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

[Edmilson 11,476]

25 minutes ago, Thor said:

I love THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Doesn't get enough love and attention.

 

I think this is the most interesting part of dedicating a marathon like this to dive in depth in a composer's filmography: you'll listen not just his/hers biggest hits but also smaller movies and projects you weren't aware before.

 

That said, the second score I listened for my HGW project isn't that  unknown...

 

The Rock - Hans Zimmer, Nick Glennie-Smith and HGW

 

 

It's a fun score that I already knew (I listened to this very expansion a few months ago), but it tells more about Zimmer than HGW, with the typically Zimmerian 90s action music. 

 

Judging by these two scores, it paints a portrait of a young Harry trying to break into Hollywood but, as a MV employee, he had to adhere to the conventions of its time. Can't wait to hear his own voice finally getting developed!

 

Next: Smilla's Sense of Snow (which also credited HZ as co-composer)

[Edmilson 11,476]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Next: Smilla's Sense of Snow (which also credited HZ as co-composer)

There it is:

 

 

Meh. Some interesting moments here and there but overall your typical "suspense" score, with "worried pianos", mystery strings, etc.

 

Next: Deceiver (which will be the first score on this marathon where he is the only composer credited)

[Edmilson 11,476]

Harry Gregson-Williams - Deceiver

 

Well, it's darker and grittier than Smilla's Sense of Snow, but overall another suspense thriller score. At least this one has a somewhat memorable theme for "worried piano" that gets a melodramatic performance on the end credits. It's quite Herrmannesque in its repetitiveness that goes on mimicking a descent into madness. I like it!

 

Is this the one that would serve as the basis for future HGW crime thrillers? We'll see!

[Thor 9,334]

 

MISSUS is a 1994 TV movie about Vatican spy priests in the Soviet Union. It's a very nice score that includes the composer's wistful qualities (nobody could write for woodwinds as well as him), and some of those staccato and/or static tracks he also did so well - spy tropes meet ecclesiastical reverence.

[Edmilson 11,476]

Harry Gregson-Williams - The Borrowers

 

 

Your typical 90s kids scores, "borrowing" everything from Home Alone, Hook, Alan Silvestri, Danny Elfman, James Horner's Casper and almost every cliche from kids movies from those days.

 

It's fun and silly to listen to, even if you'd be forgiven if you listened to it and thought you put the OST to Richie Rich or whatever.

 

So far, then young HGW was being asked to just ape whatever genre trend that was popular at the time for the movies he was scoring (see also the John Barry-like The Whole Wide World). This will get really interesting when he begins to show signs of a proper, unique style.

 

PS: I love that the last few posts on this thread are just me talking about HGW and Thor about Morricone 

[Thor 9,334]

We're in our own little grooves!  Your HGW project is one I will attempt soon. I've heard pretty much everything he's done, but it's been years and it's ripe for a re-exploration.

[Edmilson 11,476]

3 hours ago, Thor said:

Your HGW project is one I will attempt soon. I've heard pretty much everything he's done, but it's been years and it's ripe for a re-exploration.

My hope is that experience may be a satisfying way of follow the trajectory of any film composer and chart their evolution throghout the years. I have some others I intend to do something similar after I finish HGW, like Rachel Portman for example.

 

Anyway...

 

Trevor Rabin, Harry Gregson-Williams and the Media Ventures crew - Armageddon (1998)

 

 

Wow, that was rough, at least compared to its silbling score The Rock.

 

While listening to it I was thinking Armageddon might be "Titanic for boys". It's also an epic disaster movie but it was sold as a more macho action with a love story, unlike Titanic that leaned heavily on the romance aspect to get the girls at the movie theaters.

 

So, instead of a corny Celine Dion love song, this time we get a manlier power ballad by Aerosmith. And instead of Horner's delicate score we get epic patriotic music by the people synonym with testosterone-infused action music of the 90s: the Media Venture folks.

