The Force Awakens Is Star Wars: The Force Awakens the best score of 2015?

[King Mark 3,631]

I liked Tomorrowland this year

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Jesus!

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

I liked Tomorrowland this year

Meh.

[Lockdown 238]

In my opinion, the best score of this year is Jupiter Ascending.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

In my opinion, the best score of this year is Jupiter Ascending.

Meh.

[A. A. Ron 1,742]

In my opinion, the best score of this year is Jupiter Ascending.

Star Wars beats it for me, but I LOVE both of them. Wolf Totem rounds out my top 3.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

Jupiter Ascending is fair competition for TFA, but Tomorrowland just bores the pants off of me. I only realize the album has ended when I notice the music starts sounding overly familiar as the album has restarted on my iPod.

[Balahkay 627]

I think TFA may be the best score of year simply because of Ren's and Rey's themes.

[crumbs 14,306]

Rey's Theme has to be the most technically complex theme written this year, I'd say.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

It is wonderful, beaten ever so slightly by Patrick Doyle's Cinderella.

That's a wonderful score, one of the best I've heard this year, and one of Doyle's best in a long time. Giacchino has some strong entries too, and perhaps his best year so far. But I don't think any of those beat TFA (and I haven't listened to the album more than once yet).

[publicist 4,643]

For me, i'd choose the Morricone, the Burwell's and probably stuff like Heffes' THE PROGRAM over Williams, but that's because i find TFA too familiar. It's more for the back files.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

So the "guest" (Mr. MO) needed to come back just to vote against Williams, for Gia.

His disappointment of Williams' modern output is... hilarious.

Glad someone else noticed that

Also take note of Bryant Burnette's vote. As well as a few posts from Diego and Artyjeffrey around some of the threads. And the fact that one poll had close to 100 votes in it. You can't stay away from JWFan forever!

I liked Tomorrowland this year

[Jay 37,346]

I quickly voted no in this poll last week because TFA initially didn't impress me too much and I was madly in love with MI5's score (and still am).

 

But damn, this is creeping up and up my list, its probably ahead of my favorite Giacchinos of the year now...

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

2 minutes ago, Jay said:

i quickly voted no in this poll last week because TFA initially didn't impress me too much and I was madly in love with MI5's score (and still am).

 

But damn, this is creeping up and up my list, its probably ahead of my favorite Giacchinos of the year now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2EXCun-ejU

[Josh500 1,615]

Gotta be honest, I am not that big a fan of film music anymore (so much of what's being released today is just garbage). However, I am still a big fan of John Williams's music, and it just so happens that he writes film music.

 

So yeah, this is the best score of 2015 for me.

[Bespin 8,480]

Collider | The 10 Best Film Scores of 2015

 

http://collider.com/best-movie-scores-of-2015/

[crumbs 14,306]

Yawn. Star Wars dead last, really?

[mrbellamy 6,278]

The tenth best score of the entire year is dead last?

[aj_vader 534]

No other score was worth listening to. Force Awakens all the way. 

[Quintus 5,399]

I still haven't heard Ennio's latest and I'm dying to, but I'm gonna wait. Nice to see It Follows in there, it stood out immediately to me during the movie. 

 

One thing certain in my mind is time will place Williams' TFA higher than recent lists have. 

[Taikomochi 1,136]

I think a lot people just see Williams as kitschy and old timey and will never truly value his work as the quality of art that it merits.  It's good, they know, but they won't ever see it as great, when it truly is.  A lot of critics see TFA as a throwback score, the way the film is a throwback/nostalgia piece, but they don't realize it's a pretty organic continuation of Williams' development as a composer.  Perhaps that is where a lot of the fan blowback has come from, the desire to hear something exactly like what Williams wrote in the 70's/80's contrasted against the reality of a masterful but truly modern Williams action score.

[publicist 4,643]

The Morricone is - for him - as derivative as TFA is for Williams. But given the Collider list, both of these dinosaurs still rule the earth because it's derivative on the highest musical level.

 

@Taikomochi The thing is, TFA isn't really modern or unique. At least not outside of JWFan/SW geekdom. It's a good old musical adventure yarn with a shared DNA (you name it, Potter, Tintin, maybe even a dash of Ron Goodwin et al.) and while i would give it high marks for effort alone i find it highly suspect how many outspoken fans are virtually handing out an Oscar trophy at this point just for nostalgia's sake. Though there really were no better genre scores this year, i'm not so sure about more original ones.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I would not expect either Williams or Morricone to come up with something they have never written before. Not at 80+.

 

 

[Taikomochi 1,136]

6 minutes ago, publicist said:

TFA isn't really modern or unique.

 

I never claimed it was unique, nor that it was modern.  I said it was modern Williams, which we can debate on what characteristics make that up, but it is distinctly different from the Wiliams writing 30-40 years ago.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That much is certain.

