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


Ollie

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L.A. Confidential

My God this is such a gem, I can't believe I hadn't listened to it ever before. Now I have to watch the movie.

A great late film noir score from Goldsmith even though the main theme does borrow liberally from On the Waterfront by Leonard Bernstein.

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Black Gold by James Horner

Less bombastic and mushy epic melodrama from Horner. Shorter album is a blessing, too. Fat-free and to the point. Good stuff.

Karol

Yeah it is very enjoyable indeed.

Empire of the Sun (LaLa-Land release) by John Williams: I still admire the way Williams brings such wide variety of elements together in this score and it still retains a singular character of its own and is most of all such an emotionally powerful experience. The LLL release is a dream come true!

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Star Trek VI. Not sure if the expansion serves this score well, but it's good to have the trailer music and one or two additional tracks. In either case, an interesting take on this universe, that manages to be both grounded and still able to conjure some Trek magic (if there is such a thing).

Karol

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The Aurora (Masamichi Amano)

How many know of this stellar score? All out symphonic bombast, choral splendor, and truly fantastic themes. Amano's the man !!!

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John T. Williams: Jazz Beginnings: A great compilation of John Williams's early jazz performances with several different ensembles. The name of the album with the John T. Williams comes from the need to diffrentiate between our beloved film composer from the jazz pianist John Williams (our film composer seems to have a namesake in every possible branch and style of music). The 2-disc set contains more than 2 hours of material ranging from standards to new arrangements by Williams to two of his own short compositions. It is a swinging jazz experience and a fascinating plunge into the career of Johnny Williams the performer. And without a doubt the great skill and finess many of his colleagues have attributed to him as a pianist over the years is clearly on display here and ranges from gossamer tenderness to some quite fancy fingerwork. The mood of the majority of the album is breezy and sophisticated and traditional (you won't be hearing anything e.g. coming near fusion jazz) and the last half of the second album is dedicated to Williams' collaboration album with Johnny Desmond whose smooth crooning is well supported by the composer's apt orchestrations. This double CD set is worth investigating to Williams afficionados who want to hear the jazz player roots of the film music Maestro as well as to classical jazz enthusiasts and a swell way to spend a couple of laid back hours with Johnny and his different bands.

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Marnie (Bernard Herrmann)

The Joel McNeely re-recording. Wow ! I knew Vertigo was an incredible recording, but this is practically on the same level. It's so good I'm going to order it, and then I will have 3 Herrmann scores in my collection. :drool:

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The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring - Howard Shore

I *really* think this is better than Williams' Star Wars. Perhaps a poll on the subject is in order?

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To paraphrase Tolkien's long time friend and fellow Inkling Hugo Dyson: Oh god no more polls!

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I'll be going on a 17-hour bus trip to Missouri....I'm trying to compile the right music for the trip. Any suggestions guys?

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Gotta have TOD on there

"I'm going home to Missouri where they never feed you snakes before ripping your heart out and lowering you into hot pits! This is NOT my idea of a swell time!"

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I have a bunch of compilations from Telarc (Erich Kunzel conducting Cincinatti Pops Orchestra) that would be fantasic listens on such a long trip. Stuff likes 'Hollywood's Greatest Hits' (I & II), Mega Movies, Round Up, Fantastic Journey, Star Tracks (I & II), Bond & Beyond, The Great Fantasy Adventure Album, Time Warp, The Big Picture to name some. It would be hard to fall asleep with most of these. The performances and recordings are simply stellar, not to mention the excellent variety found on these albums !

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^ Good Silvestri & great Horner.

Shaft (David Arnold)

The Isaac Hayes song is ace, but not everything keeps my attention, still there is a very cool vibe going on in this score.

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Man of Steel by Hans Zimmer

Now, I'm not a biggest fan of this particular work, not the large chunk of it anyway. Zimmer basically treated the character not as a military or patriotic figure, as it happened with all the classic brassy approaches. Instead, he decided to create a very common-folk kind of Americana sound for him. Which in itself is really interesting. I like how Superman's material is developed over the course of this story. It goes through a few subtle stages - having mostly to do with the arrangement.

At first you get the Kryptonian New Agey vocal-ornamented version (about first two minutes of this track):

Then you sort of move to the Midwest small town type of version (which reminds me a great deal of latter portions of Black Hawk Down):

Before finally unleashing a more testosterone-induced and "heroic" for superhero scenes (known to us from the final trailer):

It might not be exactly groundbreaking, but at least Zimmer tries to give his take some character that is in an almost complete opposition to John Williams type of scoring. And I respect that. Having said that, the action material isn't even remotely interesting. But there is about 40 minutes of music on the extended album (plus the Demo track) that is really enjoyable in a pop music kind of way.

Karol

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ARGO by Alexandre Desplat

'Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin with a spin
Trav'ling in the world of my creation
What we'll see will defy
Explanation'

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ARGO by Alexandre Desplat

'Come with me and you'll be

In a world of pure imagination

Take a look and you'll see

Into your imagination

We'll begin with a spin

Trav'ling in the world of my creation

What we'll see will defy

Explanation'

That theme is less unremarkable than I remembered it being. Nice.

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Lethal Weapon 2. Following LLL's reminder that it's this films' 25th Anniversary today. Terrific fun, this one.

Karol

What a great box, so glad I bought one !! And saying I found Kamen's scores functional in the films, but could not imagine enjoying them outside of them for many years... Until that box came along. Boy, what an ear-opener !!!