 

This is pretty much "The Rock - Part 2" but it lacks the special spark that made that score so fun. And I guess that spark's name starts with "Hans" and finishes with "Zimmer". He only worked in a handful of cues (plus presumably gave some notes to the team working on Armageddon) but he wasn't as present as in The Rock, so the score lacks that special something.

 

Either way, this is pure 90s Media Ventures action, with orchestra and rock elements playing with all the gusto and exciment they can muster. While Trevor Rabin did most of the work and wrote the main themes, our pal Harry was tasked with the Love Theme (based on the Aerosmith song) plus a whole bunch of material from everywhere in the movie. I think it was with this movie's love theme that HGW's obsession with electric violin began?

 

Still, the score has a lot of excitment and "epicness", but the overly synthy sound makes it harder to take it seriously. The brass sounds even more "fake" here than in previous movies of the gang.

 

I don't like calling this type of music "dumb" because clearly a lot of hard work and thought was put into it, and you can feel Rabin and the others' excitment to tackle their biggest budget movie yet without (much) supervision from HZ. But despite all of their enthusiasm their attempts at grandiosity sound like rejected material from The Rock, Crimson Tide, etc.

 

Anyway, HGW is beginning to find his own path in the industry and away from HZ. After a few smaller movies in 1999, he would enter the 2000s with offers from all kinds of movies.

[filmmusic 2,916]

I was wondering @Edmilson:

have you listened to all the works of major composers like John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, John Barry etc. that you decided to tackle with Harry Gregson-Williams next?

[Edmilson 11,476]

18 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

I was wondering @Edmilson:

have you listened to all the works of major composers like John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, John Barry etc. that you decided to tackle with Harry Gregson-Williams next?

I consider myself well acquaited with the major works of those considered "the greatest film composers of all time" (at least in Hollywood) and some (but not all - right, Goldsmith and Morricone?) of their obscurities.

 

But what I'm attempting to do with HGW I never did with anyone else: listen to most if not all of their scores in chronological order and trying to understand their trajectory. In over a decade listening to film music this is the first time I do something like this. 

 

And HGW may not be a Jerry Goldsmith or John Barry or even Hans Zimmer, but I have a strange fascination with his work. It might be the fact that his scores are much less "show-y" and understated than the composers we tend to like, or his insistence in being "boring"...

 

I dunno how to explain it. Although I have been listening to his music since my early film music fan days, or even before that (movies like The Tigger Movie, Shrek, Narnia, they were all huge in my childhood/teen days) I feel like I only know a handful of his material, and the fact that his music is so shy actually makes me want to explore it even more.

[filmmusic 2,916]

 

I have 4 soundtracks left to finish my Goldsmith marathon of all his film scores! Yeeyyyy!
The Sum of All fears,  Star Trek: Nemesis, Timeline, Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

Should I expect any masterpiece?

[Naïve Old Fart 12,533]

THE SUM OF ALL FEARS is a surprisingly good score. LT:BIA is typical Jerry, but not brilliant. Expect a mashup of THE NEW BATCH, and MATINÉE. TIMELINE is decent, and I don't, for the life of me, understand why it was replaced. The real gem in this quartet, is NEMESIS. Sometimes dark and brooding, sometimes full of action, it really is a great, late-flowering masterpiece, from the man.

[Thor 9,334]

2 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I have 4 soundtracks left to finish my Goldsmith marathon of all his film scores! Yeeyyyy!
The Sum of All fears,  Star Trek: Nemesis, Timeline, Looney Tunes: Back in Action.

Should I expect any masterpiece?

 

No, not really. Some OK bit in NEMESIS, though.

[Thor 9,334]

 

Another Morricone curiousa - a 1997 film that is described thusly on IMDB: "In the "Happy Village", Salvatore distributes colored bottles to everyone, whose liquid content makes the dreams of those who drink come true." The album, whose tracks are merely called "Cartoni Animati (Seq. 1)", "Cartoni Animati (Seq. 2)" etc. for 19 tracks and one hour, is a hodgepodge of different things, from medieval stylings to experimental affairs to lyricism. It no doubt mirrors the offbeat, disparate nature of the film, but also makes for supremely entertaining listening.

