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

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

The vocals of this score is a major annoyance to me too.

[Edmilson 7,474]

They're ethnically appropriate (I think, I'm no expert on the music from the originary people that habited South and North America) and adequate to the movie, but not my favorite part from that score either. Which is why I find easier to appreciate Horner's Avatar in a technical level rather than an emotional one (despite some great moments).

[Brónach 1,302]

i'm not sure the vocals and the music in general is based on anything at all other than late horner in autopilot. at most i remember some people making the argument that the opening vocals are based on something from sweden

[Thor 7,529]

I couldn't possibly disagree more.

 

Back in the 90s, I dug all kinds of New Age variations, including Vangelis albums like OCEANIC or VOICES, or whatever bands like Enigma, Era and Deep Forest did. Or Lisa Gerrard, both pre-  and post-GLADIATOR. In many cases with pronounced female vocalizations. I'm just in love with that sound. True, there was a period in the 2000s when I moved away from it, but after AVATAR, it got reignited. All the New Age elements of that score (and its sequel, for that matter) are -- by FAR! - the best parts of the score. The action music I mostly find dull or aggravating.

 

A couple of months after his death, I was at a private party with some film colleagues, and we played the scene where Jake first wakes up as a Na'vi avatar and runs around. It has some of the same elements as "Jake's First Flight". Well, I was completely floored and reduced to tears. It was not only because Horner had recently passed, but also the music in and of itself.

 

So yeah -- the vocal elements in AVATAR are absolutely stunning, and one of the best parts of the whole score (alongside the other, purely instrumental New Age elements Horner infused it with). Top 3 Horner.

[GerateWohl 4,381]

47 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

They're ethnically appropriate

At last a Nav'i expert. I am not that familiar with the folklore of extraterrestrial cultures especially the Nav'i, so I cannot estimate how appropriate this is. My understanding was, that the Nav'i don't actually exist and that the folklore is all made up by James Horner. And if my assumption is true, then it is still annoying.

[Thor 7,529]

It's a beautiful amalgam of various, real ethnic elements to mirror this fictional species. 

[GerateWohl 4,381]

22 minutes ago, Thor said:

I couldn't possibly disagree more.

 

Back in the 90s, I dug all kinds of New Age variations, including Vangelis albums like OCEANIC or VOICES, or whatever bands like Enigma, Era and Deep Forest did. Or Lisa Gerrard, both pre-  and post-GLADIATOR. In many cases with pronounced female vocalizations. I'm just in love with that sound. True, there was a period in the 2000s when I moved away from it, but after AVATAR, it got reignited. All the New Age elements of that score (and its sequel, for that matter) are -- by FAR! - the best parts of the score. The action music I mostly find dull or aggravating.

 

A couple of months after his death, I was at a private party with some film colleagues, and we played the scene where Jake first wakes up as a Na'vi avatar and runs around. It has some of the same elements as "Jake's First Flight". Well, I was completely floored and reduced to tears. It was not only because Horner had recently passed, but also the music in and of itself.

 

So yeah -- the vocal elements in AVATAR are absolutely stunning, and one of the best parts of the whole score (alongside the other, purely instrumental New Age elements Horner infused it with). Top 3 Horner.

Yes, it is kind of "Dry You Tears Pandora". Doesn't grab me at all.

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

10 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

At last a Nav'i expert. I am not that familiar with the folklore of extraterrestrial cultures especially the Nav'i, so I cannot estimate how appropriate this is. My understanding was, that the Nav'i don't actually exist and that the folklore is all made up by James Horner. And if my assumption is true, then it is still annoying.

 

THEY DON'T EXIST???

[Edmilson 7,474]

As far as I know, James Cameron traveled all the way to another planet to film his movie. This is why it took him over a decade to release the first one and another decade to release the sequel 

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

Planet Hollywood?

[Thor 7,529]

59 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Yes, it is kind of "Dry You Tears Pandora". Doesn't grab me at all.

 

"Dry Your Tears, Afrika" is the best track in AMISTAD. Glad to see we're keeping our disagreements going on everything.  (to be fair, there are so many people on JWFAN where I feel like I disagree on basically everything they say or feel, so you're not alone).

[Brónach 1,302]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

It's a beautiful amalgam of various, real ethnic elements to mirror this fictional species. 

 

my favourite ethnic instrument in it is the horn but i also like the flutes

[Bespin 8,484]

Winter morning Sunday's selection.

 

* It remembers me I still have an 'evaluation copy', because I missed the expanded release.

