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

[Faleel 5,326]

But some electronic musicians were also classically trained....

4 hours ago, Andy said:

 

I...sort of actually agree with this.  I'd reach for Hearbeeps before Potter.  I guess it depends on if you want an overabundance of celeste and choir or an overabundance of 80s synth.

I'd reach for Potter 3 way before reaching for Hesrbeeps

 

Shawms and Crumhorns > Synth.

[filmmusic 1,822]

Beetlejuice from this box:

 

Well, normally, I love early Elfman, but I couldn't get into this. It's in his usual early style, but it didn't have any strong theme(s).

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

The Belafonte song is the highlight of the soundtrack...

[GerateWohl 4,322]

11 hours ago, A Farewell to Kings said:

But some electronic musicians were also classically trained....

Right. Like Ryūichi Sakamoto.

But still an electronic musician is an electronic musician. Williams is not.

[thestat 342]

On 30/05/2023 at 2:36 PM, Andy said:

 

I actually like some of Brian May's sound.  He also did the score to Frog Dreaming, which I believe you mentioned you enjoyed the film.  He also scored Henry Thomas again in the 80s flick that every kid my age loved, Cloak and Dagger.  Both are very listenable.  His Mad Max scores are okay, but there's no doubt Jarre brought something new to the table.  Arguably, he made it more Hollywood, but I think it's grand.

 

 

Could not stand May's sound back in the day - it just sounded so wrong, like a high school band performing in an overmiked cellar with no windows....I now get the retrospective appreciation of the sound as a certain kind of grungy exploitationy approach but would not want to listen to it on its own. Chattaway's music has the same impact - as I am just not able to understand why anyone would want to make their work sound like this. 

 

Jarre's work is probably a bit better and kind of epic in that Solar Crisis kind of way where he seems to be scoring a completely different film, but it's also still too Jarre (weirdly chaotic and unorganised)

[Tallguy 3,359]

 

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Maurice Jarre

 

This is a TRIP. This is the only Mad Max film I've never seen even parts of. It's like a much weirder sounding Enemy Mine. I LOVE Enemy Mine.

[Andy 4,071]

The film is much better than its reputation goes.  It’s definitely a softer, more Hollywood, more PG-13 Ewok Village Mad Max, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun too.  The expanded score really gives it some more bravado over the 1/2 side of an LP OST.  The OST is like going to a three ring circus, but only watching the center ring. 
 

@thestat mentioned it being chaotic and disorganized.  Maybe a little, but in an operatic way.  It is, after all, a score to a post-apocalyptic epic.   But I think many times a score is evaluated with strong bias towards its Main Title or End Credits suite.  Well, Thunderdome has neither, as the film begins and ends (iirc) with Tina Turners songs.  
 

@Tallguy I’m glad you gave it a chance, and I’m glad you mentioned Enemy Mine, because I haven’t visited that one in years.  I hope you get the chance to experience the expanded score. 

[thestat 342]

25 minutes ago, Andy said:

The film is much better than its reputation goes.  It’s definitely a softer, more Hollywood, more PG-13 Ewok Village Mad Max, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun too.  The expanded score really gives it some more bravado over the 1/2 side of an LP OST.  The OST is like going to a three ring circus, but only watching the center ring. 
 

@thestat mentioned it being chaotic and disorganized.  Maybe a little, but in an operatic way.  It is, after all, a score to a post-apocalyptic epic.   But I think many times a score is evaluated with strong bias towards its Main Title or End Credits suite.  Well, Thunderdome has neither, as the film begins and ends (iirc) with Tina Turners songs.  
 

@Tallguy I’m glad you gave it a chance, and I’m glad you mentioned Enemy Mine, because I haven’t visited that one in years.  I hope you get the chance to experience the expanded score. 

Andy - I agree with you. but a lot of it is to do with Jarres compositional problems

Sorry, guys, don't want to get caught up in a discussion about a score that i dont much care for.

