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

[Brónach 1,302]

P.S.: For some reason, I believe it is a score that Chaac would really like, so if he hasn't already listened to it, I would encourage him to do so.

I just read this, I'll take a look!

[Faleel 5,346]

Thunderball - John Barry

I like it better the second time around.

[publicist 4,643]

JACK THE GIANT SLAYER - John Ottman

Colorful fantasy-scoring somewhere between the frenetic modernisms of KRULL and the faux good 'ole days-style of JOHN CARTER. For a modern adventure romp, it is surprisingly ambitious in orchestration and thematic work. Especially in the more presto passages it doesn't sound as hollow as Giacchino's meager nods to later Williams, but all the aleatoric crashing and dissonant banging isn't easy on the ears, either. So you are left mainly with half an hour of traditional romantic adventure scoring with an agreeable main theme (ca. NARNIA 3-David Arnold) and an unusual amount of detail work for which alone i will heartily recommend it to genre fans.

[Score_Fan 36]

Breaking Bad. Still one of the best TV composers/scores out there, I hope for a Volume 2 from Dave Porter.

I love the show so much, and the music seems effective when I hear it on the show, but it's just too ambient for me to get into. It doesn't do anything for me.

Fair enough, but there's some truly good music on the album (my top three being Matches in the Pool, Hank in Pursuit, and Grey Matter.

[crocodile 8,000]

Rosewood by John Williams

My sealed copy arrived this morning. Such a fine crafted score from Williams, and so different from pretty much everything else he's done in his career. Probably not something you'd listen to frequently, but more something I respect and appreciate every now and then.

Karol

[Incanus 5,714]

Rosewood by John Williams

My sealed copy arrived this morning. Such a fine crafted score from Williams, and so different from pretty much everything else he's done in his career. Probably not something you'd listen to frequently, but more something I respect and appreciate every now and then.

Karol

A terrific score and has really grown on me over time.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,513]

"Look Down, Lord" is exceptional!

[crocodile 8,000]

JACK THE GIANT SLAYER - John Ottman

Colorful fantasy-scoring somewhere between the frenetic modernisms of KRULL and the faux good 'ole days-style of JOHN CARTER. For a modern adventure romp, it is surprisingly ambitious in orchestration and thematic work. Especially in the more presto passages it doesn't sound as hollow as Giacchino's meager nods to later Williams, but all the aleatoric crashing and dissonant banging isn't easy on the ears, either. So you are left mainly with half an hour of traditional romantic adventure scoring with an agreeable main theme (ca. NARNIA 3-David Arnold) and an unusual amount of detail work for which alone i will heartily recommend it to genre fans.

A very fair assessment. While not exactly a heroic triumph of an old art form, it can nevertheless sit alongside things like Rise of the Guardians with no shame. It of course all sounds like something we've all heard before, some of the action writing reminds me of Elfman's Planet of the Apes, of all things. The main theme, while not amazing, does it job extremely well. I can't believe it was written by the same guy who gave us Fantastic Four, X2 or Superman Returns. Quality-wise way above all of those three. From a Hollywood blockbuster composer wannabe he became an actual Hollywood blockbuster composer. I'm surprised and that is a good thing. I would have bought the actual physical release, if there was any.

Karol

[Jay 37,346]

There is a physical Amazon CDR release

[crocodile 8,000]

CD-R is not really worth ten bucks...

Karol

[Jay 37,346]

Hopefully a real physical release will happen somehow

[crocodile 8,000]

Maybe one of the European labels (like Silva Screen) will release it. As it happened in the case of The Next Three Days or Creation.

Would have been a shame, because it's a really worthy score.

Karol

[Koray Savas 2,251]

CD-R is not really worth ten bucks...

Karol

In the context of ripping it to your computer and then putting it on a shelf, it's no different than a CD. I don't know what type of value you place on physical products, but it's all plastic and costs the same to produce. If you bought the score legitimately for $9, is the extra $1 not worth the physical display?

[crocodile 8,000]

Not if I bought it already. I would just rebuy it only for the actual CD release.

Karol

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I wouldn't buy a CD if I bought the digital for anything, unless it was one of my favorite composers.

[crocodile 8,000]

I would buy this one, because the recording is pretty good and would have been great to have in lossless format.

