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


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1 minute ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Try the OST.

 

JNH's Waterworld is one of the best scores of the 90s.

 

Please tell me why it's not.

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I don’t know, it just felt unstructured.  I zoned out more than I hoped I would.  I really wanted to like it as much as my first listen of the OST. And I really enjoyed the movie.  Wish I felt the same as its fans here but we hear things differently. 

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21 minutes ago, Thor said:


It’s also, in my not so humble opinion, one of the 10 best scores of all time.

 

We know. We all know Thor. And I'm not even being facetious.

 

It's a sublime piece of work.

 

28 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I didn't say it's not. 

 

"That makes you.... my new best friend."

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45 minutes ago, Clockwork Angel said:

Life's too short to listen to JNH.

 

Not gonna lie, I've been questioning my own logic, especially given my age.  

 

But that's sort of part of the impetus.... you age, you grow presumably wiser, you experiment with more music that you may have overlooked in your youth in the hope of finding a gem.

 

I've found some JNH I really like.  Alive is a score that stuck with me.  But truly, is my time better spent with 5 star composers?  I just spent a couple weeks sampling more John Barry, and finding my appreciation for him growing.  After exposing my ears to so much Barry, it may be that JNH is being unfairly measured.

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4 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

He's a very good composer, to be sure, but "icon"? Don't think so.

There's only one icon of film music left alive... unfortunately... :(

 

You need to update your icon list! Sure, we're fortunate to have some ancient icons still around (Williams, Schifrin, Q. Jones et.al.), but it's time to embrace a few names in the next generation as icons now. JNH is certainly one of them.

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On 02/02/2023 at 6:11 PM, Naïve Old Fart said:

How do they compare to James Bernard?

re Dracula. I have to admit that I'm not especially familiar with Bernard's work, Hammer Horror isn't really my thing, but the Nyman is easily the furthest away in style and tone, the Arnold is more contemporary horror with only a bit of the romance that both JW and Kilar brought to their respective scores.

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David Arnold - Tomorrow Never Dies (LLL)

I listened to my physical copy.  It's glorious.  One of my favorite scores ever, and a perfect presentation of all of it.  I love it!

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8 hours ago, Thor said:

 

You need to update your icon list! Sure, we're fortunate to have some ancient icons still around (Williams, Schifrin, Q. Jones et.al.), but it's time to embrace a few names in the next generation as icons now. JNH is certainly one of them.

 

James Newton Howard is in that awkward place between 'well known' and 'icon'. The average person will not have heard of him (I think only WIlliams and Zimmer are in that category) but will be truly well versed in the movies that he has scored. 

 

If you're talking solely about film music fans then, yes, I suppose he is.

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3 hours ago, LSH said:

 

James Newton Howard is in that awkward place between 'well known' and 'icon'. The average person will not have heard of him (I think only WIlliams and Zimmer are in that category) but will be truly well versed in the movies that he has scored. 

 

If you're talking solely about film music fans then, yes, I suppose he is.

 

I'm obviously talking about film music fans. Outside that realm, I believe he's really only known in Toto and Elton John super fan circles.

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1 minute ago, Thor said:

 

I'm obviously talking about film music fans. Outside that realm, I believe he's really only known in Toto and Elton John super fan circles.

 

Yeah I remember being surprised when my dad mentioned him a few years ago. But he is an Elton super-fan.

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22 hours ago, Andy said:

 Alive is a score that stuck with me

Just listened to the complete film score (Intrada Disc 1).

Couldn't grab onto something...

By the way, I haven't seen the film and I really would like to (but there's no blu-ray release of it). I have only seen the plane crash scene and that one was horrifying!

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I only saw it once, and it was pretty emotionally horrifying.  For a big name film that generated a LOT of buzz for its time, it's strange that home video hasn't been kind to it.

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I've decided to start listening to Oscar nominated scores that I don't know from films I haven't seen.

 

Michael Clayton (James Newton Howard)

I don't understand this nomination. Weren't better scores that year? This is so static, and musically speaking nothing is happening...

I guess the score nomination was dragged by the other nominations the film had.

 

Defiance (James Newton Howard)

Here the things are a bit better, with the violin solos adding weight to the overall result, but still, I couldn't grab onto something...

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His oscar nomintaed scores I think are not among the best efforts he has done, with the exception of The Village which is exceptional. His best works have been mostly unrecognized in the awards circuit, but if you liked parts of Defiance I definitely recommend checking out The Village and A Hidden Life, which are two of his most beautiful scores, and a big highlight in his career.

 

If you're looking for something more bombastic and fantasy oriented but still beautiful and emotional, I would say Lady in the Water, Maleficent or even the first Fantastic Beasts score are safe bets. This is just to name a few, but I think he has some really great work, even though he has also done some more average scores. His scores for Disney animated movies are also great!