[GerateWohl 4,322]

The Abyss - Alan Silvestri

 

Recently listening to Silvestri's "Contact" to me it sounded like Williams' "Spacecamp" might have been a template here for sound and tone. and if "Contact" is Silvestri's "Spacecamp", then The Abyss is his "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", which makes sense as this movie is in a way Cameron's Close Encounters movie.

Watching the movie the choir seemed to me a often a little bit over the top here. But for the pure score it is a nice musical mixture. Anyway the score has an interesting range of colors and dynamics. A great memorable theme is absent, but who cares? It is a good score.

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

THE ABYSS, and CONTACT, are my equal favourite Silvestri scores.

[Thor 7,454]

Yup. THE ABYSS remains one of my top 10 scores of all time, and one of the three scores that made me a film music fan to begin with. Can't get much closer than that.

[GerateWohl 4,322]

But anybody else sees the similarities with Close Encounters?

 

I mean, for the movie it is quite obvious. But the music, I think, too.

[Tallguy 3,359]

1 hour ago, GerateWohl said:

The Abyss - Alan Silvestri

 

Recently listening to Silvestri's "Contact" to me it sounded like Williams' "Spacecamp" might have been a template here for sound and tone. and if "Contact" is Silvestri's "Spacecamp", then The Abyss is his "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", which makes sense as this movie is in a way Cameron's Close Encounters movie.

Watching the movie the choir seemed to me a often a little bit over the top here. But for the pure score it is a nice musical mixture. Anyway the score has an interesting range of colors and dynamics. A great memorable theme is absent, but who cares? It is a good score.

 

 

I've never heard a whiff of Close Encounters in The Abyss. Brainstorm, OTOH, is all over it.

 

I don't even see the similarities in the film. Unless you call "glowing light" a similarity. Maybe "Hollywood Aliens"? There's a bit of 2001 in there.

 

I'm with @Thor and @Naïve Old Fart - It's one of my faves. And I forget how much I love the movie sometimes. Theatrical cut, please. The Extended Cut has a lot of great character bits throughout the main film but the tidal wave ending ("NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE BAD!") was a preview of T2.

[Tom Guernsey 2,277]

15 minutes ago, Tallguy said:

 

I've never heard a whiff of Close Encounters in The Abyss. Brainstorm, OTOH, is all over it.

 

I don't even see the similarities in the film. Unless you call "glowing light" a similarity. Maybe "Hollywood Aliens"? There's a bit of 2001 in there.

 

I'm with @Thor and @Naïve Old Fart - It's one of my faves. And I forget how much I love the movie sometimes. Theatrical cut, please. The Extended Cut has a lot of great character bits throughout the main film but the tidal wave ending ("NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE BAD!") was a preview of T2.

Having listened to Brainstorm for the first time in ages, I can concur that it's much more the template for choral writing in The Abyss, to a quite surprising degree in fact. Having said that, as a score it's structurally closer to CE3K - dissonant/mysterious writing with some militaristic passages that ultimately turn into am upbeat, super romantic/tonal finale. I have to admit that, outside of the last few tracks, I find quite a bit of The Abyss not all that interesting (Silvestri's dissonant writing isn't as interesting or well structured as JW's) and the full score  a bit of a slog. It's definitely one of those scores that, for me, has such an impressive finale, that you kinda forget the slightly interminable snare drum tracks in the middle.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

I've never heard much of BRAINSTORM, in THE ABYSS, but that's just me.

CE3K is different kettle of fish, altogether.

Whatever the similarities, and no matter how hard it tries, THE ABYSS cannot even hope to contemplate even thinking about holding a candle to JW's meisterwork.

Don't even try.

[Tallguy 3,359]

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Having listened to Brainstorm for the first time in ages, I can concur that it's much more the template for choral writing in The Abyss, to a quite surprising degree in fact. Having said that, as a score it's structurally closer to CE3K - dissonant/mysterious writing with some militaristic passages that ultimately turn into am upbeat, super romantic/tonal finale. I have to admit that, outside of the last few tracks, I find quite a bit of The Abyss not all that interesting (Silvestri's dissonant writing isn't as interesting or well structured as JW's) and the full score  a bit of a slog. It's definitely one of those scores that, for me, has such an impressive finale, that you kinda forget the slightly interminable snare drum tracks in the middle.