 

[Thor 9,334]

 

This 1998 TV movie is so obscure, I couldn't even find plot descriptions on IMDB or Wikipedia. And the Music Box soundtrack release page is gone. And I have no liner notes to consult, only digital files. But I THINK it's about a missionary in some foreign lands? As such, it makes sense that it's basically a twin brother to THE MISSION, more than a decade later. The native choir, the staccato, indigenous rhythms, the flutes -- although perhaps slightly more upbeat, and not as sacral and gutwrenching as his most famous score. Either way, it's an absolutely lovely score.

[Jurassic Shark 15,940]

40 minutes ago, Thor said:

This 1998 TV movie is so obscure

 

Weird when it's got Keanu Reeves.

[filmmusic 2,916]

2 hours ago, Thor said:

 

This 1998 TV movie is so obscure, I couldn't even find plot descriptions on IMDB or Wikipedia. And the Music Box soundtrack release page is gone. And I have no liner notes to consult, only digital files. But I THINK it's about a missionary in some foreign lands? As such, it makes sense that it's basically a twin brother to THE MISSION, more than a decade later. The native choir, the staccato, indigenous rhythms, the flutes -- although perhaps slightly more upbeat, and not as sacral and gutwrenching as his most famous score. Either way, it's an absolutely lovely score.

Oh, should I listen to it then?

[Thor 9,334]

Definitely!

[Holko 11,856]

So a while back I got 2 of the Prometheus rerecordings while they still exist.

 

The Vikings is pretty nice, I wouldn't say it's a forgotten masterpiece or that great, but still pretty good, with a lovely main theme and love theme, some nice highlights, and overall a pleasant listen that holds up perfectly fine for its hour-long runtime.

 

Quo Vadis on the other hand is great! I was looking at King of Kings too, but based on the samples and a quick skip through, the impression I got was that it's a not-as-good Ben-Hur redo, with weaker themes and not much of its darkness to balance out the light. QV, while obviously similar in some parts (or even exactly the same for that one cue haha), paints different moods, and goes in a different direction with all the source music, songs and choral pieces. And I love that the Suite is included with all its new material!

[Bespin Copilot 10,315]

La Saga De Las Galaxias!

Reproduction of a 1987 LP originally released by Polydor. Sí Sí!!!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,533]

I've never heard of this.

Is it any good?

[Edmilson 11,476]

34 minutes ago, bespinGPT said:

La Saga De Las Galaxias!

Reproduction of a 1987 LP originally released by Polydor. Sí Sí!!!

 

"All the tracks you need from the Star Wars OT scores"

 

Drax, probably.

[Bespin Copilot 10,315]

16 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

I've never heard of this.

Is it any good?

It's I&U* as I like!

*Incomplete & Unchronological

___
 

There is this one too, from the same LP collection (although I had to select another source for the Raiders March).

 

Las Peliculas De Spielberg

 

Olé!

 

 

[LSH 1,098]

 

More specifically, I’m listening to a custom compilation of the best bits from this score and its sequel.

 

Both are huge favourites of mine from Newman’s post-millennium output and a collection that I revisit a lot.

[Thor 9,334]

Gorgeous score!

[LSH 1,098]

37 minutes ago, Thor said:

Gorgeous score!

It is. Tonally, I want to hear Newman tackling more of this sort of thing. He’s done South Asia to death now though… I would love to hear him do something else geographically. Something African inflected would be interesting with his palette.

[Thor 9,334]

27 minutes ago, LSH said:

It is. Tonally, I want to hear Newman tackling more of this sort of thing. He’s done South Asia to death now though… I would love to hear him do something else geographically. Something African inflected would be interesting with his palette.