Karol

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

Rosewood by John Williams

My sealed copy arrived this morning. Such a fine crafted score from Williams, and so different from pretty much everything else he's done in his career. Probably not something you'd listen to frequently, but more something I respect and appreciate every now and then.

It's awesome, and very much underappreciated by the majority of people. It used to be my clear favourite of Williams' 97 drama output (i.e. not counting TLW), but Amistad has grown on me since then, so it's probably a tie now. I love the guitar stuff.

It's also one of the best sounding CDs in my collection.

[crocodile 8,000]

Yeah it's the only Williams HDCD album, isn't it? It sounding good has probably something to do with Shawn Murphy not being involved in recording/mixing it.

Karol

[Uni 306]

For me, this has been one of those perennially updated threads I've had to ignore. Not because I didn't think it had value; but my recent approach to filmusic listening left me in a place where I couldn't really contribute.

Let me explain. One of the things that brought me back to JWFan this last time was my decision late last year to return to collecting again. I decided I was tired of listening to the same material (as great as it is), and found myself in a situation where I could expand—perhaps greatly—on my library. So I kicked into high gear, snatched up some scores I've been curious about for a long time, and wound up with a ton of new music. I was anxious to hear it all, of course, but I don't have all day to listen to music, and I didn't like the idea of having to wait three or four months to experience some of this stuff.

Thanks to my MP3 player, I didn't have to. (Can I just say, on a side note, that I feel the advent of the digital music player has been one of the greatest boons to scorephiles like us? Going back all the way back in the 80's, I used to wish I could randomize pieces from a bunch of different scores instead of having to play them through one at a time. I absolutely love the technology that finally lets me do that.) I pulled out a redundant player I had, filled it with new music, and was able to enjoy both novelty and variety at once. It makes for an interesting exercise, too, comparing the leaves from a number of different trees instead of doing it by the forest.

So it was tough for me to come in here and talk about the last score I listened to, since that was basically changing every three to four minutes on average. But now I'm starting to combine both methods again—sometimes still shuffling, but other times finishing out some of these newer scores in one run, and once in a while even listening to a full score as soon as I get it. And that—finally!—allows me to join the conversation here.

Why the hell did I feel it necessary to tell you all that? Can't say. But now you know, and now I can tell you that the last score I listened to was. . . .

. . . The Goonies. Very good, if not classically great, attempt by Dave Grusin to capture a little Spielbergian magic. This is one where I didn't mind the synthesized "adventure" motif, given that Grusin used the orchestra for most everything else, which made it stand out (in the right way). I also love the appropriate appearance of the Superman theme.

Overall, a nice 80s adventure romp. ***1/2 out of ****.

- Uni

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I couldn't imagine listening to music on shuffle like most people do. While I'm not as die hard about it as Thor, I'm with him in favor of the album presentation. It's actually the main reason why I rarely listen to stuff like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, or The Lord Of The Rings (as much as I love the music), because it's just so damn long and my OCD dictates I listen from start to finish.

[Brónach 1,302]

My normal mood of listening to music is consciously going from a thing to another, listening to diverse things but keeping a general mood for the activity I'm doing. Every now and then I'll pick something I want to listen to or I'm in a particular mood for it and I'll listen to it from start to finish. If I don't have the time I'll do it in parts like a book.

[Wojo 2,453]

I have ADD. I'll usually just spin the wheel on the iPod to a certain letter in Album view, and then work my way up or down the alphabet based on my mood, every so many tracks. Especially when I'm behind the wheel.

[Faleel 5,346]

I have ADD. I'll usually just spin the wheel on the iPod to a certain letter in Album view, and then work my way up or down the alphabet based on my mood, every so many tracks. Especially when I'm behind the wheel.

What do you do when your iPod skips the song you selected?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I have ADD. I'll usually just spin the wheel on the iPod to a certain letter in Album view, and then work my way up or down the alphabet based on my mood, every so many tracks. Especially when I'm behind the wheel.

That's what I used to do back in high school, and well, still now to an extent. I don't have the convenience of having my entire collection in my pocket, but when I used it I'd just scroll through the albums until something popped out at me.