 

 

[A24 4,347]

[Schilkeman 964]

13 hours ago, A24 said:

A fantastic score to an underrated movie.

[GerateWohl 4,381]

Listened yesterday again to David Arnold's Casino Royale. 

What a blast of an action score.

And beautiful romantic themes for the love story.

I just wished, the album would start off with the song. Apart from that, perfect!

[Thor 7,529]

 

Navigating the vast output of Lai isn't easy (131 film scores and loads of other projects), but I met the man and should have a bigger collection than what I currently have (about 20 titles). So just started a process to build my collection a little bit. Here's a nice one that made the cut (but program out the annoying "Ballad" song).

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

Is that Catherine Deneuve?

Hubba, Hubba! 

[Bespin 8,484]

Program of today:

 

 

[A24 4,347]

10 hours ago, Schilkeman said:

A fantastic score to an underrated movie.

 

My short story is that the first time I watch The Terminal  I thought it was overly sweet and mushy. A few years later I felt really sick (the flu) and literally everything on TV made me feel even sicker (do you know that feeling?) except for, well, The Terminal. I was lying in the couch with fever, completely defenseless, and somehow that film comforted me greatly. 

[Thor 7,529]

 

You'd think Talgorn was older than 62, he's always excelled at nurturing that big and lush orchestral style of yesteryear, no matter what he does. That's why so many film music fans go apeshit over him. I can understand that; it's very attractive -- even for someone like me who's mostly "departed" from that sound. This is among the lesser known of his work, but one of my favs. Not so much action.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

6 hours ago, Bespin said:

 

 

This picture makes me think a lot of thoughts... and none of them are clean 

[Thor 7,529]

 

The type of melancholic jazz lounge that can (almost) only come from French composers, I love this new Lai discovery.

[Tom Guernsey 2,287]

Feeling festive…

 

 

[Tallguy 3,402]

My daughter has noticed a proliferation of "Damiens" in her media (Damien Wayne first and foremost but there are others). Is The Omen the first prominent Damien?

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

Wikipedia contains a long list of famous men named Damien, the vast majority of whom are born after THE OMEN.

 

 

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Feeling festive…

 

"Festive", Tom? Not sure about that, since Christ is (re)born in March. For festive, listen to "Snowmobiles".

Still, kudos on your listening choice.

It's my favourite Jerry score, by a country mile.

[Bespin 8,484]

Today's selection

 

 

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

Excellent choice, Bes.

[Edmilson 7,474]

1 hour ago, Tallguy said:

My daughter has noticed a proliferation of "Damiens" in her media (Damien Wayne first and foremost but there are others). Is The Omen the first prominent Damien?

I'm pretty sure Grant Morrison named Damian Wayne as a homage to The Omen. His grandfather Ra's Al-Ghul is known as "Head of the Demon" in the DC Universe.

[Bespin 8,484]

2 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Excellent choice, Bes.

 

Ryan, Rusty and Rudy!

[Thor 7,529]

Damien Hirst was a kid when THE OMEN came out, so before his fame, but he's one of the most famous non-OMEN Damiens I know.

[Bespin 8,484]

I finally received my first Christmas card! From very good friends!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

"Damien! Damien! Look at me, Damien. It's all for you!".

[Tallguy 3,402]

Not really a surprise but...

 

 

 

Sneakers and Battle Beyond the Stars. (Thank you Spotify.) I wrote about Sneakers on the Sneakers thread. It's always been a favorite and now it's more so. A much wanted expansion. Probably a Horner top five.

 

I don't know why I never got into Battle Beyond the Stars. I mean, it's Horner 101. Was the old disc THAT bad? (I've got the Battle / Humanoids disc. Whoever did that one.) I've played it a few times but it never grabbed me. Suddenly I'm a little obsessed!

 

Of the three "Horner Space Opera" scores - this, Wrath of Khan, Krull (four if you count Search for Spock) this one has the most "contemporary" influences. Bits of Goldsmith's Klingon Battle, Princess Leia's Theme, TIE Fighter Attack sprinkled in there. It's wild to listen to The Love Theme as a nearly primordial Horner love theme and hear it kind of morph into a far more Williams sound at around the one minute mark. And there are a few text book Hornerisms that stand much closer to other inspirations ("theft" if you must) than later iterations do. I would never draw a line between any other Horner score and Star Wars. (Ok, there's a brief moment in The Rocketeer.) But there's a moment in First Flight at around two minutes that sounds like basic "Horner sailing ships in space" that's used a lot in his Star Trek scores that here is obviously taken from the "Don't get cocky!" moment in Star Wars. Mind. Blown. (I'm sure this movie was temped within an inch of it's life with Williams.)

