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


Ollie

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Pan's Labyrinth by Javier Navarrete

 

The Village by James Newton Howard 

 

Agatha Christie's Poirot by Christopher Gunning, Stephen McKeon and Christian Henson

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6 hours ago, publicist said:

Jerry Goldsmith died on this day in 2004. So I give this sweet Austin Wintory-arranged tribute a spotlight.

 

 

Man, that's a brilliant tribute, superb arrangements and some of those transitions are utterly brilliant. I'd hope that Jerry would be pleased with that!

 

Been doing some Jerry listening myself...

 

Planet of the Apes - not much to say, but my appreciation has only increased since the LLL set came out.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - listening through the alternates and unused early score is a treasure trove of music that's only not top drawer good becuase the final thing is so utterly brilliant. To think that he wrote music that good which got turned down and managed to up his game even more. Astounding.

Medicine Man - Still one of my favourites, such a winning mixture of orchestra, synths and exotic elements.

LA Confidential - I don't begrudge James Horner his Oscar (although I think he should have won for Braveheart... or Krull... or Star Trek II, but they were never going to happen), Jerry full deserved the prize for LA Confidential. Mind you, he was robbed so many times...

Concert Suites (from the Tadlow Blue Max album) - nice to have a range of less familiar Jerry scores represented, like they've done with some of their Maurice Jarre albums. The Blue Max re-recording is terrific too, of course.

 

 

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12 hours ago, Gruesome Son of a Bitch said:

download (1).jpeg

Spielberg's hair seems a wee bit photoshopped. :lol:

 

The Ghost Writer by Alexandre Desplat: Among my favourite Desplat scores. Superbly suspenseful and the orchestrations are at times wonderfully off-kilter.

 

Monsignor by John Williams: I just love this score from start to finish.

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On 7/22/2020 at 6:05 AM, Incanus said:

Sleepy Hollow by Danny Elfman: Still among my top 5 Elfman scores. It is superbly thematic, Gothically raucous and intricate in its writing with the main musical ideas constantly being reworked and spun around each other throughout the album. The finale from The Windmill onwards is breathless and expertly weaves in and out of the long exposition scene with intercut Headless Horseman approach shots culminating in The Chase and the piece with the classic Elfman track title The Final Confrontation. The rest of the score is equally intricate and dramatic with nary a dull moment throughout. I would love to have a complete presentation of this score, even though most of the unreleased music is shorter connective material as it would just add to the dark glory of this score.

 

Without doubt my favourite Elfman. This badly needs a proper complete expansion. So many nice little unreleased moments. Whoever it was who thought that the additional material in the B/E box was all there was to add, does not know this score at all.

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On 7/22/2020 at 7:05 AM, Incanus said:

Robin Hood  Prince of Thieves by Michael Kamen: I really like this score and think that a better recording/performance would certainly raise my appreciation even more. Someone should re-record this with better acoustics and mixing as the original recording feels very closed and small which sucks some of the dynamics out of the music. Still there is some of Kamen's loveliest melodic and swashbuckling material to be found in this score and I find myself revisiting it more often that we now have Intrada's release of the music.

 

I'd say the biggest problem of the recording is the blunders from some of the players. I think it would be hard to recreate all of the energy and enthusiasm of the original recording in a rerecording.

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More Jerry listening...

 

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Hard to argue that it's not one of his best scores, if not his single greatest achievement. Although like all things that approach perfection, I still assert that the opening credits would have been far more effective using the V'Ger music rather than his Star Trek theme. Indeed, imagine starting the credits with the descending four note blaster beam motif that opens the alternate version of The Force Field and the Vertigo-esque arpeggio figures over the credits leading into the Klingon Battle. Sure, his Star Trek theme is winning and always feels like the best summation of the Star Trek ethos in music (I always sigh inwardly whenever Giacchino's theme is used to signify Star Trek...), but the tone feels all wrong for the start of this particular movie (I'm sure it's what the producers/director wanted). For me it's too upbeat and adventurous. I suggested this as a "heretical view" on FSM and nobody agreed so I don't expect anyone here to agree!

 

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - When almost everyone's grails have been released, this was one for me until the terrific espanded album came out. Still one of my favourite scores and certainly my favourite performance of Jerry's Star Trek theme. Whatever subtle orchestration changes he made between TMP and this (I don't know if anyone has sat down to figure them out?) adds just a bit more adventurous swagger to an already terrific theme and the coupling with the original Courage fanfare works gangbusters too. Indeed, the original TMP opening feels almost a bit clunky in comparison and the subtle synth swoop that helps join the two melodies together subtly enhances it for me, keeping the momentum going.

 

TFF also contains one of my favourite short, spine tingling moments in A Tall Ship. His glittering introduction of the Enterprise, while not the showstopper of the titular TMP track, is just terrific. Indeed, I have made the point elsewhere that he really scored the spectacle of this film (or how it would have looked with a huge budget rather than the iffy effects it actually got) and the chance to score little joining scenes that don't come up very often. What it is about Star Trek movies and short shuttle rides that bring out the best in composers?! The Wrath of Kahn has a similarly lovely few seconds as the crew journey to the Enterprise.

