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

[Jay 37,281]

I bought exactly one copy of the AOTC OST album, and I bought it in-store at a Target to get the bonus track.  I don't remember which cover I went with though

[Matt C 452]

The Fantastic Four - David & Eric Wurst

 

 

Oh my God, having this score separate from the movie really allows me to appreciate the music written here. The brothers took inspiration from Elfman, Walker, Goldsmith and Horner but there's not much temp tracking.

 

It's cheesy and campy, but it's so entertaining. The quality of the writing and enthusiastic musicians make up for the smaller orchestra used. How is it that this score ends up better overall than John Ottman and Marco Beltrami's work?

[Thor 7,464]

 

I can't remember when this promo was "released". Probably the 90s. Either way, it's a gem of a compilation that showcases the highly underrated talent of Jonathan Elias - both orchestral, choral and especially the gorgeous electronic stuff like "1000 Mile Stare" from TWO MOON JUNCTION. Jon wrote this wonderful retrospective of his work over on Celluloid Tunes awhile back.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

Nice, @Thor.

He also produced the ABWH tracks that ended up on UNION, and worked, closely, with Robert Downey Jr. on his album THE FUTURIST, which features a cover of "Your Move", with backing vocals by...Jon Anderson .

It's a small world.

[Thor 7,464]

4 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Nice, @Thor.

He also produced the ABWH tracks that ended up on UNION, and worked, closely, with Robert Downey Jr. on his album THE FUTURIST, which features a cover of "Your Move", with backing vocals by...Jon Anderson .

It's a small world.

 

Yup, some of those collabs are on the compilation too, I forgot to mention.

[crocodile 7,983]

 Ready Player One. It's funny how both the film and score almost instantly  disappeared from public consciousness. To be honest, while not exactly a jaw-dropper, this is still one of the better Silvestri scores in recent times. It meanders a bit here and there, and I would probably drop 10-15 minutes off the album, but there's still more than enough to enjoy. The film isn't THAT bad either.

 

Karol

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

Ready Player One is certainly one of the best Silvestri from the past decade (that, Marwen, Endgame and Cosmos). About the movie I think it's a lot due to the fact that it is not part of any saga and that people were expecting far too much of it. The movie is really good, certainly not as great as E.T., Indy or Jurassic Park but far superior to all the 2018 blockbusters of that year.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I'm a broken record on how much I hate the movie (Spiely's worst by a country mile for me) and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but on the other hand I really really like Silvestri's score.  "Why Can't We Go Backwards?" freakin' rules!  Some seriously great highlights on that OST.

[Tallguy 3,364]

I can watch Ready Player One. (And have. Multiple times.) I cannot watch Hook.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I can get into Hook via the exquisite production values (I love those Neverland sets, how they feel purposefully artificial in an old Hollywood kinda way), and its heart is in the right place with the story.  Whereas I find RP1 ugly to look at and reprehensible in story.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

Peppermint by Simon Franglen

Notre-Dame brûle by Simon Franglen

I wanted to hear what Franglen has done without Horner and while Peppermint didn't really convince me, I found Notre-Dame brûle to be very good with some very nice action writing

[Bespin 8,475]

Vangelis - Juno to Jupiter (2021) (Spotify) 

Hans Zimmer - Dune (Spotify)

Danny Elfman - The Girl on the Train

Howard Shore - The Battle of the Five Armies

Jerry Goldsmith - First Contact (complete score)

[Edmilson 7,384]

Chicken Run

 

The more I listen to this score, the more I love it! It's so fun and energetic

[bruce marshall 1,314]

LOONEY TOONS BACK IN ACTION.DE

 

I listened to this because Yavar said it was a great listen.

T' ain't. 😉

[Andy 4,079]

 

Revisited after a long time. There’s a glimmer of a score in there somewhere.  The military percussion and love theme are there.   But nothing is sustained long before it slips into goofball mode.   I had to double check the year of release (1965) because I thought “The King Primps” had a section that parodied Neal Hefti’s Batman 1966 theme, but nope.  Wow Shirley MacLane’s vocals are grating.  Has anyone seen the film?

[publicist 4,643]

2 hours ago, Andy said:

Has anyone seen the film?

 

It's as bad as the score (suggests), even Peter Ustinov is awful, camping it up as childish Sheik.

[crocodile 7,983]

16 hours ago, Stu said:

I'm a broken record on how much I hate the movie (Spiely's worst by a country mile for me) and I don't want to beat a dead horse, but on the other hand I really really like Silvestri's score.  "Why Can't We Go Backwards?" freakin' rules!  Some seriously great highlights on that OST.

That's a bit harsh. Granted, this definitely isn't Spielberg's finest, or even great, but there's nothing particularly wrong with it. The problem I have with the film is that, as someone who recently left social media and who is not a gamer, some of the themes and conclusions developed within the story can be baffling. I have a hard time identifying with character's passions for virtual reality. Still, from what I know about the book, Spielberg still handles that story gracefully enough.

 

Karol

[publicist 4,643]

2 hours ago, crocodile said:

Still, from what I know about the book, Spielberg still handles that story gracefully enough.