 

Snare drums: I don't think there are as many or as long as you think. There is a LOT of Back to the Future-ish Silvestri action music. One of the real surprises for me was the ten minute long Search the Montana. It's not the action music of the first two thirds or the ethereal music of the last act. It should be interminable but I think it's wonderful.

 

Structurally closer: That's a pretty vague template.

 

27 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I've never heard much of BRAINSTORM, in THE ABYSS, but that's just me.

 

I hadn't heard Brainstorm (outside of the film, and I didn't remember it) when I saw the Abyss. I saw The Abyss on VHS with a friend who was a big fan of Brainstorm and she almost stood up and shouted "That's Brainstorm!" It's pretty much just the choral parts. The rest of Brainstorm is Horner doing Horner and the rest of The Abyss is Silvestri doing Silvestri.

 

I'm sure Cameron wanted Horner for this except for the fact that they hated each other at this time.

 

30 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

CE3K is different kettle of fish, altogether.

Whatever the similarities, and no matter how hard it tries, THE ABYSS cannot even hope to contemplate even thinking about holding a candle to JW's meisterwork.

Don't even try.

 

And then there is this. I love The Abyss. But it's not in the same league. But then not much is.

[Thor 7,454]

If anyone's interested, I wrote an article about the score for its 30th anniversary in 2019. It's in Norwegian, but I've run it through Google Translate here. I go into some of the score's details, and why it means so much to me.

[Tallguy 3,359]

11 minutes ago, Thor said:

If anyone's interested, I wrote an article about the score for its 30th anniversary in 2019. It's in Norwegian, but I've run it through Google Translate here. I go into some of the score's details, and why it means so much to me.

 

Outstanding. I wonder if people ten years older than me are as astonished at Star Wars being my first film score (well, the first one that was MINE) as I am at one of your firsts being The Abyss?

 

I'll have to do a comparison between the expanded and the OST. I'm pretty sure the only essential track that I'd miss in the OST is Search the Montana.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

"...rumbled into my formative years, like an earthquake".

Thank you, @Thor. Coffee snorted; silk shirt ruined; dry cleaning bill on the way 

[Tom Guernsey 2,277]

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

 

Snare drums: I don't think there are as many or as long as you think. There is a LOT of Back to the Future-ish Silvestri action music. One of the real surprises for me was the ten minute long Search the Montana. It's not the action music of the first two thirds or the ethereal music of the last act. It should be interminable but I think it's wonderful.

I'll give it another listen. I mean, it's a score I really like but I still feel I remember the spectacular choral finale moments more than the rest so have an unbalanced view of it.

 

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

Structurally closer: That's a pretty vague template.

Maybe?! Although I did attempt to explain myself in broad terms (the whole dissonant to tonal transformation) but probably not very well. Then again, I can't actually think of another score that has that kind of musical arc (maybe The Final Conflict?) offhand, but perhaps it's my memory failing me...

 

2 hours ago, Tallguy said:

And then there is this. I love The Abyss. But it's not in the same league. But then not much is.

...but totally agreed on this.

[Thor 7,454]

 

Album is about half an hour too long, but I really dig this -- far superior to the actual score for DARK PHOENIX.

[crocodile 7,978]

It often happens with Zimmer works. The suites/demos for Man of Steel, Wonder Woman 1984 and Dune also made superior albums to the actual score releases. I've only  heard bits and bobs of this one but it was indeed quite interesting.

 

Karol

[GerateWohl 4,322]

4 hours ago, Thor said:

If anyone's interested, I wrote an article about the score for its 30th anniversary in 2019. It's in Norwegian, but I've run it through Google Translate here. I go into some of the score's details, and why it means so much to me.

Read it and thought, yes, Thor is into this religioso choral stuff. For me in the movie it fehlt a little bit over the top. From the beginning of the movie before the encounter I very much liked that down-to-earth tone of the movie. Therefore the choir sometimes felt like something over the top to me. Especially as the choir is always beautiful, never atonal or threatening. So, there is not even that development in the voices like in CE3K. There is this dissonance in Abyss as well but only without choir. But just my personal taste here. And as I wrote, on album I like the choir.