 

Having said all that, I've not come across a Jerry score where the original versions of a couple of action cues (notably Open the Gates and Let's Get Out of Here) are surprisingly clunky in places and the album edits really tighten the pacing. Not sure if those little pauses are due to William Shatner's pacing or just one of those things, but it's really noticeable compared to the tightness of the album edits.

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Dracula (Varese Deluxe Edition) by John Williams: I don't listen to the Varese Deluxe edition nearly enough, as every time I do, I am reminded how wonderful this music is and how wonderful this release is. John Williams should really have scored more horror films with such darkly romantic twist as this stuff seems right up his alley. While the OST album did have many of the major setpieces of the score, the Varese Deluxe release adds some connective musical material in to the mix, revealing e.g. a minor motif for Van Helsing for the first time, that never made it to the original album in a recognizable way and revealing a larger architecture of the score presented in its complete and (mostly) chronological form. I can't stop marvelling how Williams kept churning such great scores one after another in that particular time period and this release really showcases why Dracula should stand proud among his amazing 1970's output.

 

And now onward to take a listen to an equally impressive yet completely different take on the Dracula story:

:music:Bram Stoker's Dracula (LLL release personal playlist) by Wojciech Kilar

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3cds is borderline decadent!

6 hours ago, Romão said:

The Final Frontier is my favorite Star Trek score, but I needed the expanded album to fall in love with it

It added some nice cues but I liked it from the ost!

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Lavish indeed!

 

And to be honest I very rarely just listen to the LLL set as it is presented on those discs but rather I  compiled my own playlist for the score with film versions, unused and alternates I liked.

 

Every time I listen this score I feel that Kilar's romantic themes (used or unused) remind of John Barry's in their sweeping style. 

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For this idiotic Jodie Foster plane abduction thriller, James Horner came up with one of his more engaging late works. Why that is beats me, as he usually did movies like this on the side, and mostly with forgettable results. Here he blends his favourite three note motif (which memorable turned up as siren/birdlike call in Sneakers, Beautiful Mind and Pelican Brief) as a quasi-main theme with  glittering minimalist textures vs. harsh sudden orchestral outbreaks in the Bartok/Shostakovich vein. The often long cues are classically structured and find release and resolution in the warm renditions of the main motif throughout and in the final cue. It's a fine thriller score and, for a change, a perfect 50-minute selection that doesn't overstay its welcome.

 

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Today I've been listening to Requiem For My Friend by Zbigniew Preisner. This album is incredible! I love his use of saxophone, which was often a featured instrument in his music. Famously, Tree of Life used Lacrimosa in a cool space sequence. There are some absolutely killer tracks on this album. Sometimes jubilant, other times dark and moody.

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14 hours ago, Romão said:

The Final Frontier is my favorite Star Trek score, but I needed the expanded album to fall in love with it

 

I've always liked it, but it's always been a distant second to STTMP, until the expansion came out, when it turned into a much closer second. Some of the best material of the entire series was missing from the OST. And the glorious Botnick sound is amazing.

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Prince of Persia - Harry Potter Gregson-Williams

 

Rather frustrating score. It has a beautiful main theme in the style of the RC power anthems from the 2000s. However, the action music is too anachronistic, with guitars and synths, and that wouldn't been a problem per se if the action music was a little more creative. Instead, what we got is some generic cues that could've been from any Middle Eastern thriller set on modern times.

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The Wolfman (2010) Danny Elfman and Conrad Pope

I was recently compelled to listen to this after someone I knew had inquired to me about what was available for it. By all intents and purposes, it is basically Elfman doing Kilar's Dracula in his own style. And while that has the potential to fall apart due to how different the sensibilities of that are compared to his regular work, he manages to make something rather engaging out of such a curious concept. It's definitely more standard in its structure compared to the European style scoring BSD had, but that doesn't stop Danny from using the main theme heavily throughout. Despite there not seeming to be other themes on first listen, it never drags and is always on a good pace. I suppose it could use some trimming in its complete form, but I'm surprisingly unsure as to what I could cut from it. I will say that the suites don't properly prepare you for what a majority of the score sounds like and aren't the most interesting of tracks, so leave those at the end as bonuses.

As for the Pope cues, it predictably is hard to judge when listening to them on their own, as they're definitely designed for the hacked together version of Elfman's score the film uses. But they definitely have their nice moments. It seems to me that Conrad took a lot of his knowledge and applied them to the 22 minutes he got, as I'm reminded of quite a few composers here. Very little of it really bothering to match up with Danny's work, given I didn't pick up on anything from his music actually being used here besides maybe a brief instance of his main theme. I particularly gravitated towards the more romantic material, as well as the rather Chris Young sounding finale cue.

