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

[Incanus 5,715]

15 hours ago, crocodile said:

 Michael Collins by Elliot Goldenthal. Yummy.

 

Karol

Excellent stuff indeed!

 

Masters of the Universe by Bill Conti: A bit of this score to wake me up this morning. It has a fun splashy comic book atmosphere to it where every emotion and gesture is broadcasted loud and clear in melodramatic fashion.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It's better than Star Wars.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

The Ten Commandments - Elmer Bernstein

 

The complete score program released last year (Discs 1, 2, and tracks 1-5 of Disc 3).  Biblical epic scores don't come more easy to love than this.  Very entertaining, the main themes are straightforward, catchy, and stirring.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

The Omen - Jerry Goldsmith

 

Decided to put this one on when I noticed we're on the 666th page of this thread now 

[Incanus 5,715]

Rosewood (LLL release) by John Williams: Took another listen to this and was again reminded how much I love this music. While 1990's was a decade of Williams trying his hand in variety of film genres and musical styles Rosewood, Sleepers and The Lost World remain perhaps my favourite trio of these unique scores. Rosewood is a mix of Williams' sophisticated grand orchestral sensibilities honed by several decades as the on-demand composer for Spielberg and Lucas and his less-known low key folksy or pop-music infused Americana collaborations with the likes of Mark Rydell and Arthur Penn. Throw in some accomplished writing for a gospel choir and a soloist Shirley Caesar (Johnny worked as an arranger for Mahalia Jackson back in his youth) and you've got Rosewood, a fascinating combo of guitar (played wonderfully by Dean Parks), harmonica (Tommy Morgan), moderately sized orchestra and voices that in bluesy/blue grass style conjures both time and place of Deep South but also a hefty dose of drama. It is a truly evocative score from the Maestro and easily recommended! 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,531]

LOOK DOWN, LORD remains one of his very best songs.

[crocodile 8,013]

31 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Rosewood (LLL release) by John Williams: Took another listen to this and was again reminded how much I love this music. While 1990's was a decade of Williams trying his hand in variety of film genres and musical styles Rosewood, Sleepers and The Lost World remain perhaps my favourite trio of these unique scores. Rosewood is a mix of Williams' sophisticated grand orchestral sensibilities honed by several decades as the on-demand composer for Spielberg and Lucas and his less-known low key folksy or pop-music infused Americana collaborations with the likes of Mark Rydell and Arthur Penn. Throw in some accomplished writing for a gospel choir and a soloist Shirley Caesar (Johnny worked as an arranger for Mahalia Jackson back in his youth) and you've got Rosewood, a fascinating combo of guitar (played wonderfully by Dean Parks), harmonica (Tommy Morgan), moderately sized orchestra and voices that in bluesy/blue grass style conjures both time and place of Deep South but also a hefty dose of drama. It is a truly evocative score from the Maestro and easily recommended! 

I like this score very much but still think the original album us a stronger listen.

 

Titus

 

Karol

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I'm on a roll today!

 

Moonlight - Nicholas Britell

 

Lovely and quiet.  The very definition of an adequate score elevated by an extraordinary film (as opposed to an adequate film elevated by an extraordinary score).

[publicist 4,643]

 

'Two for the Road' - Henry Mancini

 

An early spring gift from Kritzerland. Mancini and Hepburn together never failed - this movie is super-bittersweet and if the misty-eyed tune it gained from the maestro doesn't make you cry when the journey's over, you just don't have a heart. While RCA put out one of their regular easy listening records (complete with that swooning chorus that turns stomachs since 1961's 'Moon River' recording), Kritzerland now reveals the original tapes and though it's basically light and breezy variations on a theme mostly it's feels much more organic and earned. Classic!

[Sir Hilary Bray 235]

On 4/30/2017 at 1:46 AM, Bespin said:

 

Excellent choice.

 

The Guns of Navarone (1961)

Orchestrations by Johnny Williams (uncredited); Featuring Johnny Williams (p) (uncredited).

 

Small world, all that I've read about the film I had no idea Williams was involved. As for the score itself, the 'legend' is a favourite, impossible not to think of James Robertson Justice's narration ending with the theme kicking into gear. 

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Just whisper yassu and walk away...

[Faleel 5,349]

The Sand Pebbles

[Naïve Old Fart 9,531]

I've found my ultimate driving music: TRON: LEGACY !

[publicist 4,643]

TRON- Legacy R3CONF1GUR3D is even better.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,531]

Ooh! I'll try that. Thanks for the tip.