 

Yeah, he handles a piece of shit with the professional eloquence it deserves. Not going into the whole 'fetishizing socially weird nerds' thing the book/movie so proudly makes its center, i'm going to say i enjoyed it as a proof for that Spielberg's ability as a film craftman is second-to-none. After 20 years of Michael Bay and Doug Liman & Co. and their weird, chaotic mise én scene, Spielberg shows us you can make a brilliant filmic set piece even out of a huge action scene set in a virtual robot monster world with hundreds of things fighting each other.

 

On the other hand, Spielberg as a lifelong Kubrick fan and friend never should have made that peanut brain riff on 'The Shining'. What in the movie begins as an intriguing atmospheric homage soon becomes Disney's 'Haunted Mansion' - it's how a dumb person reads The Shining. 

[Bespin 8,475]

Vangelis - 1492: Conquest of Paradise (Spotify)

Hans Zimmer - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Spotify)

Danny Elfman - The End of the Tour

Howard Shore - Cosmopolis

Jerry Goldsmith - Hollow Man

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

Hans Zimmer - The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Spotify)

Why? Why?

 

Otherwise great selection

[Bespin 8,475]

My two last selections were made "around" Vangelis.

 

Why SM2 by Zimmer... It's only a matter of personal culture because I don't know this score. Same for "Dune" yesterday. Zimmer is in a way an heir of Vangelis, from a certain point of view... and Goldsmith surely was an inspiration for Vangelis.

 

Then I add "Spotify" in bracket to let you know this album is not in my collection.

[publicist 4,643]

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is actually pretty entertaining. 

[Edmilson 7,384]

I prefer Batman v Superman over Zimmer's Spider-Man and Man of Steel scores. 

[Thor 7,464]

13 hours ago, Andy said:

Revisited after a long time. There’s a glimmer of a score in there somewhere.  The military percussion and love theme are there.   But nothing is sustained long before it slips into goofball mode.   I had to double check the year of release (1965) because I thought “The King Primps” had a section that parodied Neal Hefti’s Batman 1966 theme, but nope.  Wow Shirley MacLane’s vocals are grating.  Has anyone seen the film?

 

Yes. Its main problem is the un-funny, over-the-top noise level (an issue that also plagued 1941 several years later). As if they were thinking the more noise and the less dynamic, the funnier. Alas, Williams' score adds to the mayhem, thereby adding fuel to fire. It's by far his worst effort, even though there are a couple of entertaining tracks.

 

I've tried to program the soundtrack into something listenable, but even in my 25-minute program, I have a hard time getting through. I wish Williams had recorded a separate album at the time, with proper, listener-friendly arrangements of the cues; I think that's the only way it could have worked.

[publicist 4,643]

18 minutes ago, Thor said:

Williams' score adds to the mayhem, thereby adding fuel to fire.

 

Tbh, 60's US comedy movies had these annoying 'zany' bells- and-whistles scores pretty much all the time, from Doris Day to Disney family movies. 
 

 

A fusion album i love, from the jazz standards to Yared's seductive, silky score, a kind of a light, sicilian 'Basic Instinct'. 

[Andy 4,079]

I think it might actually help if I saw the film of John Goldfarb. I listened (again) to Jeff Comings’ review of it on his podcast (The Baton) and he had more enthusiasm for it after watching the film and then listening on its own.   I have to admit combining Irish and Arabian sounding music into a football fight song is an assignment that would frighten off just about anybody. 
 

I’ll see if I can catch the film.  I’m not above enjoying a goofball comedy of its time. 
 

Maybe it’s a matter of appreciating the score for what it is, than what it isn’t. 

[LSH 968]

JENNIFER 8 - CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

 

Cracking main theme that bookends the score but the bulk of it is mostly uninteresting dreary suspense stuff. Still, I always return for the theme, which is one of those classic haunting Young melodies you'd normally associate with his horror output.

[publicist 4,643]

 

An ultra-patriotic 15-minute James Horner cue: this will make you either swoon or run for the hills. Having listened to it today made me appreciate its impeccable craftmanship more, though it's still aiding a somewhat questionable military ethos. Back in 1996 i found it draggy and boring.

 

Zwick's low-key thriller hardly needs Horner (it's built like a detective story), so the only musically noteworthy cues on the album are either concert pieces or the big, bookending salvation cue linked above - solemn patriotism was the only angle Horner could musically exploit.

 

It's not a great score, additionally burdened by the fact that he lifted large parts of the opening battle for 'Titanic', but the cues Hymn, The Elegy  and Courage Under Fire (plus the finale) are surprisingly free of self-referencing and i just grew fond of them, in a way you like your old slippers.

 

Also it obviously was the template on which JW based the Omaha beach cue in SPR. It is *very* similar to the 'Courage Under Fire' cue.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

6 hours ago, Bespin said:

Zimmer is in a way an heir of Vangelis...

 

Sorry, dude, but in no way is Zimmer the heir to anything.