Now listening to Black Rain (Hans Zimmer) LLL Disc 2. Not my favourite Zimmer, I bought this before it went OOP, but it does have its moments. The album is fun, the score side a little less...

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Man of Steel by Hans Zimmer

Now, I'm not a biggest fan of this particular work, not the large chunk of it anyway. Zimmer basically treated the character not as a military or patriotic figure, as it happened with all the classic brassy approaches. Instead, he decided to create a very common-folk kind of Americana sound for him. Which in itself is really interesting. I like how Superman's material is developed over the course of this story. It goes through a few subtle stages - having mostly to do with the arrangement.

At first you get the Kryptonian New Agey vocal-ornamented version (about first two minutes of this track):

http://youtu.be/dFTlKwhvrAY

Then you sort of move to the Midwest small town type of version (which reminds me a great deal of latter portions of Black Hawk Down):

http://youtu.be/bZf64POWYHQ

Before finally unleashing a more testosterone-induced and "heroic" for superhero scenes (known to us from the final trailer):

http://youtu.be/qpBnxR2zPWk

It might not be exactly groundbreaking, but at least Zimmer tries to give his take some character that is in an almost complete opposition to John Williams type of scoring. And I respect that. Having said that, the action material isn't even remotely interesting. But there is about 40 minutes of music on the extended album (plus the Demo track) that is really enjoyable in a pop music kind of way.

Karol

Fair reappraisal. There are batches of tracks which bore me and I always skip them entirely (I forget their titles, it's probably the drum concerto ones ;)), but there are a few action cues in there which I REALLY like. I love the sounds and exotic aesthetic of the timbres, to me some of that stuff is pure hard sci-fi. It sounds like some of the best science fiction video games I've played.

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Mark Mancina - Speed 2

Hey Karol's right, Geiger's secondary theme is very similar to the Necromancer's theme from AUJ! Still a great 90's action score

Victor Reyes - Grand Piano

Wow, freaking awesome. One of the best scores of 2013, for sure! The album is really short but is completely effective the entire time. Love it.

Howard Shore - Hugo

Such a nice, fun, light score that hits the exact right spot when you're looking for those qualities.

Howard Shore - Return of the King (CR)

Warming up to this more and more all the time. The Seige of Gondor is freaking epic.

Ramin Djawadi - Game of Thrones Season 4

:sleepy:

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Man of Steel by Hans Zimmer

Now, I'm not a biggest fan of this particular work, not the large chunk of it anyway. Zimmer basically treated the character not as a military or patriotic figure, as it happened with all the classic brassy approaches. Instead, he decided to create a very common-folk kind of Americana sound for him. Which in itself is really interesting. I like how Superman's material is developed over the course of this story. It goes through a few subtle stages - having mostly to do with the arrangement.

At first you get the Kryptonian New Agey vocal-ornamented version (about first two minutes of this track):

http://youtu.be/dFTlKwhvrAY

Then you sort of move to the Midwest small town type of version (which reminds me a great deal of latter portions of Black Hawk Down):

http://youtu.be/bZf64POWYHQ

Before finally unleashing a more testosterone-induced and "heroic" for superhero scenes (known to us from the final trailer):

http://youtu.be/qpBnxR2zPWk

It might not be exactly groundbreaking, but at least Zimmer tries to give his take some character that is in an almost complete opposition to John Williams type of scoring. And I respect that. Having said that, the action material isn't even remotely interesting. But there is about 40 minutes of music on the extended album (plus the Demo track) that is really enjoyable in a pop music kind of way.

Karol

Fair reappraisal. There are batches of tracks which bore me and I always skip them entirely (I forget their titles, it's probably the drum concerto ones ;)), but there are a few action cues in there which I REALLY like. I love the sounds and exotic aesthetic of the timbres, to me some of that stuff is pure hard sci-fi. It sounds like some of the best science fiction video games I've played.

Did you cut out the tracks I suggested a while back? Great album once you do that.

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Mark Mancina - Speed 2

Hey Karol's right, Geiger's secondary theme is very similar to the Necromancer's theme from AUJ! Still a great 90's action score

After his defeat, Sauron was at his lowest point and had to do villain cameos in substandards late 90's Hollywood actioners in order to survive. ;)

Howard Shore - Hugo

Such a nice, fun, light score that hits the exact right spot when you're looking for those qualities.

It always makes me think of Desplat.

Victor Reyes - Grand Piano

Wow, freaking awesome. One of the best scores of 2013, for sure! The album is really short but is completely effective the entire time. Love it.

Have you seen the film?

Karol

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I never did get your tracklist! Still waiting...

Must have gotten buried by other posts. These are the ones I trashed:

Oil Rig

Tornado

You Die Or I Do

Ignition

I Will Find Him

Are You Listening, Clark?

General Zod

This Is Madness

Funny to look back at the score's thread and see how people thought including one of Hans' demo suites was a waste of space. The Sketchbook is a really concise sampler of the score, and stands on its own easily.

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The sketchbook is one of the most interesting things on the album. I like how old Hans seems to be taking a more Vangelis-like route in his "ethereal synth" writing recently.

Karol

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I never did get your tracklist! Still waiting...

Must have gotten buried by other posts. These are the ones I trashed:

Oil Rig

Tornado

You Die Or I Do

Ignition

I Will Find Him

Are You Listening, Clark?

General Zod

This Is Madness

Funny to look back at the score's thread and see how people thought including one of Hans' demo suites was a waste of space. The Sketchbook is a really concise sampler of the score, and stands on its own easily.

Cheers. I'll use this to cross reference my own favourites and make something from that.

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