[Thor 7,454]

 

I love this! Yes, again it's about half an hour too long, but the bizarro meeting point between Zimmer's SHERLOCK HOLMES, some cool synth riffs and yodeling is delightful. Dug the film too, even if it wasn't on the visionary level of Snyder's ARMY OF THE DEAD.

 

And on to....

 

 

The film was really, really bad (what happened, Florian, I LOVED your previous film THE FATHER?), but the score is very nice indeed. Zimmer trying to do a Richter-type score, and IMO succeeding pretty well. One of my runner-ups last year.

[Thor 7,454]

 

Also another highlight and runner-up from last year. I just love Zimmer in this more downkey mode. I've programmed out "Welcome to Jaworzno" and now it works like gangbusters. Not seen the film, though.

[LSH 968]

 

Always been a fan of this. If you like your African flavoured scores - this one admittedly being more ambient in its scope - it's worth a listen.

 

It's mostly gentle rhythms and soundscapes, with solo instruments and voices being the driving force. There is some orchestra - though it sounds sampled, it's not to its detriment.

 

Highlights for me:

 

Gorgeous stuff.

[Bespin 8,472]

Relaxing... ahhhh...

 

[LSH 968]

 

Nice stuff. Wish this guy was more active.

 

[Bespin 8,472]

23 minutes ago, LSH said:

 

Best cd cover ever. 

[Thor 7,454]

11 hours ago, LSH said:

Nice stuff. Wish this guy was more active.

 

WHITE SQUALL, in particular, is a bloody masterpiece! SHARKWATER is OK too. Rona has always fascinated me -- he can do these wonderful world music textures (another fairly recent discovery of mine in that vein is EARTHSEA), but then he can also do fullbodied, traditional orchestral work like the impressive REGATTA SUITE.

[Thor 7,454]

 

Faux-classical meets Mancini's trademark lounge-isms. What's not to like?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,490]

39 minutes ago, Thor said:

What's not to like?

 

Absolutely nothing! 

[Bespin 8,472]

Silver Linings Playbook

🎭💔🌈🏈🎶🤗

#DannyElfman

 

[filmmusic 1,822]

5 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Silver Linings Playbook

🎭💔🌈🏈🎶🤗

#DannyElfman

 

 

Although I'm not into this kind of style, I like that score!

I would love to see the sheet music, to understand how such scores are written.

[LSH 968]

5 hours ago, Thor said:

 

WHITE SQUALL, in particular, is a bloody masterpiece! SHARKWATER is OK too. Rona has always fascinated me -- he can do these wonderful world music textures (another fairly recent discovery of mine in that vein is EARTHSEA), but then he can also do fullbodied, traditional orchestral work like the impressive REGATTA SUITE.

 

White Squall is great. Not heard Earthsea though I do know about it.

[crocodile 7,978]

 The Monkey King 2. I absolutely adore this album. The first one is really good too but, as an album, I very much prefer this one. It's probably more introspective but I rather enjoy the journey it takes me on. It feels like every segment of the album transports me into another fantastic realm. Young has done a marvelous job and I lament he doesn't do a lot of big films these days. Hope they manage to release Nosferatu as planned to tide me over.

 

karol

[filmmusic 1,822]

 

A good score from Korzeniowski that I love, but again I'm wondering, where does this minimalistic romanticism leads to... Nowhere I think.

After a while, it becomes repetitive in the style of a composer.

[GerateWohl 4,322]

8 hours ago, filmmusic said:

 

A good score from Korzeniowski that I love, but again I'm wondering, where does this minimalistic romanticism leads to... Nowhere I think.

After a while, it becomes repetitive in the style of a composer.

Yes, I never really warmed up with this one, neither the movie nor the score. I also never understood the hysteria for Korzeniowski's Romeo and Juliet or Kopernikus Star.