[Bespin 8,475]

HEY!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

As far as that man's...er... music is concerned, there is no certain point of view 

[bruce marshall 1,314]

4 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

 

Sorry, dude, but in no way is Zimmer the heir to anything.

Yes he is.

In.the same way Fart is " heir" to GRUESOME and BASTARD.

😎

 

[Bespin 8,475]

Just another pairing of the fab-five for my friend Naïve.

 

Vangelis - The City (Spotify)

Zimmer - The Dark Knight Rises (Spotify)

Elfman - Frankenweenie

Shore - The Two Towers

Goldsmith - Small Soldiers (Spotify)

[Bespin 8,475]

On 21/05/2022 at 12:48 PM, publicist said:

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is actually pretty entertaining. 

 

I liked it alot actually, I'll purchase it.

[Thor 7,464]

 

To be honest, I've never really been sure about what this is. It's supposed to be a Rossif documentary from 1980 or 1981 dedicated to Vangelis and their many collaborations. But other sources indicate it's a French TV show. I think maybe it's both -- like a half-hour TV special directed by Rossif. Anyways, it's on YouTube, for anyone interested. It's a combination of existing Vangelis tracks from their documentary collabs, as well as some new music. It has not had an official release.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

19 hours ago, Bespin said:

Vangelis - The City

It's a good'un.

[Thor 7,464]

10 minutes ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

It's a good'un.

 

Top 10 Vangelis, for sure. "Dawn" and "Twilight" sound like outtakes from BLADE RUNNER, but love the other tracks too.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

White Lines by Tom Holkenborg

Really nice electronic score, I love the track Infinite

[Tom Guernsey 2,280]

Phantom of the Opera by Craig Sagan. I wish I’d read more of the comments on this one as this was a massive let down. The “composed and conducted by” credit feels quite misleading as most of it is synthesised and they aren’t even very good synths (compared to, say, the ones used by John Powell which at times could almost be mistaken for the real thing). It would matter less if the music was decent but it didn’t do anything for me either.

 

On the flip side, gave the original Star Trek: TMP album programme a spin after the terrific (and generously long and free) webcast about it at the weekend. Still one of the all time great score and, even if the original album programme misses a whole lot of great music it makes an excellent “tone poem” style presentation. My only real quibble is placing The Meld before Spock Walk. The former is a naturally climactic cue before the credits so having an extra track before the credits seems a bit strange. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

37 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Phantom of the Opera by Craig Sagan. I wish I’d read more of the comments on this one as this was a massive let down. The “composed and conducted by” credit feels quite misleading as most of it is synthesised and they aren’t even very good synths (compared to, say, the ones used by John Powell which at times could almost be mistaken for the real thing). It would matter less if the music was decent but it didn’t do anything for me either.

 

Roy Budd's score is 1000% better.

[crocodile 7,983]

 Standard Operation Procedure and The Unknown Known. Two documentary scores Elfman composed for Errol Morris are among his best films works written of 21st century. Although, due to the somewhat different process, you might say they have more in common with composer's concert work. Smaller budget, large presence of synths, huge Philip Glass influences - these are some of the elements that link the two works. There's also something really sardonic about the tone. For my money, really great stuff.

 

 

 

Karol

[LSH 968]

9 hours ago, May the Force be with You said:

White Lines by Tom Holkenborg

Really nice electronic score, I love the track Infinite

 

Best thing he's done, IMO.

 

"Stick to what you're good at" springs to mind.

 

 

 

Not as creatively expansive as the sequels, or Powell's concurrent animation efforts, proved to be but I always find myself coming back to this for its smaller scale charm.

 

The almost 7-minute finale of The Water Recedes / Mammoths / With The Herd / Into The Sunset is what I mostly return to. Always coaxes a smile... and very often a tear.

 

This is also the first film that I took my little sister to see at the cinema so the music holds a very special place for both of us. She is not a film score maniac like me but she still cries when she hears it. 

[Bespin 8,475]

Vangelis - Direct (Spotify)

Zimmer - Sherlock Holmes (Spotify)

Elfman - Real Steel (Spotify)

Shore - Fellowship of the Ring OST

Goldsmith - L.A. Confidential OST

[JNHFan2000 2,944]

Mortdecai - Geoff Zanelli & Mark Ronson

 

Haven't heard this in at least 4 or 5 years. It's really fun. Nothing groundbreaking. But a nice 40 minute score album (minus the 2 songs).

[Bespin 8,475]

On 18/05/2022 at 9:28 AM, Jay said:

I bought exactly one copy of the AOTC OST album, and I bought it in-store at a Target to get the bonus track.  I don't remember which cover I went with though

 

Tired of waiting (I forgot I was waiting!) I just purchased a copy with the bonus track on it.

 

So normally an expansion should be announced in few days.

[bruce marshall 1,314]

THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

Now that is a fantastic score, from a fantastic film.

"That's where you are, Quiller: in the gap".

[bruce marshall 1,314]

Senta Berger....

Jawohl!!!!😙

[Naïve Old Fart 9,493]

Yes. Rather tasty, isn't she? Pity she's a neo-Nazi.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

‘Tis Pity She’s a Neo-Nazi is my favorite play