more negatively than I meant but as a fan of Bartok and James Horner that’s definitely a similarity I’ll have to root out!

 

If you have the longer Intrada edition, i would limit myself to cues 1, 5, 6, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25 and 28. The musical downgrade of the past 30 years makes Horner's simpler writing of the 90's, especially in regards to his even-metered action cues, appear better than it is, but this is actually one of the few of his post-Willow scores that has a remarkably dynamic interplay between the orchestral sections. 

 

Why that is beats me, but rumour has it because much of it was ghostwritten, which doesn't make much sense. Why take chances when you have little time (especially repetition-happy JH)? Maybe Mikael Salomon loves classical music, who knows. Be that as it may, this kind of sophisticated, orchestrally complex writing did go out of fashion at last with Williams' 'Revenge of the Sith' (which has similar, weirdly complex passages for instance in 'I am the Senate', where i thought 'Gee John, why bother?').

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On 19/09/2022 at 12:47 AM, publicist said:

 

It remains what it always was: a 'sentimental favourite'. The repetitions of the main theme really grate on this 65 minute version. 

That’s what I said, and I was mildly shunned! Shunned, I tell you! 

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5 minutes ago, Kasey Kockroach said:

That’s what I said, and I was mildly shunned! Shunned, I tell you! 

 

Never fuck with sentimental favourites, it's like dissing ABBA and you don't do it without suffering for it.

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Warlock, which for some inexplainable reason pops up as recommendation on Spotify regularly, is no shining beacon in the Goldsmith filmography, to put it mildly. What it is, though, weird synth noises notwithstanding, is a rather unique horror score. Written during the expansive 80's, the last thing on its mind is a loud roar unleashing huge orchestral forces. Instead it's quaint and harsh sounding, with a ominous tik-tok sound echoing a big clock that Goldsmith seems so fond of he basically uses it as a heartbeat throughout.

 

The thematic material, a five-note call close to 'Legend's darkness motif, is not very memorable and the church hymn that pops up at the beginning and the end is ruined by accordion-like synth - i would have liked to peek into Goldsmith's head at the time, the movie itself is entertaining in a cheesy kind of way, but it could sure have used a shot in the arm musically but exactly where the filmmakers practically invite him to the ball to dominate the proceedings, Goldsmith holds back. 

 

When you listen to the moments recalling classic Goldsmith, which are the cues 'The Weather Vane' and the big finale (Salt Walter Attack and Salt Flats), they fitfully remind you of Goldsmith's eminent status, but he employs the magic so involuntary it seems he hates his own guts. It was a weird phase for him, but still, you couldn't say he stayed idle. But it's no recommendation, really.

 

 

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I spent the Sunday night with classic romantic comedy scores from the 90s:

 

My Best Friend's Wedding (JNH) - Pretty good!

Father of the Bride (Alan Silvestri) - Charming!

Father of the Bride: Part II (Alan Silvestri) - Even better than the first one!

 

Now, if you excuse me, I'll go listen to Goldsmith's First Blood and Silvestri's The Predator scores in order to get my masculinity back :lol:

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3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Now, if you excuse me, I'll go listen to Goldsmith's First Blood and Silvestri's The Predator scores in order to get my masculinity back :lol:

Recently watched the first Predator movie again and was amused how much parts of the score actually reminded me of Back to the Future. :)

 

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Murder on the Orient Express (Doyle) - I like this score a lot, especially the train/travel cues and the justice theme.

 

Death on the Nile (Doyle) - Not sure if I prefer this over Orient Express, but it's good, especially the way in which Doyle uses his main theme where the theme can sound completely different.

 

The English Patient (Yared) - A classic score. The Hungarian influence and the Bach influences work very well. I hope this score gets an expansion from one of the labels soon.

 

The Adventures of Tintin (Williams) - Great score that is a bit like a sequel to HP2 and Indiana Jones 4 in a weird way. Snowy's theme is straight out of the Wizarding World. Loads of fun with a nice influence from Catch Me if You Can.

 

The Terminal (Williams) - One of JW's most uplifting scores with impressive clarinet writing. 

 

The Survivor (Zimmer) - Haunting and dark score that switches between oppressive sadness to dread to beautiful violin and vocal parts. I want to see the movie to see how it plays with the movie, especially the final cue which is a real highlight.

 

Little Women - (Desplat) - Nice score but nto one of Desplat's best. It reminded me a bit of other Desplat scores that I like more.

 

Outbreak (JNH) - Rather scary score with some nice melodic cues. Very impressive horror/action writing and some of it reminded me of the action music in the final Hunger Games score.

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53 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Up - Michael Giacchino

 

I love this score. It's very dear to my heart. And contrary to a lot of other people I think he 100% deserved that Oscar. It's incredible. He get's so much emotion out of Ellie's Theme.

And the action music in "Escape From Muntz Mountain", "The Small Mailman Returns" & "Seizing The Spirit Of Adventure" is some of the most dynamic action music he's written I feel

Oh it's a delightful score - I think some people forget how much more interesting he could be earlier in his career, in particular for Pixar. Up or Ratatouille are equally worth for the statue, even though my personal preference is for the latter. But it's pretty marginal.

 

 

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Howard Shore - An Unexpected Journey (DVD Rip)

 

I literally listened to a rip of all the music in the final film, dialogue and sound effects right there with it.  Man, I had forgotten just HOW different the final film's music is compared to the released album.  SOOoo much was dropped, tracked, or replaced with wildly different Shore-rewrites or  Ziegler -conducted LOTR reprisals.  Anyway, I hadn't listen to this score in any form for quite some time, and kind of fell in love with the Misty Mountains theme all over again, and boy the the sentimental arrangement of Bilbo's theme at the end of the end credits really get me.  Now I want to listen to the album again!