[Incanus 5,715]

Medal of Honor: European Assault by Christopher Lennertz: While not hugely original it makes for a really entertaining listen I find myself returning to quite often.

[nightscape94 965]

8 hours ago, publicist said:

TRON- Legacy R3CONF1GUR3D is even better.

 

Wasn't familiar with this release until now.  I'll give it a listen.  As a side note, I found it amusing that there is a electronica artist named Com Truise.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Nixon 

Tarzan (2014) 

 

[KK 3,307]

On 5/3/2017 at 2:54 PM, Disco Stu said:

Moonlight - Nicholas Britell

 

Lovely and quiet.  The very definition of an adequate score elevated by an extraordinary film (as opposed to an adequate film elevated by an extraordinary score).

 

Adequate is putting it nicely...

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 minute ago, KK said:

 

Adequate is putting it nicely...

 

I don't see how you could argue that it was inadequate.  It served the movie sufficiently, but nothing more, and it's not unpleasant to listen to.  "Unremarkable" is probably the most appropriate word for the score.

[KK 3,307]

I think it does the barest of the minimum required for the film. Considering how the score really only ever flirts in an out of the film in those uninspired 30 sec bits, I'm sure the film would have been just as fine without any score at all.

 

The whole thing is basically 30 second repetitions of a bland, half-baked Desplat-ian phrase, with a nice arpeggiated violin cue to give the impression of "classicism", some sonic noodling and a Max Richter-esque spinoff cue.

 

I guess, I'm still a bit sour about the overblown attention that score got this last season. Unremarkable would be more appropriate, yes. Very good film though.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Yeah, it's like the generic, readymade version of a quote-unquote "modernist" film score.  It's specifically the Music branch of the Academy that chooses nominees for the Oscars, right?  If this is truly what a plurality of that branch considers the finest of their craft, I just don't know.  And if they're letting the quality of a film dictate their feelings about a score, it's almost worse.

[crocodile 8,013]

 Sphere by Elliot Goldenthal. Never actually heard the entire score but judging by this suite (and what I remember from the film itself), it desperately needs a re-release. Oh wait... Goldenthal...  WB.... probably won't happen then.

 

 

Karol

[Disco Stu 15,495]

2 minutes ago, crocodile said:

Oh wait... Goldenthal...  WB.... probably won't happen then.

 

 

It's a sad situation to be sure, but how did Batman Forever manage to get an expanded release?  It's also Warner Bros, right?

[Jay 37,364]

It got approved before the lawsuit

[publicist 4,643]

@crocodile PM me if you want the whole thing!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

It got approved before the lawsuit

 

I guess I'm not up on the full story, Warners released a statement 10 years ago saying the situation was "resolved amicably."  Are you saying that the Batman Forever expansion, released in 2012, was approved before 2007?

[Jay 37,364]

I believe that is in fact the case, yes.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Man, I knew the timelines on these expansion projects could be long but wow.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

The Omen 

[nightscape94 965]

43 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

Man, I knew the timelines on these expansion projects could be long but wow.

 

So would you say that the final release of Batman Forever took.........forever?

[publicist 4,643]

 

Negligible. A few sequences that romantically flirt with and expand Goldsmith's original themes and motifs and translate them into an idiom that is closer to modern mores (there are swirling strings in 'Planet 4/Main Theme' that also recall older James Horner scores) make it achingly clear that Kurzel hasn't much to add to either JG's sound cosmos or sci-fi scoring in general (that is, if you don't find much sexiness in musically formless, endlessly repeated sampled industrial sounds that are a far cry from i. e. Goldenthal's apocalyptic concoctions). 

 

Even the verbatim quotes of i. e. Goldsmith's almost-musique concréte alien planet music ('Face Hugger') grasp at nothing: without any real musical architecture behind it it's just another increasingly strained minute of a generous 60-minute album rolling by (and there is prodigious amount of dead air here in desperate wait for a pitiless scissor).

 

The melodic content is - surprisingly - the biggest asset of this score, relatively speaking. In 'Covenant', 'Main Theme', 'Launcher Landing' and 'Dead Civilization', Kurzel establishes a 'space' idiom, well-trodden as it may be, that at least offers the ears something to relate to, as does the lone action cue, 'Cargo Lift'. But with sleeping pills like the 07:30 'Med Bay' or 'Grass Attack' there's the nagging question if you even harrow yourself that far (i have no clear recollection of 'Prometheus's score, but it sure was better than this).