All in all, it's not really one of Elfman's best, but it's definitely an underrated entry in his canon. I'd recommend it, and the Pope cues if you can manage to find them (especially since I was only recently aware of them actually being out there).

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13 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

I've always liked it, but it's always been a distant second to STTMP, until the expansion came out, when it turned into a much closer second. Some of the best material of the entire series was missing from the OST. And the glorious Botnick sound is amazing.

I know the excellent pre credits music is new, but what other added cues do you like?

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7 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

I know the excellent pre credits music is new, but what other added cues do you like?

 

The Target Practice/A Tall Ship/Plot Course triptychon is a sequence of tracks I've more than once put in my playlist just on its own.

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Home Alone by John Williams (La La Land Records)

I am so glad that I finely have this one. To hear it in chronological order for the first time is great, I like it much better than the OST. 

Superman by John Williams (La La Land Records)

I never had much interest in this score before (except for the Main Theme) but now that I have listen to the complete score, I really like it. 

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Last three scores to have been given a spin:

 

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Funnily enough, when looking for artwork for "The Adventures of Conan", which runs as "Sword and Sorcery" in my Book of Revelations (of the Ringwraiths), I typed in "Sword and Stone", and DuckDuckGo searched for "The Sword in the Stone", which is a lovely George Bruns score for the Disney movie and REALLY ought to get an official release...

 

...also, that bottle of Amaretto really needed emptying. Boy hoooooooowdy. :drunk:

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This is what young sophisticates consider great scoring these days. Personally, I think it's unbearable, but I wouldn't be surprised if one or two here thought it avant-garde and profound.

 

And it's not even the worst music in the show.

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Legends of the Fall (Intrada) by James Horner

 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Alex North

 

Earthquake (LLL) by John Williams

 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (LLL) by John Williams

 

U.S. Marshals (Varese Deluxe Edition) by Jerry Goldsmith

 

The Black Dahlia by Mark Isham

 

Psycho by Bernard Herrmann

 

Arsène Lupin by Debbie Wiseman

9 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

 

Why? What have he done?

He is sort of the butt of the joke here.

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I just watched the old 1980 Boston Pops Concert, it was very good! WOW!

 

I now want MORE of The Cowboys (my playlist made from the expanded set) and The Reivers (the MFM reissue)!

 

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1 hour ago, Quintus said:

 

This is what young sophisticates consider great scoring these days. Personally, I think it's unbearable, but I wouldn't be surprised if one or two here thought it avant-garde and profound.

 

And it's not even the worst music in the show.

 

That's not original score. It's a movement from a choral work by the brilliant Caroline Shaw. It won the Pulitzer Prize too. The whole thing is actually quite excellent.

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23 minutes ago, KK said:

 

That's not original score. It's a movement from a choral work by the brilliant Caroline Shaw. It won the Pulitzer Prize too. The whole thing is actually quite excellent.

 

 I'll stick to Rolf Harris.

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39 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:
  1 hour ago, Incanus said:

Arsène Lupin by Debbie Wiseman

Any good?

Highly enjoyable I would say. Wiseman's score is quite an old fashioned thematic adventure romp with a charming solid main theme and scored big and bold for a large symphony orchestra and chorus. I don't think Wiseman often gets to do a score of this magnitude so it sounds like she really relished the opportunity. You should check it out on Spotify and judge it for yourself.

28 minutes ago, crocodile said:

:music: Titus. What would I give to hear a score of such imagination and colour in a modern film. It is both refined and unashamedly kitschy.

 

Karol

Such an strange eclectic mix of styles in a single score but Goldenthal expertly weaves it all together and makes it work. A superb score.

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6 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

The Target Practice/A Tall Ship/Plot Course triptychon is a sequence of tracks I've more than once put in my playlist just on its own.

I made a cdr edit of the score.

Highlighted cues are also on.the ost. You can see I added several new cues.

I actually prefer the album edit of " Let's get out..."

20200725_110102.jpg

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14 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Sadly, the soundtrack doesn't seem to be on Spotify.

Strange that I found the whole soundtrack on Spotify with a web search but could not listen to it.

Anyway there is a Debbie Wiseman compilation, Debbie Wiseman Live at the Barbican, with a performance of a suite she adapted for concert that can be found on Spotify.

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5 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Strange that I found the whole soundtrack on Spotify with a web search but could not listen to it.

Anyway there is a Debbie Wiseman compilation, Debbie Wiseman Live at the Barbican, with a performance of a suite she adapted for concert that can be found on Spotify.

 

Thanks! I needed a sampler of Wiseman's works.

 

https://open.spotify.com/album/0xGHjbIkWTRiixQ0ZjTuo1?si=GX-1wF1xTMOTmriLX3V-jw

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7 minutes ago, crocodile said:

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Batman Forever

Fahrenheit 451

Obsession

 

Karol

Good stuff Karol!

 

Minority Report (LLL) by John Williams

 

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (LLL) by John Williams

 

:music: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by John Williams

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