 

Or Scandinavia, my home turf. Armand Amar has been my go-to guy for years when it comes to gorgeous renditions of geographical regions. But I know that Thomas Newman has it in him.

[The Score Cleaner 9,299]

5 hours ago, Holko said:

I was looking at King of Kings too, but based on the samples and a quick skip through, the impression I got was that it's a not-as-good Ben-Hur redo, with weaker themes and not much of its darkness to balance out the light.

You are wrong.

 

[LSH 1,098]

 

I’m on a Newman binge but I’ll finish tonight with this since work is calling.

 

What a gorgeous work this is. All the Newman mannerisms you’d want, plus some beautiful vocal work (some of which is heavily processed but used as an instrument as much as any).

 

Superb stuff.

[LSH 1,098]

 

Okay, one more.

 

I haven't listened to this one since it came out... and wow. Love it.

 

This is a really nice combo of the modern Newman style and his early nineties stuff. There is a 'deep south' style in some of the cues that harks back to The War, Green Fried Tomatoes and the like. 

 

@Thor I've not seen you mention this one. I imagine you'd like it.

 

 

[Thor 9,334]

6 minutes ago, LSH said:

@Thor I've not seen you mention this one. I imagine you'd like it.

 

I think I sampled it briefly when it came out, then dismissed it relatively quickly (court room drama and all that). Thanks for the heads-up, Lee, I'll re-investigate.

[Edmilson 11,476]

HGW - The Replacement Killers

 

Eh, considering this score used mostly samples (HGW thanks the "Media Ventures MIDI Orchestra" in the booklet) it could've been a lot worse. At least this one is stylish and mildly entertaining. We'll see if this will become the template for hundreds of Tony Scott/Denzel Washington thrillers he scored and that I'll hear in the next few days.

[Thor 9,334]

 

IL QUARTO RE is an obscure, biblical fantasy-type TV movie from 1997, about a beekeeper whose magical bees form the comet that the three wise men use to track down the Messiah, with friggin' Billy Dee Williams, Lando himself, as Gaspar. Or some such thing. Sounds wonky. Love the score, though. I have a penchant for religioso choral music, and this has some of that (again, in that THE MISSION kind of style), but it's counterpointed by static, breathing suspense tracks and middle eastern harmonies. Dissonant, but not so much as to alienate my feeble mind. Well worth a shot! (son Andrea is credited too, although I don't know what he did).

[Edmilson 11,476]

Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell - Antz

 

 

It's fun and entertaining, but I managed to identify more of JP's tropes than HGW's. One cue sounded like a prototype for Happy Feet How To Train Your Dragon and Z's heroic theme/love theme is clearly a Powell composition.

 

One thing that annoyed me is the overtly synthy sound of the brass section. It made the otherwise great action tracks feel small, thin and dated. Did they only used samples for the brass instruments? Or did they use real instruments but mixed so weirdly that it managed to sound like samples? Perhaps they augmented the actual brass from the orchestra with synths and this was the result?

 

Sigh. Well at least Powell would fix this problem in the 2000s and his brass would sound like actual instruments, HGW on the other hand I'm not so sure...

[bollemanneke 4,249]

The Talented Mr Ripley. You're Shivering is such an awesome piece.

[Naïve Old Fart 12,533]

3 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell - Antz

 

 

 

I love the Rambo reference, in this.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The Talented Mr Ripley. You're Shivering is such an awesome piece.

 

Any Gabriel Yared is worth listening to.

[Edmilson 11,476]

Enemy of the State - HGW and Trevor Rabin (recording sessions)

 

Guess I found the mother of all Tony Scott/Harry Gregson-Williams scores. The template they used in every movie they did together after that.

 

Typical 90s Media Ventures action, but this time with even more synths. The electronic music part really is the protagonist, with the orchestra taking a backseat and just helping on the melodrama. It's like a Nine Inch Nails remix of The Rock, with dark & disturbing synths creating a paranoid atmosphere.