 

The book on great 'Alien' music was forever closed in 1992.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

2 hours ago, crocodile said:

 Sphere by Elliot Goldenthal. Never actually heard the entire score but judging by this suite (and what I remember from the film itself), it desperately needs a re-release. Oh wait... Goldenthal...  WB.... probably won't happen then.

 

 

Karol

 

Fabulous score.  It works well in complete form - many of Elliot's scores seem to.

 

47 minutes ago, publicist said:

and there is prodigious amount of dead air here in desperate wait for a pitiless scissor

 

This is a publicist gem.

 

Not a wildly impressive effort, this one.  God knows what propels Scott's trajectory from composer to composer.

[crocodile 8,013]

John Frizzell at least tried. And, to be honest, he penned at least a couple of good themes for his score. Shame about the bigger action/horror moments.

 

Karol

[Disco Stu 15,495]

 

 

1 hour ago, crocodile said:

John Frizzell at least tried. And, to be honest, he penned at least a couple of good themes for his score. Shame about the bigger action/horror moments.

 

Karol

 

I always quite liked his main theme for Ripley when I were a young lad. Haven't seen the movie or heard the score in almost 15 years though.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

 

The first three minutes of this are rather lovely, but soon afterwards it digresses into HystericalAtonalAction™. Other words, the entire score in a nutshell.

 

I like that Frizzell introduced Orientalism to the franchise, with the main theme's ebbing and flowing parallel fourths and fifths, and the sinous descant built around the exotic interval of an augmented second. For a 90s film with even a remote Far Eastern connection that approach would be anachronistic or downright racist, but as it stands, it's a novel combination of music of image. I just wish he'd expanded on it.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Alien Resurrection as a film reminds me of Hellraiser: Bloodline and Jason X - tired franchises whose gimmick is bringing the characters into space... even though the alien had already been in space.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I like the parts where Jeunet's personality and humor are allowed to shine through.  Plus, Brad Dourif is so entertainingly insane, as always.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I prefee the obvious Whedon touches of the film.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

On 5/3/2017 at 3:17 AM, Godzilla said:

It's better than Star Wars.

 But is it as good as How to Train Your Dragon 2? That's the question we need to be asking ourselves. 

[John 2,032]

The HTTYD scores are dreadfully overrated.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

They're great.  John Powell is who many people want Michael Giacchino to be.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

1 minute ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

They're great.  John Williams is who many people want Michael Giacchino to be.

 

Fixed

[Faleel 5,349]

He definitely seems to have that instant accessibility I look for.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

2 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Fixed

 

The guy who wrote that trilogy of scores that isn't as good as Shore's LOTR?

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

14 minutes ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

They're great.  John Powell is who many people want Michael Giacchino to be.

Funny you should that, as I've been looking into Giacchino's family film scores lately. I've always liked Inside Out (both score and film), but they overall feel like music Powell could do in his sleep, yet Giacchino weirdly gets more praise and accolades (or at least more attention). Speed Racer especially made me think of Powell and want to put on his works instead. Ratatouille sounded nice, but it just didn't feel especially energetic or passionate. 

I like Giacchino okay, for the record. But I freaking love Powell, easily as much as I do Carl Stalling, Scott Bradley or Darrel Calker. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

7 minutes ago, TheGreyPilgrim said:

They're great.  John Powell is who many people want Michael Giacchino to be.

Yes!  Much better dramatic instincts (none of Giacchino's ironic drama-deflating wackiness), orchestration, and melodic writing (the only good theme Giacchino has written in the last... 10 years or so was Star Trek Beyond and that was John Powell-lite).  

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

I always got the impression Giacchino gets all the big blockbusters nowadays because he's a really nice chap to work with, not necessarily because his actual work is particularly impressive. 

Powell doesn't get much attention because he mainly sticks with kiddie flicks, which probably offer a lot more creative freedom and opportunity (since the actual films don't get much attention, so there's less pressure) than, say, the average billion dollar-budget superhero nonsense. 

On another note, every time I try to listen to Beck's Ant-Man theme, the Mission: Impossible theme starts playing in my subconscious. 

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

Horton Hears a Hoo 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,344]

Don't you dare listen to one of my all-time top ten favorite scores ever and not provide comment, you delightful cretin! 

Album's kind of weird though, in how the cues are split up into seperate tracks in what should be one track (the opening theme is oddly split into three tracks for example). But it doesn't really effect the CD listening when playing in the car. Which I do often...