[Incanus 5,714]

The Mummy by Jerry Goldsmith

First Blood by Jerry Goldsmith

13th Warrior by Jerry Goldsmith

The Ghost Writer by Alexandre Desplat

Minority Report by John Williams

Medal of Honor: Airborne by Michael Giacchino

The Wolfman by Danny Elfman

[Jay 37,346]

Do you feel the Ghost Writer album holds up the whole way through? I like the score, but in a way it's the same theme repeated throughout the entire album.... yet it somehow works!

[Brónach 1,302]

It bores me if I listen to the whole thing. It's one of those I have to pick a track or two the moment I feel like it. It happens me constantly with Desplat.

[Jay 37,346]

Ghost Writer was the first time I was watching a film scored by Desplat that made me think "I want to listen to this score on its own". I did listen to the OST once and wasn't disappointed, but haven't returned to it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

I couldn't imagine listening to music on shuffle like most people do. While I'm not as die hard about it as Thor, I'm with him in favor of the album presentation. It's actually the main reason why I rarely listen to stuff like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, or The Lord Of The Rings (as much as I love the music), because it's just so damn long and my OCD dictates I listen from start to finish.

I'm with you, basically. Although I find that over the last few months, I've often come to pick individual tracks from different scores for my playlist, I definitely prefer to listen to whole works, be they film scores, symphonies, operas, or "albums". Good music has a context and draws its power from that. Where I differ with Thor is that I believe most good film scores have that context in a (mostly) complete chronological form, as that's how they were written.

[gkgyver 1,645]

Pan's Labyrinth

In my opinion, this is still in the top 5 of the best scores written since its release. The sheer impact and memorability of its theme and colours is outstanding.

[Wojo 2,453]

I have ADD. I'll usually just spin the wheel on the iPod to a certain letter in Album view, and then work my way up or down the alphabet based on my mood, every so many tracks. Especially when I'm behind the wheel.

What do you do when your iPod skips the song you selected?

Scream bloody murder and drive through whatever unlucky pedestrians happen to be in my way.

Why, what do you do?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

I couldn't imagine listening to music on shuffle like most people do. While I'm not as die hard about it as Thor, I'm with him in favor of the album presentation. It's actually the main reason why I rarely listen to stuff like Ben-Hur, Spartacus, or The Lord Of The Rings (as much as I love the music), because it's just so damn long and my OCD dictates I listen from start to finish.

I'm with you, basically. Although I find that over the last few months, I've often come to pick individual tracks from different scores for my playlist, I definitely prefer to listen to whole works, be they film scores, symphonies, operas, or "albums". Good music has a context and draws its power from that. Where I differ with Thor is that I believe most good film scores have that context in a (mostly) complete chronological form, as that's how they were written.

Agreed.

[Faleel 5,346]

I listen to film scores and the like all the way through, I like the "journey" aspect of scores.

[crocodile 8,000]

The Edge by Jerry Goldsmith

Never heard this score before (apart from some bits posted by some people on here). It's interesting how Goldsmith doesn't use any synths, just here and there tries to mimmick some of his typical effects with woodwinds. The main theme itself is phenomenal and there is some really cool suspense writing to be found on this disc. In fact, it is a very nice companion to First Blood in this respect (which I bought a few weeks ago). I expected a more standard action in the vein of U.S Marshals or some thing like that. Couldn't be more wrong - there is some brutal action here as well, but the whole work has so much more emotional depth and is beautifully crafted. Definitely one of the strongest works of his in his last decade - now I can see what all the fuss was all about. Something tells me I might be revisiting this one very frequently. Superb stuff.

Suite from Memoirs of a Geisha for Cello and Orchestra by John Williams

Phenomenal 30-minute concert piece, probably even better than the film score itself. The second, third and fourth movements are to die for!

Jane Eyre by Dario Marianelli

Karol

[indy4 155]

Shostakovich: Symphony #10, Ballet Suite #4 (Neeme Järvi and the Scottish National Orchestra)

Fantastic recording of two fantastic pieces of music. I've always loved the 2nd movement of the symphony, but I've only just now taken the time to really appreciate the other movements.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

I listen to film scores and the like all the way through, I like the "journey" aspect of scores.

+1. That's really one of the aspects of film scores I like the most, along with themes.

[Faleel 5,346]

I listen to film scores and the like all the way through, I like the "journey" aspect of scores.

+1. That's really one of the aspects of film scores I like the most, along with themes.

Well, themes are part of the "journey"....