 

A decade on now, I wonder if we will ever get a release containing more music from this score.

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I finally found an "evaluation" copy of Hook (Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2012) in FLAC...

 

I tried to live the last 10 years pretending this expansion never existed (mostly because I never was able to get my hands on the CDs)...

 

Anyway, I still don't understand what prevented a revisit of this outdated expansion this year... but well... we don't have a new expansion to this day... so...

 

I just listened to it once, I don't want to get used to it... ya know! :lol:

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I mean it’s like how The Fury is JW’s most Hermannesque score, it’s fun to hear that style through the composer’s own prism.

 

But seriously this sounds so Thomas Newmanish to me.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Bespin said:

I finally found an "evaluation" copy of Hook (Expanded Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 2012) in FLAC...

 

I tried to live the last 10 years pretending this expansion never existed (mostly because I never was able to get my hands on the CDs)...

 

Anyway, I still don't understand what prevented a revisit of this outdated expansion this year... but well... we don't have a new expansion to this day... so...

 

I just listened to it once, I don't want to get used to it... ya know! :lol:

Don't worry we just have to wait another month and we should be good ;)

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7 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

The Sisters Brothers - Alexandre Desplat (my short OST style playlist)

 

Hey this score isn’t talked about enough.  This shit rules.  One of Desplat’s most Thomas Newmanesque scores.

Never heard of this score despite being a big fan of Desplat. Will check it out!

 

I listened to Reality by Desplat the other day and that was a really cool little score with some interesting vocal work.

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Among the great utilities of Discogs, like to remember me how my CD collection costed me over the years, is to be able to list my collection by "added date" or by "release date".

 

It helps me to remember the last CDs I purchased, because I rarely listen to a CD at the moment I purchase it... so I don't want to forget anyone!

 

Screenshot_20221002-095707_Discogs.jpg

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37 minutes ago, Bespin said:

...like to remember me how my CD collection costed me over the years...

I'll tell you how much your CD collection has cost you: absolutely nothing. Why?

Because anything truly worth having never has a price.

As John Barth said: "We will pay the price, but we will not count the cost".

 

Right @Roll the Bones:)

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I spent the weekend with Hugh Henry Jackman in kid mode:

 

Wreck-It Ralph: Nice mix of electronics and traditional orchestra. This might be his best score for an animation so far.

 

Puss in Boots: It's a decent homage/parody of Spanish music James Horner Zorro-style, but filtered through a John Powell lens. Jackman does a nice aproximation of Powell when he's not busy with angry electronics for spy thrillers, so I'm kinda hopeful for his Strange Worlds score.

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Philadelphia - Howard Shore

 

It has some beautiful moments, but overall this is one of those serious orchestral scores for 90s thrillers about lawyers, cops, FBI, etc. Which means it can be very dated if you're not into the right mindset. But it's still worth listening, specially for those who want to discover a new, non-Tolkien related side of Shore.

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2005's King Kong. I rarely listen to this beautiful score. It brings strong emotional reasonace. I think Howard might be the best composer not named John Williams

 

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Richard Gibbs - Battlestar Galactica (miniseries)

 

Boy, I hadn't listened to this in a loooooong time.  I forgot how much of the framework for Bear's scores to the subsequent series stems from this (and he is credited with "additional music" here, too).  Notably the theme for Six (?) from track 22 that ended up being used to open the show every week (IIRC).  This album flowed pretty well for 67 minutes, I wasn't bored, despite there being a lot of drum-based action music.  Not much else to say!

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47 minutes ago, Jay said:

Richard Gibbs - Battlestar Galactica (miniseries)

 

Boy, I hadn't listened to this in a loooooong time.  I forgot how much of the framework for Bear's scores to the subsequent series stems from this (and he is credited with "additional music" here, too).  Notably the theme for Six (?) from track 22 that ended up being used to open the show every week (IIRC).  This album flowed pretty well for 67 minutes, I wasn't bored, despite there being a lot of drum-based action music.  Not much else to say!

 

The Storm and the Dead is still amazing.

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:music: The Peacemaker. After all these years still one of my absolutely favourite Zimmer scores. It has all the pathos of his earlier 1990s action scores and also anticipates the Gladiator era. Sweet spot.

 

Karol

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Man, I'd give up a lot of money to see a release of Alfred Newman's score for Young Mr. Lincoln, either a re-recording or if the original recordings miraculously survived and were usable.  It's one of my top 10 favorite movies and I love Newman's score.  There's not a ton of score in the movie, especially not the second half, but what's there is really special.  Especially the bittersweet love theme heard in the clip below.  John Ford liked it so much, he just used the same recording again in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 20+ years later.

 

 

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On 4/10/2022 at 10:50 AM, JoeinAR said:

2005's King Kong. I rarely listen to this beautiful score. It brings strong emotional reasonace. I think Howard might be the best composer not named John Williams

 


I have, for the most part not had JNH land on my radar.   As a child of the 70s and 80s, I felt that films and scores of the 90s had dipped in quality. JNH seemed to personify the cinematic sound of the decade.  Theme-ish, but rather trailer-like for the time. 
 

That said, I’m giving his work a second listen, and that started this week with Alive  , which I listened through twice.  It’s short of delightful, but quite good.  Pretty amazing that I remember the “Saved” melody from the trailers and end credits after almost 30 years.   It’s a pleasant listen, and I’m really glad I gave it a chance. 
 

Next up is a revisit of Waterworld.  I’m thinking I should check out Kong, and then what?

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