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19 hours ago, filmmusic said:

Just listened to the complete film score (Intrada Disc 1).

Couldn't grab onto something...

By the way, I haven't seen the film and I really would like to (but there's no blu-ray release of it). I have only seen the plane crash scene and that one was horrifying!

I would persevere with it, although maybe try the original soundtrack album which contains all the highlights to be honest.

 

The film is well worth checking out at some point. On the side note or the crash but yeah it’s one of the most visceral and realistically horrifying plane crashes I’ve seen on film (especially compared to something like the finale of Air Force One which I know isn’t meant to be horrifying in the same way but shows how unrealistic it could have looked!). It was even more scary for me as the type of aircraft, the Fokker F27, was one of the mainstays of airlines flying to Guernsey during my childhood so I’d been on a similar aircraft many times which made the impact even more vivid. 

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8 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I've decided to start listening to Oscar nominated scores that I don't know from films I haven't seen.

 

Michael Clayton (James Newton Howard)

I don't understand this nomination. Weren't better scores that year? This is so static, and musically speaking nothing is happening...

I guess the score nomination was dragged by the other nominations the film had.

 

Defiance (James Newton Howard)

Here the things are a bit better, with the violin solos adding weight to the overall result, but still, I couldn't grab onto something...

Both are two of my least liked JNH scores ever. Actually, I like parts of Defiance, even though it doesn't reach the same heights as The Village. But Michael Clayton was pretty bad. The kind of score the Academy loves because it's so unintrusive, quiet and electronic.

 

2007 had much more deserving scores that should've been nominated (Pirates 3, The Golden Compass, etc), even though I like the one that actually won that year (Atonement).

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5 hours ago, filmmusic said:

Unstrung Heroes (Thoman Newman)

Another Oscar nominated score for a film I have never seen.

In the usual Newman style, which sadly is not for me.

 

Nowhere near his best but I do like some of it.

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13 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Here's proof that JNH can still write music that stands on its own for more than just a few brief minutes if you let him and/or he's in the mood:

 

Definitely the best thing he's done in recent years.

 

Karol

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And another Oscar nominated Thomas Newman score

Road to Perdition
This started somewhat good, and I thought to myself, alright, we're gonna have themes in this, but I spoke too soon.

I guess it is his style that way, not to have any easily recognizable clean-cut themes with a beginning, a middle and an end.

 

 

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Other Oscar nominated scores:

Havana (Dave Grusin)*

I liked that. More so, the cues that didn't sound like source cues.

A nice score with soloists in trumpet, flute, guitar and piano.

 

Chaplin (LLL) (John Barry)

Great themes in the usual Barry style, with a main melancholic theme that is reprised a lot of times.

But that Smile cover.... Why??? (I guess because it was included in the ost)

 

*By the way, I was just searching for Milagro, which is an Oscar winner, and I see only a small suite has been released! How can that be? 

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Madame Bovary (Miklós Rózsa) - Sadly the compromised sound, including bleed through sound effects, makes this quite challenging to enjoy despite being clearly a fine Rózsa score. I'll probably stick to the Bernstein conducted version with the RPO which features the best parts of the score in glorious sound and performance.

 

Spaceballs (John Morris) - Morris typically plays it fairly straight laced, not really parodying JW particularly closely, but more just the overall tone of a 80s fantasy/sci-fi orchestral scores which mostly sounds legit rather than from a comedy. I didn't expect that the above Rózsa would have much in common with a Mel Brooks score but the love theme sounds like a long lost Rózsa love theme much more than it sounds like Leia's theme or Han & Leia's theme, far more old fashioned, but quite lovely.

 

I noted that Steven Spiel... I mean Sam Fabelman had a few choice soundtrack LPs in his bedroom. I spotted Spartacus, El Cid and Ben-Hur. He clearly had How the West Was Won and Captain From Castile too as they are used as tracked music for his early movies. This inspired me to give the Captain from Castile re-recording that Newman himself conducted in the 70s, slightly oddly sequenced as a continuous 42 minute suite. Having said that, it sounds great and is arranged in such a way that it plays very effectively as a long tone poem. Some absolutely brilliant stuff outside of the well known Conquest cue (although it's a definite highlight). Given the age of the original tracks (late 1940s so presumably mono, if they exist), a full length re-recording would be most welcome, even though I don't think Newman really sells that well unfortunately.

 

 

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3 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

3 cues from Red Sparrow are also incredible.

"Overture", "Didn't I Do Well" & "End Titles".

Especially Didn't I Do Well is fantastic!!! It builds and builds and then it explodes!

What about the rest of the score? Should I listen to it?

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53 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

What about the rest of the score? Should I listen to it?

 

Just listen to those 3 tracks to start.

 

If you like them, on a later different occasion, try the whole OST album.

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