 

Just listening to A Single Man, which is really a wonderful score. Probably his best, at least my favourite. Second is Penny Dreadful.

[filmmusic 1,822]

22 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Just listening to A Single Man, which is really a wonderful score. Probably his best, at least my favourite. Second is Penny Dreadful.

Haven't listened to Penny Dreadful.

Have you listened to W.E.?

This is my 2nd favorite Korzeniowski, after A Single Man.

[GerateWohl 4,322]

Just now, filmmusic said:

Have you listened to W.E.?

Yes, I have the CD. And yes, it's nice. But I like Penny Dreadful better. Of Penny Dreadful I must admit I just own the double album of season 2 and 3. But that's really great. Especially season 2. 

[filmmusic 1,822]

 

I don't know anything about this series.

In the known style of Korzeniowski, with some additional "horror" cues. Good, but still my second favorite is W.E.

[Thor 7,454]

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS and PENNY DREADFUL didn't do much for me, I'm afraid (they're ok), but I definitely agree on W.E. Other favs of mine include METROPOLIS, A SINGLE MAN, COPERNICUS STAR, ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW and ROMEO & JULIET. Also some great bits on the 2CD "Early Works" set, although quite stark and harsh (and more like contemporary classical music, much of it). 

[GerateWohl 4,322]

42 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

 

I don't know anything about this series.

In the known style of Korzeniowski, with some additional "horror" cues. Good, but still my second favorite is W.E.

But you tried! The series is dreadful.

 

26 minutes ago, Thor said:

ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW

Escape from Tomorrow is great! Unfortunately not available on CD.

[Thor 7,454]

2 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Escape from Tomorrow is great! Unfortunately not available on CD.

 

I'm fairly confident I got the CD in a 'gift bag' during my visit to Peter Hackman's "Fans of Film Music" event in 2012. But perhaps it is a promo of some kind.

 

[Edit -- strike that! It was COPERNICUS STAR I got in the bag]

[Edmilson 7,371]

Rio by John Powell

 

This has always been a special score for me: one of my favorite composers tackling the music of my country (or at least the most internationally-famed part of it)! Even if Powell wasn't Blue Sky's (RIP) usual composer back then he still would've been ideal for this movie, because I always felt his action music had some samba-like percussion.

 

Anyway, this is a very fun score with a great heartfelt main theme, that I'd argue is a very underrated one on his catalogue.

[Jay 37,267]

I'm going to try participating in this thread more again

 

I just finished listening to:

 

Michael Giacchino - Spider-man: No Way Home (OST album)

 

Listened to this on a whim; hadn't heard it in a quite a while, and randomly had some bits  from the first 2 scores get in my head recently.  I decided to listen to this one though, since I'd listened to it much less than either of the other scores again.  I found myself being more disappointed than I was expecting to be.  I think this SCORE is good, but this ALBUM is terribly put together.  So many highlight cues are omitted, and so many less-good cues are here instead.  Another issue with this score is that the new themes are not spectacular.  The Elfman/Horner themes, Strange theme, and other existing Giacchino themes (Marvel logo, Spidey, and MJ) are all more fun to listen to here.

 

A complete release would still be a big improvement, but even with it I'm pretty sure I'd still think this would easily be the least good of his 3 Spidey scores.  Still looking forward to him returning for the college trilogy, though!

[Edmilson 7,371]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

A complete release would still be a big improvement, but even with it I'm pretty sure I'd still think this would easily be the least good of his 3 Spidey scores.

I agree. NWH is okay but below the other Giacchino Spidey scores, which for me are among his best scores since 2016.

[crocodile 7,978]

It's definitely weaker than the other two, even if I'm not exactly a huge fan of any of them. The second one is my favourite (but the weakest movie).

 

Karol

[Jay 37,267]

I also felt like his Jurassic World trilogy ended weakly; I like the first 2 score more than the third there too.

 

I suspect as his interests veer more towards directing than composing, he's spending less free time with his mind working out more themes to use and such

[Bespin 8,472]

Bernard Herrmann - Citizen Kane 🎥🔍🌹👑🔥