Jump to content

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


Ollie

Recommended Posts

:music: Godzilla by Alexandre Desplat. One of my favourite big scores of recent years. He captured the anxious post-nuclear tone perfectly and the title sequence is just spot on representation of what Godzilla should sound like - grandiose but also strangely earnest and sombre.

 

 

Karol

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the score, but feel that the great main titles cue sets expectations high that the eventual score never returns to.  Nothing gets quite as thrilling as that piece, somehow.

 

Back to the Ocean is really nice, too, in a completely different way

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I expected big badass orchestral mayhem from Godzilla. Alas it sounds a bit too prissy for its own good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Main title has an amazing energy to it, that's true, and it's a great overture. But I actually like the entire score, really like Desplat's texture and how he manages to modernise the archaic monster tropes and still remain truthful to them.

 

Have you seen the film, Inky?

 

Also, Howard Shore is a fan of this score. So that makes me right. ;)

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Someone asked Doug whether Shore ever listens to contemporary film scores. And he replied he really liked Godzilla. It was somewhere on Twitter, probably somewhere around the release of BOTFA.

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It was a indeed fantastic year for Desplat! And while I had certain reservations about Godzilla, it has some truly exceptional writing. It's one of his finest, if not best action scores.

 

One of my favourite moments:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michael Giacchino - Zootopia

 

Slowly warming up to this one......

 

 

Marco Beltrami - Seventh Son

 

:up:

 

 

Christopher Young - The Monkey King

 

:up::up:

 

 

Danny Elfman - Mission: Impossible

 

:up::up: :up:

 

 

John Williams - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

 

:up: :up: :up: :up: 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With "clean"* versions of "The Flag Parade" and "Return of the Jedi End Credits" on CD3. :music:

 

p_88875127322.jpg

 

John Williams: The Great Movie Soundtracks (2015, Sony Classical, 88875127322, Compilation)

 

* Whatever they are edited cues or have been taken directly from the tapes, they sound clean to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Sure they do. Williams should have cut a 45 minute album like ROTJ, right?

 

Yes! I prefer the old school approach of furiously-paced 45 minute albums that trim out all the fat as opposed to a bloated 70 minute album with uninteresting musical selections that I don't even want to listen to. Not that TFA is a bad OST at all, it's actually quite good. The changes I would make are relatively minor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

FOTR complete recordings today.  Just the absolute pinnacle of everything.  There is no recording of symphonic music that surpasses the quality and character of this one.  John Kurlander should have had his own category that year at the Oscars.

I can think of a single moment that has bothered me in the FotR CR mix, the Pass of Caradhras passage where we hear the Seduction of the Ring theme on boys chorus. It is mixed far too low when it should be more prominent than that whisper we hear on the set. I don't know if the DVD 5.1. audio has a better mix of this moment.

 

TTT also has that curious dampening of the Way to Mordor motif's horn solo on the track My Precious. It feels deliberate although I don't know why would the composer want to tone it down in such a way.

 

But these are about the only moments on these recordings I can say I have a trouble with. I can't fault the music itself which is of course brilliant. I just wish I had more time to revisit the whole 3 hour experience of FotR or TTT or the nigh 4 hour spectacle of RotK more often. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Incanus said:

I can think of a single moment that has bothered me in the FotR CR mix, the Pass of Caradhras passage where we hear the Seduction of the Ring theme on boys chorus. It is mixed far too low when it should be more prominent than that whisper we hear on the set. I don't know if the DVD 5.1. audio has a better mix of this moment.

 

TTT also has that curious dampening of the Way to Mordor motif's horn solo on the track My Precious. It feels deliberate although I don't know why would the composer want to tone it down in such a way.

 

But these are about the only moments on these recordings I can say I have a trouble with. I can't fault the music itself which is of course brilliant. I just wish I had more time to revisit the whole 3 hour experience of FotR or TTT or the nigh 4 hour spectacle of RotK more often. :)

 

I'd add the amplified bass at the beginning of "Caras Galadhon" to that list.  I don't really have an issue with the mixing of "The Pass of Caradhras" though.  It sounds fine to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The sudden dip in volume when the boys chorus comes in feels very strange.

 

The River by John Williams

 

The Blue Max by Jerry Goldsmith

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

FOTR complete recordings today.  Just the absolute pinnacle of everything.  There is no recording of symphonic music that surpasses the quality and character of this one.  John Kurlander should have had his own category that year at the Oscars.

 

That score in expanded form is a force of nature. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Even if the film would have been a horrible flop and Shore never got the chance to do the other two FOTR would have stood as a masterpiece score of the era.

Agreed. Although the thought of not ever having TTT or RotK to round out the masterful musical journey is horrible one.

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark by John Williams: As I have said before, one of those perfect film scores. Everything just falls into place so effortlessly. The 80+ minute score is also a terrific fluid and varied listening experience.

 

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom by John Williams: What I most like about this score is how much Williams got into the exotic, dark and weird with this one. The use of specialty instruments, the sacrifical choruses, the percussion and the strange vocal effects are among the highlights for me. It is almost exhaustingly hectic with its frenetic action and plays the Raiders March to death by the end but the sheer bravado of juggling the sprightly action, the atmospherics, the local musical colours and conjuring up so many fine themes and playing them for all their worth propels this one easily to the 5 star tier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, E.T. and Elliot said:

 

Yes! I prefer the old school approach of furiously-paced 45 minute albums

 

Yes! Only a furiously fast-paced album is a good album! Music should never be allowed to breathe and take its time!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyway.

 

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Star Wars: The Force AwakensbOST

Cinema Gala: Star Wars/Encounters of the Third Kind (Zubin Mehta)

 

Ah, Close Encounters, my old friend. What a way to get reacquainted. Arguably one of the greatest scores ever composed. Right up there with E.T., Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders, Amazing Stories: The Mission and Always.

 

:music: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial OST

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/24/2016 at 0:48 AM, Incanus said:

I can think of a single moment that has bothered me in the FotR CR mix, the Pass of Caradhras passage where we hear the Seduction of the Ring theme on boys chorus. It is mixed far too low when it should be more prominent than that whisper we hear on the set. I don't know if the DVD 5.1. audio has a better mix of this moment.

 

TTT also has that curious dampening of the Way to Mordor motif's horn solo on the track My Precious. It feels deliberate although I don't know why would the composer want to tone it down in such a way.

It's more because of Dynamic Range than because of mixing choices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

That is the third time today that I've witnessed someone reference that scene, both in person and on the internet. Weird. 

 

It is weird that it is so few, yes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Jay said:

What Inky is talking about is not dynamic range, but mixing choices.

I'm sure he thinks that is what he is talking about, but I think he is wrong or at least it is not entirely a mixing problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Faleel said:

I'm sure he thinks that is what he is talking about, but I think he is wrong or at least it is not entirely a mixing problem.

Wrong or right and whatever the fault is, it still sounds awful to have that horn solo almost inaudible, the same with the boys chorus. I know that years and years of listening to music might have hurt my hearing but I do not consider myself quite deaf yet so dynamic range should not ruin my listening pleasures for the sake of that range.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mmmmh..this comes really rather...unexpected. Third blockbuster within a year that is strictly Hollywood 'classical' (meaning lots of woodwinds and underscore not conceived on sequencers), some of it is trimmable, a lot unexpectedly dissonant. Are we into the Renaissance yet?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.