 

BUT: It's SO JOYOUS. It out Wrath of Khans Wrath of Khan. It lilts. It dances. It flies! Shad's Entrance is the kind of Horner moment that I want to go on forever. Those HORNS. Back when that was Horner's calling card. If he'd only written that one he would be one of my favorite composers. (Imagine the world where James Horner is Craig Safran!) The structure of the main title would be repeated to even greater effect in Wrath of Khan (because of the added recognition of Courage's theme) but it's still amazing here. It's the anti-Williams: Start quiet, mysterious, and haunting and THEN make an entrance. It's Star Wars meets Patton. He'd spend the next ten years refining these ideas into some of my all-time favorite scores.

 

Again, I don't know why this is hitting me so differently than when I bought the first CD twenty plus years ago. But it is. And it's great!

 

p.s. My daughter complained on the way to school this morning "Do we have to listen to Sneakers EVERY day?"

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

"Ah-a... yeah... yeah... ok... yeah... that might work... yeah... I'll give it a shot".

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

Not bad. Not bad at all!

 

Is this the same orchestra as the Swiss City Lights Orchestra?

 

 

[GerateWohl 4,381]

Everyone should check out Chris Malone's brillant video on BBTS: 

 

 

[Badzeee 110]

The last soundtrack I listened to was JW’s and John Powell’s Solo (Deluxe edition). I liked this score when it first came out, and I like it even more now. The Train Heist is great, real rollicking stuff and the way Powell integrates Han’s new theme throughout is fun. Probably the only bit that doesn’t work for me is all the callbacks to JW’s classic SW scores during the Kessel Run sequence, which sort of worked in a movie theater but all seem a bit too attention-seeking now.  I do love Enfys Nest’s motif though, and the romantic theme. (Shame we’ll probably never hear it again in a cinema…) 

[Bespin 8,484]

I'm revisiting the past this week.

 

 

[Holko 9,532]

Went on a little journey of stuff I mostly haven't listened to that much lately in preparation for Hook:

How to Steal a Million

Jane Eyre (would've skipped it if I knew about the announcement already )

The Cowboys

Images

Jaws

Black Sunday

CE3K

1941

Heartbeeps

Monsignor

The River

SpaceCamp

Always

Presumed Innocent

And tonight it'll be Home Alone!

[Jay 37,375]

JFK is interesting to listen to on your way to Hook, because it was written and recorded in the middle of his work on Hook

[Holko 9,532]

Okay, give me the expansion then!

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

It has to mature for seven years first.

[Edmilson 7,474]

1 minute ago, Jurassic Shark said:

It has to mature for seventeen years first.

Fixed.

[Holko 9,532]

5 hours ago, Jay said:

JFK is interesting to listen to on your way to Hook, because it was written and recorded in the middle of his work on Hook

And so I did. First time I've listened to the OST all the way through - I've heard enough before (the suite and some pieces - also tried watching the movie but shut it off after 10-20 minutes) to know that I'd be very interested in an expansion so I decided to just wait for that, whenever it comes. And this definitely confirmed it!

 

It's interesting indeed because it's not exactly the most perfect pre-Hook leadup listen, it's such a proto-JP and later JW in many places that maybe in a full JW career chrono it'd be better to place it after Hook!

[Jay 37,375]

He started it after he started Hook, and finished it after he finished Hook, and the movie opened after Hook, so that makes sense!

 

But most of it was recorded before Hook's score was recorded.  Amazing how little overlap there is in style, tone, everything!

[Edmilson 7,474]

JW's 1991 was very busy.

[JNHFan2000 2,969]

I honestly never heard of this score or composer until yesterday. Jon Broxton wrote a review about this, so I checked it out.

 

This is a wonderful score. I love scote like these, which blends the east and the west.

The first and last cues are truly outstanding. Wonderful surprise!

 

 

[Thor 7,529]

Kitaro is a living legend in electronic music, but does other things too, including orchestral stuff. But yes, HEAVEN & EARTH remains his best work, IMO. I think I posted it a few times in this thread over the years.

[Thor 7,529]

 

Richard Hartley is so underrated. He can basically do no wrong, no matter what you sample. Always with superb orchestrations and old-school flair. This one is a tad too long at 71 minutes, and has too many tracks (40), but I can make a playlist, I think.