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


Ollie

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The Happening by James Newton Howard: Understated but well executed horror-suspense score with a typical emotional JNH finale and a brilliant free form end credits suite. The solo cello does add a nice touch to the whole thing, both the emotional turmoil and dread well reflected by the soloist Maya Beiser.

:music:The Egg Travels from Dinosaur

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

The Adventures of Tintin The Secret of the Unicorn by John Williams

War Horse by John Williams

:music: M-Squad

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This is one of the most excellent cinematic non-film scores you'll likely ever hear.

Essentially a powerful blend of good old-fashioned swashbuckling style music with more classical inspired orchestrations and musical narrative.

The Cinema Symphony is comprised of 4 long movements and should please any fan of the big and bold orchestral music that is long past its heyday.

The 4th movement is 20 minutes long and has an emotional build-up and finale that is as heart-wrenching as anything that the biggest film composers have written.

Two more brilliant cues round out the album, which is filled with absolutely memorable music and I can recommend this to everyone here.

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If only the whole score would be as good and gripping as the opening and closing.

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The Cell. My first full listen. Not an easy score to enjoy but some interesting textures can be experienced. I love how Shore uses the ethnic ensemble with an orchestra. Sometimes it feels like Goldenthal. Uncompromising but interesting - will be exploring it further.

Arguably his most daring work, and one of my favourites of his.

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I've heard some of Penderecki's music live the other month. Goldenthal was geeking out all about it. Don't blame him.

Karol - who does like a lot of Penderecki's music

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Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse - Mark McKenzie

One of the best scores of 2015. McKenzie shows his craft at melody and harmony, and the quality of the writing and orchestration is strong enough to compensate for the lack of a live orchestra. Don't be like some FSM folks and say 'Orchestra or no sale'... this is good stuff. McKenzie doesn't quote Edelman's famous theme constantly, but uses it sparingly to gratifying effect in "A Knight is Sworn to Valor" and "Battle to the Death." Granted, it would sound phenomenal with live players, but I'm thankful Varese was generous enough to pick this up for a CD release.

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If only the whole score would be as good and gripping as the opening and closing.

It very almost is.

I need to give it more listens but from the first one I got the impression it is the same reliable Beltrami material he always brings to the table (now with some additional composers) but rarely rises above that competent stuff.

Raiders of the Lost Ark by John Williams: Neoclassical commercial Hollywood stuff. It's OK I guess.

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He's trying to be fauxtroversial. Like TGP.

Sorry no, it was a piece of misfired humour. I was reading Emilio Audissino's book John Williams's Film Music and there was just a chapter regarding JWs detractors and their funny arguments. Audissino actually takes a long and interesting look and analysis of Raiders in the next chapters.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is brilliant as we all well know.

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Priest!

I also heartily recommend Audissino's book. While much of it is familiar to die hard Williams fans, it is a wonderful look at many aspects that make Williams so great and offers an overview of his career and music at the same time.

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THE MONKEY KING - Christopher Young

Some eyebrows may be raised by the more musically erudite due to its frequent sledgehammer tactics (all the worn-out blockbuster greeting cards are here, the Bolero-like monotonous rhythmic thrust with successions of loud horn chords to cut through any obnoxious sfx), other will enjoy Young's offering as kind of 'Yellow Conan' which it indeed resembles with its pagan, archaic splendor.

Over the course of the (newly 'released') 60-minute program Young reveals a much more satisfying mix of the epic, mythic, ceremonial and even sweet reflective moments. It ain't subtle but its movements are presented like concert suites dedicated to (apparently different kinds of) monkey kings, old masters, Jade emperors and so forth and Young seems to have been inspired enough by the assignment to hide structure and musical development within all this drums vs. choral grandstanding.

With its longest suite clocking in at 17 minutes it may have been exactly this kind of music Basil Poledouris would presumably have written if he gotten this elusive LOTR job. The anachronistic me still would have preferred more introspection á la SAND PEBBLES or even THE CHALLENGE but for what it is, it's pretty good.

(Now on to LE PETIT PRINCE!)

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Fantastic Four?

Only a few bits of it. Seems to be Philip Glass lathered with a "juice de Hollywood"

I actually don't mind Philip Glasses' sound. The Truman Show for eg benefited from it quite well I thought.

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It's better. It suffers from some contemporary boringisms, like motoric minor strings and predictable minor passages (obviously minor scales are too popular) but there are some real groovy moments that make it worthy.

The Beltrami score actually has the same weaknesses. When the Glass influence comes through it's fresh. When it doesn't, it's a bit unremarkable compositionally with still fresh colors and textures.

They're both better than your standard blockbuster fare but still handicapped by some of that stuff. I rate the Kraemer higher "out of five" because it's more unified and doesn't have as large a "could have been better" factor as FF.

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For MI:5, it's very behaved. A cue like 'Solomon Lane' almost convinces you it's great - the Schifrin workarounds had me lusting for a similar re-do of 'Jim on the Move' - but on the whole it's rather mediocre.

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Judas!

I don't believe you. Your a liar!

Finesse? You mean Gia's ham-fisted approach?

I mean that MG has a much better undstanding of an orchestra than Kraemer does. As I said, it's still a good score, and one which I would buy...if I can find it.

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The lack of Giacchino finesse if painfully apparent, but, taken on its own merit, it's a perfectly serviceable score.

I mean that MG has a much better undstanding of an orchestra than Kraemer does. As I said, it's still a good score, and one which I would buy...if I can find it.

I'm sorry but what you are saying is just completely wrong. Kraemer is way more experienced and educated with the orchestra than Giacchino is, and the score is full of finesse.

I love Giacchino but he's not known for inventive orchestrations at all, as this score is full of that stuff!

Are you sure you're listening to the right score?

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, by Joe Kraemer?

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The thing with Giacchino's scores is that they don't transcend his normal sound to become anything else. They are just fairly straightforward Giacchino scores. You cannot mistake them for being by anybody else. He weaves the Schifrin themes in a few times, and gives it a bit of a "spy" feel, but its not widely different from the way he'd score an action flick that isn't part of a franchise.

This is a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE score first and a Kraemer score second.

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I listened to The Lost World, it's a quality score completely let down by a frustratingly useless album presentation. And I skipped the final track for the umpteenth time, as I always have done.

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I love the opening of the final track, but have no need for a weird re-recording of the first film's themes

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For MI:5, it's very behaved.

?

Y'know, like talking to a rather erudite person who knows stuff and all...but talks in a nasal flat voice. Like Mr. Chance.

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Michael Giacchino - Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Listened to the OST and leaks, fan edits, etc. I used to think this was the superior score to MI3, but now I'm not so sure. What I still think is true is that the highlights here are much better than the highlights of MI3 - specifically, the opening music, early sneaking around cues with The Plot, the Russian music, and the Indian music are the best stuff in the score. But a lot of what's in between that is pretty forgettable.

MI3 feels more like a cohesive score - perhaps having a love theme helps gels it all together. This seems more like a collection of set pieces - kind of how I felt about the film too, actually. The biggest flaw is that after the Indian tracks, there's no highlights left - the climactic action cue is one of the most forgettable ones.

Still a good score that I enjoy, but not among my favorite Giacchinos.

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