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


Ollie

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SUFRAGETTE - Alex Desplat

While being comfortably seated among Desplat's numerous drama scores, his second released score for 2015 like his first has to offer at least some interesting musical detours - mainly attributable to the Onward Female Soldiers spirit of the story. There is a steady pulse present, musically portraying the ever-growing alliance of women fighting for their rights.

The harmonically unusual title theme (he wrung out an interesting version of the theme he gifted on Jolie's awful Oscarbait movie UNBROKEN) isn't developed quite enough and all too soon the dreaded standby's enter - static chords laying there to die, nondescript string dirges et al. - so SUFRAGETTE mainly suffers from the fact that you just don't need more than 3 cues (mainly tracks 1,5 and 13) to 'get' it.

So it's worth a cursory listen though it's far from a great score. The as-of-yet unreleased TALE OF TALES remains a more promising candidate for a release.

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The Book Thief.

I can honestly say that, of all the 'autumnly' scores Williams ever wrote, this is the weakest one. Williams has done similar scores before, but they were better.

Alexandre

It's one of John Williams' plainest scores, though to be fair, the movie itself is one of the plainest Williams has scored. Even so, I still find it more entertaining and emotionally involving than most Desplat scores of similar scope and intent (The reason I make this comparison is because I believe Desplat would have scored the film had Williams not been interested).

That would only be natural for someone who doesn't like Desplat in the first place. I, on the other hand, would probably have preferred the Desplat take, given that the material Williams wrote here doesn't do anything for me.

Alexandre

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Well Williams' The Book Thief while not his greatest score ever is still miles ahead of Desplat's polite efforts for many dramas he has scored. A bit too much of that kind has been the assembly line 10 scores/year stuff from the Gallic maestro. And contrary to your callous assesment pub, Williams was apparently genuinely impressed with The Book Thief and sought the assignment. I guess he made Percival an offer he could not refuse.

Any chance of a score release for the Tale of Tales?

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I don't really delve into the scores that Desplat has written but I know he's about the only film composer that seems to appeal to me today*. Maybe not for the whole score but here are always moments during a film where I take pleasantly notice of the music. Heck, most of the time I don't even know it's Desplat that I'm hearing. I usually found out at the end of the movie that it was him again.

Alexandre Des Cremers

*No, I like Jonny Greenwood too

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I don't really delve into the scores that Desplat has written but I know he's about the only film composer that seems to appeal to me today. Maybe not for the whole score but here are always moments during a film where I take pleasantly notice of the music. Heck, most of the time I don't even know it's Desplat that I'm hearing. I usually found out at the end of the movie that it was him again.

Alexandre Des Cremers

Well I have to say I have become a huge fan of his over the years but he usually impresses me more with surprising stuff like Birth, The Ghost Writer or Love, Caution while this big efforts like Godzilla or Harry Potter leave me cold. Then there are things like Coco Avant Chanel that do not leave the slightest imprint on me.

He has left an impression on the industry however, testified by the huge amount of Desplat knock-offs resulting from obvious demands to imitate his music used as temp track.

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So he's more exciting a talent than Giacchino, then?

The way Giacchino has been doing lately I would say yes. I was not thoroughly impressed by any of his four scores this year. Much of his music feels like watered-down version of his childhood heroes, John and Jerry, but rarely rises to their heights.

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So he's more exciting a talent than Giacchino, then?

Much of his music feels like watered-down version of his childhood heroes, John and Jerry, but rarely rises to their heights.

Agreed! But as you probably know, I would go further.

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It is definitely one Williams' weakest scores. Competently written, as usual, but with nothing very interesting to say.

I take it that you have not heard those swinging 60s comedy scores.
I've heard some of them. Still doesn't change the fact that The Book Thief is the least interesting score he's written in a long time.

So he's more exciting a talent than Giacchino, then?

Yes.
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Joe Kraemer - Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Can't get enough of this great score. So many themes, so much fun orchestration, expert action and suspense music... this score has it all. Bring on the 2CD Complete Edition, LLL! :P

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And contrary to your callous assesment pub, Williams was apparently genuinely impressed with The Book Thief and sought the assignment. I guess he made Percival an offer he could not refuse.

You mistake the movie for the book.

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What scores from 2015 are (potentially) better?

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: haven't listened to the OST yet, but the score worked extremely well in the film and I think it could be a serious contender for best of the year.