[Ollie 1,059]

I have ADD. I'll usually just spin the wheel on the iPod to a certain letter in Album view, and then work my way up or down the alphabet based on my mood, every so many tracks. Especially when I'm behind the wheel.

What do you do when your iPod skips the song you selected?

Scream bloody murder and drive through whatever unlucky pedestrians happen to be in my way.

Why, what do you do?

Sorry the mental image made me actually start laughing out loud.

[KK 3,307]

I listen to film scores and the like all the way through, I like the "journey" aspect of scores.

+1. That's really one of the aspects of film scores I like the most, along with themes.

Well, themes are part of the "journey"....

They are. A good score is like a good ol fashioned novel/storybook. The themes are the characters. And it's all on how the composer handles and manipulates those characters to produce an effective, impressionable journey.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Incanus 5,714]

Batman Mask of the Phantasm by Shirley Walker

War Horse by John Williams

Saving Private Ryan by John Williams

First Blood by Jerry Goldsmith

[crocodile 8,000]

I'm listening to the fabulous new release of The Fury. Not heard all of it yet, but so far it's superb. Both as a music and as an album presentation.

Karol

[Jay 37,346]

Incanus, you did not answer the question I asked you on the last page!

[Uni 306]

The Time Machine. No, not Klaus Badelt. Russell Garcia. (Not a name you hear around here too often, is it?)

This is a classic score to a classic film—and not just because both are more than 50 years old. This was a rare full-orchestral score to a sci-fi film that managed not to overplay the melodrama like so many from that period did. The main theme captures all at once the mystery of the traveler's journey, the loneliness of the quest, and both the beauty and the strangeness of the worlds he encounters along the way. The score as a whole also demonstrates a lot of techniques, both dramatic and comedic, that we associate with much more contemporary composers. It's just great music for a great Golden-Age science fiction film.

***1/2 out of ****

[Ollie 1,059]

[Incanus 5,714]

Incanus, you did not answer the question I asked you on the last page!

Do you feel the Ghost Writer album holds up the whole way through? I like the score, but in a way it's the same theme repeated throughout the entire album.... yet it somehow works!

I actually feel it holds together very well as there are few interludes with other thematic material to give the album more nuance and variation. There is a great feel of intrigue and unease in the score and the composer retains a consistent tone throughout. Desplat's penchant for minimalism is especially helpful here, the constant subtle forward motion driving the music (and the plot) on. The musical story arc is not pure fireworks but follows naturally the film's dramaturgy.

[Jay 37,346]

[crocodile 8,000]

The Avengers by Alan Silvestri

Strange thing: with each listen I'm more and more this score is nowhere near as bad as my first listen made it seem to be. Original? Heck, no. Creative or imaginative? Not really. Silvestri is going through the motions when it comes to his own oeuvre. But you have to admit it's way way above most score to these types of films (maybe except for his own Captain America). As a straight modern action score written for a 2012 action film it is actually pretty decent (if you want a bad one John Debney's Iron Man 2 would be a perfect example). I kind of even like the main theme now. The bottom line is, the score does really well what it aims to do and Silvestri is still a strong and respectable voice in a popcorn film department (Goldsmith would have been the other, if he was still alive).

Karol

[crocodile 8,000]

Explorers by Jerry Goldsmith

Now this is a score with a lot of 80's synth! Seriously, sometimes it's too much for my ears. I reckon he did better in Legend. But there is a wealth of good stuff in there anyway and the recording is very good. Enjoyable in a nostalgic kind of way.

Also listened to The Fury again.

Karol

[Incanus 5,714]

The Fury by John Williams: All this talk of this score made me revisit this music, one of my top JW favourites. The raw emotional power of this music is truly visceral, the main theme one of his most brilliant creations. Not only is it full of unrelenting sense of fatefulness and doom laden inevitability but there is a profound tragedy and sadness in the seemingly simple progress of the melody, fully revealed on the 2nd album in Epilogue, which is one of the finest string elegies the composer has written. Williams draws endless variations from the main title theme providing each new iteration some different cast, the pulse pounding and nail biting assault of many of the set piece cues simply brilliant in their dramatic pathos.

The LSO performed original soundtrack album is inarguably the more powerful listening experience in terms of dynamic and orchestral power but the original recordings for the film provide an interesting comparison which I feel in the end is only a tad less powerful than the re-recording.