 

Maybe part of the blame for Hollywood film scores today being boring relies on Scott and HGW? 

[Bat1989 172]

On 14/10/2024 at 11:34 AM, Edmilson said:

Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell - Antz

 

 

It's fun and entertaining, but I managed to identify more of JP's tropes than HGW's. One cue sounded like a prototype for Happy Feet How To Train Your Dragon and Z's heroic theme/love theme is clearly a Powell composition.

 

One thing that annoyed me is the overtly synthy sound of the brass section. It made the otherwise great action tracks feel small, thin and dated. Did they only used samples for the brass instruments? Or did they use real instruments but mixed so weirdly that it managed to sound like samples? Perhaps they augmented the actual brass from the orchestra with synths and this was the result?

 

Sigh. Well at least Powell would fix this problem in the 2000s and his brass would sound like actual instruments, HGW on the other hand I'm not so sure...

About you identifying more tropes from JP over HGW, i remember of one list from the site Maintitles that shows who wrote each piece. It obviously doesn´t reveal who made each theme, plus it seems that there are some parts from others here and there, but at least can give us a idea on who had more voice in each track... And yeah it seems to have Powell more, actually it´s like that in Chicken run too, shrek is the more equal one.

 

01. Opening Titles/Z's Theme - Harry Gregson-Williams

02. The Colony - John Powell

03. General Mandible - Harry Gregson-Williams

04. Princess Bala - Harry Gregson-Williams

05. The Bar - Geoff Zanelli

06. There Is A Better Place... - Harry Gregson-Williams

07. Guantanamera/6.15 Time To Dance - John Powell

08. The Antz Go Marching To War - John Powell

09. Weaver And Azteca Flirt - John Powell

10. The Death Of Barbados - John Powell

11. The Antz Marching Band - Steve Jablonsky

12. The Magnifying Glass - John Powell

13. Ant Revolution - John Powell

14. Mandible And Cutter Plot - Harry Gregson-Williams

15. The Picnic Table - John Powell

16. The Big Shoe - John Powell

17. Romance In Insectopia - John Powell

18. Back To The Colony - John Powell, Gavin Greenaway

19. Z To The Rescue - John Powell

20. Z's Alive! - John Powell

 

 

[Edmilson 11,476]

16 hours ago, CT-7567 said:

About you identifying more tropes from JP over HGW, i remember of one list from the site Maintitles that shows who wrote each piece. It obviously doesn´t reveal who made each theme, plus it seems that there are some parts from others here and there, but at least can give us a idea on who had more voice in each track... And yeah it seems to have Powell more, actually it´s like that in Chicken run too, shrek is the more equal one.

 

01. Opening Titles/Z's Theme - Harry Gregson-Williams

02. The Colony - John Powell

03. General Mandible - Harry Gregson-Williams

04. Princess Bala - Harry Gregson-Williams

05. The Bar - Geoff Zanelli

06. There Is A Better Place... - Harry Gregson-Williams

07. Guantanamera/6.15 Time To Dance - John Powell

08. The Antz Go Marching To War - John Powell

09. Weaver And Azteca Flirt - John Powell

10. The Death Of Barbados - John Powell

11. The Antz Marching Band - Steve Jablonsky

12. The Magnifying Glass - John Powell

13. Ant Revolution - John Powell

14. Mandible And Cutter Plot - Harry Gregson-Williams

15. The Picnic Table - John Powell

16. The Big Shoe - John Powell

17. Romance In Insectopia - John Powell

18. Back To The Colony - John Powell, Gavin Greenaway

19. Z To The Rescue - John Powell

20. Z's Alive! - John Powell

 

 

Hmm, if this is correct then Z's theme (particularly his heroic theme heard here) is a HGW creation when I was quite sure this was Powell.

 

On the other hand I was right about The Death of Barbados being Powell. This track has a very Happy Feet/HTTYD style so it could only be him.