The Force Awakens: 'nuff said.

SPECTRE: haven't listened to that one properly yet. Not really sure what to expect.

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WTF???

Me and Steef said MI5 is the best score of the year so far.

You say no, its not!

I ask what is better, and you list 3 scores you haven't even listened to yet!?!?!?

I mean, wtf?

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Really liked it? It's fun, but hardly anything to get excited about. It's lacking a strong main theme, for one. It's among the best that 2015 has to offer, but wouldn't even make a top 100 list of all scores ever made, or a top 15 of Silvestri

My favorite scores of 2015

1. Mission Impossible Rogue Nation

2 Tomorrowland

3 Inside Out

4 Jupiter Ascending

5 Jurassic World

6 Wolf Totem

7 Age of Ultron (Danny's parts - still haven't listened to Tyler's!)

8 The Walk

9 Pan

10 Fifty Shades of Grey

Only those first 7 scores I've listened to a dozen times or more. The others are good scores that warranted a few listens but don't get me super excited. The Walk is really fun, though. Pan maybe I'll like more once I see if the film.

Still a lot more I need to hear, like Living In The Age of Airplanes, Southpaw, The 33, Star Wars, In The Heart of the Sea, Crimson Peak, The Good Dinosaur, Goosebumps, Spectre, probably others

I've also heard Ant-Man, Man from UNCLE, Spy, Kingsman, and Bridge of Spies, and none of were anything special to me, but I plan on giving each another chance soon for sure.

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Skyfall by Thomas Newman

It's better than I remember it. I think it's aged quite well. Still too long in album form, but this is very good stuff. Bond steeped in the suave Newman tradition, and it all works! Aside from RCP-ish moments, there's some very excellent action writing here as well (The Bloody Shot is brilliant!). I'll definitely take this over bloated Arnold.

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Thomas Newman - Skyfall

Complete and total meh. I'll never understand all the attention and love this score gets. This was probably my fifth time trying to get into this score and it failed once again. The album is incredibly boring. The electronics are very awkwardly used (does not mesh with the orchestra at all) and the James Bond Theme is also not integrated well at all. It's almost like Newman's going "ok the director wanted the James Bond Theme to play here, so here it is. That's over now? Great, now back to my score".

One of the things that make's Tomorrow Never Dies great is that it completely stands alone without the Bond ties. If you remove every instance of the James Bond Theme from that score, you still have a great action adventure score anchored by a very strong main theme and several sub themes. In Skyfall, if there are any themes at all, I couldn't tell you after five listens. I think this score only gets the attention it does because it's an entry in a long-running franchise that has fans of multiple generations and the movie was great. If the Bond theme was removed and this exact same score was used for some random action movie that came out that no one saw, nobody would talk about this score.

Despite this, I will listen to SPECTRE now with an open mind!

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I'm back in the saddle. All Williams all the time. Today, the marathoning began with the Star Wars Trilogy Anthology in order discs 1-4, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom complete score and Jurassic Park: 20th Anniversary Loundess-warred version.

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Thomas Newman - Skyfall

Complete and total meh. I'll never understand all the attention and love this score gets. This was probably my fifth time trying to get into this score and it failed once again. The album is incredibly boring. The electronics are very awkwardly used (does not mesh with the orchestra at all) and the James Bond Theme is also not integrated well at all. It's almost like Newman's going "ok the director wanted the James Bond Theme to play here, so here it is. That's over now? Great, now back to my score".

One of the things that make's Tomorrow Never Dies great is that it completely stands alone without the Bond ties. If you remove every instance of the James Bond Theme from that score, you still have a great action adventure score anchored by a very strong main theme and several sub themes. In Skyfall, if there are any themes at all, I couldn't tell you after five listens. I think this score only gets the attention it does because it's an entry in a long-running franchise that has fans of multiple generations and the movie was great. If the Bond theme was removed and this exact same score was used for some random action movie that came out that no one saw, nobody would talk about this score.

Despite this, I will listen to SPECTRE now with an open mind!

Yeah, I think people latch on to the score because of how awesome the movie was. The score has its moments ("Brave New World," "The Bloody Shot," and the first half of "The Moors" are great), but for the most part it's just a generic modern action score. How's SPECTRE? I'm waiting for the movie to listen to it.

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