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


Ollie

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You're a fool Alvar for not liking this! It's one of the album's and film's best moments!

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Empire of the Sun - Expanded Archival Collection (LLL)

I've had the OST for years, but it was never one I came back to often. Actually, I can't recall listening to the whole thing start to finish more than twice over the last 20 years. Strangely, Jim's Theme is one of my favorite Williams themes, based primarily on the concert arrangement. I just got the expanded release in the mail today and immediately listened to it when I got back from work.

I was surprised how emotional the listening experience was. I can't claim to know it very well, note for note, or beat for beat, but it was like I was hearing a new score for the first time. It's one of those strange experiences where you see something anew and fall in love with it. I can't distinguish the merits of this release against the OST since I don't remember the OST well enough to make an educated comparison, but his layout affected me to a much greater degree then I was expecting.

Fantastic stuff.

:music: "The Return to the City" (there's so much going on in this cue it's ridiculous)

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Not sure. It's been on my radar for a while, but I also just picked up a bunch of other Williams titles to fill in some gaps:

Empire of the Sun (LLL)

Heidi (Quartet)

The Poseidon Adventure (LLL)

Rosewood (LLL)

Black Sunday (FSM)

None But The Brave (FSM)

Family Plot (Varese Sarabande)

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Agreed!

Ben-Hur (The Complete Soundtrack Collection) by Miklós Rózsa: Discs 1 & 2, the complete score. While not my favourite Rózsa score it is not far from the top and the FSM's sumptuous set further cements this impression. Quite magnificent.

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Jurassic World :music:

Ok, upon second listen, it's pretty decent. I'd still probably rank it last among JP scores. Look forward to seeing it in context.

Nice and decent yes but still I feel the same, the least of JP scores.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park by John Williams: Nearly completely different approach to its predecessor but John Williams pulls it off by writing a very singular work for the sequel with just a reminder here and there that it is indeed a sibling of Jurassic Park. Entirely fitting as the location and story are different, vastly different from the original and I have to say I get a tremendous kick out of hearing Williams crafting a percussion heavy jungle score with a magnificently adventurous theme to boot. It has been said before countless times but this score needs a complete release!

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Jurassic World :music:

Ok, upon second listen, it's pretty decent. I'd still probably rank it last among JP scores. Look forward to seeing it in context.

Nice and decent yes but still I feel the same, the least of JP scores.

Well, the only real competition it has to receive that honor is JPIII since he has no hope of beating Williams at his own game.

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Jurassic World by Michael Giacchino

Earlier, I was expecting to be the least of Gia's efforts of the year, but surprisingly it's doing more for than Jupiter Ascending and Tomorrowland did. The key to enjoying this score I believe, is accepting Giacchino's sound and style for what it is. And though it's buried in many of Giacchino's familiar tropes, I can hear an expansion the harmonic colour palette, including more romantic shades of the Silver Age. Orchestrations are skillfully done, and there are more moments of colour than the bland Tomorrowland had to offer. And to top it off, it features a Gia theme I actually really dig, and it's been a while since that last happened (certainly not this year). The Jurassic World theme should have been featured. The family theme is nice (very typical Giacchino though), but the underlying ostinato is grating and amateurish. The mystery/dino motif that opens the score is decent, though oddly stagnant through the whole score. And the action falters (the album is too long), but even that department is pretty solid here. Giacchino really has to learn to stop leaning on those rising supplemental ostinati though. They really brought down plenty of moments that could have been soaring, but instead sounded like an arrangement done by some novice coming straight out of high school. Finally, the album could definitely have done without the William quotes. He doesn't do them very well, the in-verbatim quotes don't really do him any favours. Hearing the Williams' mastery of harmonic language in the classic hymn + fanfare and then going into Giacchino's predictable major and minor progressions doesn't sit well on the listening end.

JPIII is definitely the superior score, no contest, but I never expected otherwise.

As it is, I like it. And I think it's my favourite of the composer's 2015 output.

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Up by Michael Giacchino: Well I listened to this in the movie itself which I watched for the first time yesterday (a great film!). Giacchino did a great job with this one and the music was allowed many opporturnities to carry the narrative from the lovely and bittersweet Married Life montage to the adventurous finale. And now that little ditty of a main theme is stuck in my head.

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Why didn't you ever watch that film before?

Never got around to it I guess. I am sure you too have a long list of films you have not watched yet but would like to.

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Up by Michael Giacchino: Well I listened to this in the movie itself which I watched for the first time yesterday (a great film!). Giacchino did a great job with this one and the music was allowed many opporturnities to carry the narrative from the lovely and bittersweet Married Life montage to the adventurous finale. And now that little ditty of a main theme is stuck in my head.

I know this movie, Charles Aznavour did the french dubbing of the old man. :)

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Have you ever seen The Shawshank Redemption?

Of course!

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Yeah Up was actually wonderful. Never preachy but got quite a few lessons across for young and old and did so effortlessly and without sacrificing the imaginative story.

Shawshank Redemption is awesome too. Film and score.

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It's interesting how subsequent chapters get more human and acoustic. I love those scores, it's how you do ostinato-driven action music with brains.

Karol

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I need to check those out.

Are their OSTs considered good representations with the right highlights, or are the complete scores essential?

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I don't even count Legacy.

It improves on the third one in one or two aspects though.

Renner's character isnt a emotionally void monosyllabic slab who mostly just runs and kills people.

I rather like that they made him a motor mouth who needed those meds cause without them he was an idiot.

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Superman: The Movie [Original Sound Track] (The 16 tracks Japanese CD, 1990)

Superman, that like Empire Strikes Back, inexplicably got a partial reissue for their first release on CD.

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The action and chase scenes may have gotten better as the series went on, but the stories got worse.

I'm talking about the original 3; Never seen the fourth.

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:music:Pas De Deux by James Horner.

Karol

Does it feel familiar? Comfy, cozy?

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