 

Anyway...

 

Light it Up - HGW

 

Another mostly (if not all) synth score for a crime thriller. It's not completely uninteresting, the urban groove is nice and some dramatic moments are pretty decent.

[Edmilson 11,476]

The Tigger Movie

 

 

I loved this movie as a little kid. I had it on VHS and watched it countless times. However, I had no memory of the score at all.

 

Here's the thing: I always had a great memory for music. Even as a boy many movies I watched I could remember at least part of their scores and how that music made me feel. Whether it was JNH's Dinosaur, Mancina's Tarzan, Newman's Toy Story 1 , 2 and A Bug's Life, Williams' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Shore's Fellowship of the Ring, etc., I had an amazing memory even for typically underscore cues to the point they became incredibly familiar to me. An experience I'm sure many here can relate to.

 

However, when it came to The Tigger Movie, I just couldn't remember a single note from the HGW score as a child, only that it worked decently with the movie. Now, as an adult revisiting this score, I understand why: it's fun, lively and cute, with the typical playfulness of scores written for movies directed at little kids. But nothing special.

 

Whether it was Zimmer's The Lion King, Horner's Balto or The Land Before Time, JW's E.T. or any of the movies I mentioned, viewers from any age will certainly take notice of the score and maybe even remember something from them, even if subconciously. 

 

But not with this though. It's fine and serves well the movie, it even has great themes, but it's a lot more anonymous than the classic scores I'm comparing it with. It's like it doesn't have a personality, or one that is much more hidden than a James Horner, John Williams or even Hans Zimmer kid score.

 

I'm hesitant to call this the "best" score of my HGW marathon so far just because it is written in a style that pleases me more than Light It Up, Enemy of the State or The Replacement Killers. But despite its anonymousness it's still a nice way to pass half an hour.

[Bat1989 172]

8 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Hmm, if this is correct then Z's theme (particularly his heroic theme heard here) is a HGW creation when I was quite sure this was Powell.

 

On the other hand I was right about The Death of Barbados being Powell. This track has a very Happy Feet/HTTYD style so it could only be him.

 

Anyway...

 

Light it Up - HGW

 

Another mostly (if not all) synth score for a crime thriller. It's not completely uninteresting, the urban groove is nice and some dramatic moments are pretty decent.

Tbh i thought that you was saying that this part of the Z theme was from Powell, which i think that it is even now, as it even appears in The Colony and really sounds like powell to me, but the heroic part later non ironically sounded more HGW before for me.

 

 

Also, i saw the Antz page in the Zimmer site, the lastest comment says that "There used to be individual composer credits below these on the old site." and then showed the same list that i got from maintitles.

 

And that "But since the composers have stated that they didn't always work seperately on a cue-by-cue basis, I don't think it's that clear cut. I can definitely hear HGW's voice shine through parts of "The Picnic Table", "Z To The Rescue" and "Z's Alive!". And as far as themes go, I'm pretty sure the main theme, Z's theme and Bala's theme are initially written by HGW, while Powell did the themes for the colony, Mandible and the wasps."

 

So no, the list doesn´t really is meant to tell who made each theme, only who had more voice in each track. Even more because i remember having a track from Chicken run in one of these old lists that had John as the writer, but there was also confirmation that Williams made the theme that appeared in it.

 

And to end the comment... Do you know what´s the wasp theme that the other guy mentioned?

[Edmilson 11,476]

15 hours ago, CT-7567 said:

Also, i saw the Antz page in the Zimmer site, the lastest comment says that "There used to be individual composer credits below these on the old site." and then showed the same list that i got from maintitles.

 

Indeed, which is why I think we shouldn't take the "track 1 was written by one composer, track 2 was written by the other" as the absolute truth, because I think the way Media Ventures/Remote Control work is not as set in stone like that. It's more like "one composer does v1 of a cue or a theme, then another does v2 then someone else combines the two versions to fit better the scene, etc.".

 

15 hours ago, CT-7567 said:

And to end the comment... Do you know what´s the wasp theme that the other guy mentioned?

I'm not sure. It's been years since I've seen the movie so I don't remember whether there was a wasp in it. 

 

Anyway...

 

The Magic of Marciano - Harry Gregson-Williams

 

 

I guess that may be the best score of the marathon so far. It's sweet and genuinely touching at moments, even though the main theme was clearly inspired by Jerry Goldsmith's Rudy.

[Edmilson 11,476]

Chicken Run

 

A brilliant score, though I think its brilliance are more John Powell's work than Harry's. Either way it's the best score of the JP/HGW duo, with all due respect to Antz and Shrek.

[Thor 9,334]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

The Magic of Marciano - Harry Gregson-Williams

 

Not familiar with that at all. Thanks for the inadvertant tip!

[Edmilson 11,476]

5 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

Not familiar with that at all. Thanks for the inadvertant tip!

You're welcome  This might be right up your alley. 

 

Haven't heard the movie until I began the marathon, it's so obscure it doesn't even have an entry on Wikipedia 

 

[Edmilson 11,476]

Shrek

 

First score of the saga and the last where John Powell helped. Apparently according to some gossip I saw on the HZ fansite Powell acted like a douche in this movie, trying to impose his ideas and then set out to make Pluto Nash (!) while working on Shrek and that annoyed the producers, who didn't hire him for the sequels. Powell himself would only get anywhere near a DreamWorks movie 7 years later with Kung Fu Panda.

 

Still, JP acknowledged that Shrek is mostly HGW anyway, despite some Powellian cues here and there.

 

I saw this movie so many times that I recognize and remember almost every single cue of it, aside from a cool surprise here and there. Which is why I'm more interested in the sequels. Every time I saw Shrek 2, 3 and 4 the only time the music catched my attention was when there was a song or material from the first movie playing, otherwise it left no impression on me.

[Marian Schedenig 11,177]

50 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Still, JP acknowledged that Shrek is mostly HGW anyway, despite some Powellian cues here and there.

 

That explains why I never liked Shrek but love Chicken Run.

[Edmilson 11,476]

Spy Game (again)

 

 

The score that first gave me the idea to go on this marathon anyway.

 

This time I managed to appreciate it more. I still hate the early 2000s techno stuff that unfortunately is about 40% of the score, and when combined with Arabic music almost made convinced me to give up on the marathon.

 

On the other hand, this time I managed to appreciate the drama parts even more. There's some really great dramatic cues in there, particularly a theme for piano and (synth?) strings that appears occasionally.

 

Overall, a weird mix of techno electronica from the 2000s, Arab influences, Russian influences (?), orchestra, boy soprano... Did I forget anything? The good parts are REALLY good so the impression is more positive than the last time. Also contributing to it: this time I was smart enough to stop the album before the godawful remixes began.

 

Answering to a controversy that arose the first time I posted about this score here: Spy Game was recorded in Abbey Road in September of 2001. While the 9/11 attacks happened, John Williams was recording Philosopher's Stone, HGW was recording Spy Game and the music editors were mixing Fellowship of the Ring.

 

From the booklet of the LLL John Williams HP collection:

 

[Naïve Old Fart 12,533]

It's still my favourite HGW score, and the film makes good use of 'Rocky Mountain Way'.

Best lines: "Where are you?"

                   "At home."

                   "Well, what are you doing

                     there?"

                   "Jogging."

😂

[Edmilson 11,476]

Passionada

 

 

Despite the atrocious cover, this is not that bad. Nice Thomas Newman-like quirkiness and some relaxing guitar in the style of Portuguese music. Pretty, but nothing special, so much so that I listened to this yesterday and only remember to post about that today.

[Thor 9,334]

See, that one I have heard about, despite its relative obscurity, but never listened to. Your description sounds tantalizing.