[publicist 4,643]

13 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

I would not expect either Williams or Morricone to come up with something they have never written before. Not at 80+.

 

No. Why should they...the finer question is then how to rate the musical worth in relation to their repertoire. And then indeed to the competition. And that's where i almost in all cases would rate a less accomplished but more daring work higher (the Morricone has the advantage of coming from an altogether more avantgardist school). Maybe not 'It Follows' and certainly not the abomination that was 'Mad Max' but if it was up even against something like last year's 'Inherent Vice', i'd choose that over TFA.

9 minutes ago, Taikomochi said:

I never claimed it was unique, nor that it was modern.  I said it was modern Williams, which we can debate on what characteristics make that up, but it is distinctly different from the Wiliams writing 30-40 years ago.

 

That goes without saying, but then doesn't say a lot. Here i draw the line: when there are long stretches, idiomatic as well as motivic/thematic, that i can clearly trace back to a good number of other scores by the same composer, it can't be really top notch. I had the same rating troubles with James Horner: taken as singular work, some of them are brilliant but with all the crossbleeding, referencing and self pilgrimage it's just hard to give them a lovely pass with a straight face.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

Well, that's fair and legitimate of you to critique the score that way, but I was addressing a separate, general criticism among fans that I do not believe is legitimate.  That is, based on unreasonable expectations.

[publicist 4,643]

Judging the sheer idiocy of a lot of YT comments this is hardly a worthwile pastime...

[Naïve Old Fart 9,514]

28 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

I would not expect either Williams or Morricone to come up with something they have never written before. Not at 80+.

 

 

 

A fair point, especially at 80+, as you say, but when should a composer, or any artist, stop being "new", or innovative? When does a composer stop pushing the envelope, and decide to coast? Should JW retire? Should JW have even scroed TFA, rather than passing the baton to a new generation? Are people obssessed by friendship, and nostalgia, and could this obsession blind them to far greater, and critical responsibilities?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

All good questions!

 

What do you think?

[Quintus 5,399]

1 hour ago, Taikomochi said:

 

I never claimed it was unique, nor that it was modern.  I said it was modern Williams, which we can debate on what characteristics make that up, but it is distinctly different from the Wiliams writing 30-40 years ago.

 

It is, but there's something about his approach to TFA which makes it less distinctly 'modern Williams' than say the last ten years of his output. I was listening to a cue earlier, I forget which one, and there was a cello line in there which for a moment immediately took me back to that old analogue Star Wars recording, and even The Great Chase (from Jaws). There's curious little early Maestro idiosyncrasies like this dotted here and there in at lot of the score, which is probably why I've taken to it (I didn't bother with his Revenge of the Sith at all). 

[publicist 4,643]

It is very similar to 'Tintin'.

 

And: ROTS is patchwork but within those hours of patchwork there lies buried one great hour. 

 

 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Revenge Of The Sith works a lot better for me in the (dreadful) film then on CD.

 

 

[Quintus 5,399]

 

2 minutes ago, publicist said:

And: ROTS is patchwork but within those hours of patchwork there lies buried one great hour. 

 

 

 

Starting and ending with which cues please. 

[publicist 4,643]

Hard to say, heavily doctored (stuff cut off, like the end credits or the awful ESB duel insert) but that's what iTunes shows me:

 

1 The Revenge of the Sith

2  Anakin's Dream

3  The Battle Over Coruscant (alter...

4  Battle of the Heroes

5  Anakin's Betrayal

6  Palpatine's Teachings

7  Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious

8  Anakin vs. Obi-Wan

9  Anakin's Dark Deeds

10  Enter Lord Vader

11  The Boys Continue

12  The Birth of the Twins and Padm...

13  A New Hope

14  Bail's Escape

15  Going to Utapau

16  I Am The Senate

 

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Revenge of the Sith does work well in chronological order and the last hour or so beginning around the end of reel 4 is pretty exceptional.

 

The first hour is still loaded with standout cues, but it does meander at points and isn't as focused as the second half.

[Datameister 2,041]

It's fascinating to me that the seven entries in this saga each have such a distinct vibe, despite having been penned by the same composer - and yet they still feel like they all belong together.

 

Anyway, as to the OP's question, it's the only score of 2015 that I really cared about. I think the only other movies I saw were Inside Out and Jurassic World. Giacchino did very decent work on these, but neither sounded interesting enough for me to buy on album. If there was anything better written this year, I want sufficiently interested in the film to give it a chance.

 

And if we're going purely off of sheer frequency of listens, this is probably my favorite new score at least since ROTS (which indeed has some exceptional highlights, despite never really durning a cohesive whole).

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

6 hours ago, publicist said:

@Taikomochi The thing is, TFA isn't really modern or unique. At least not outside of JWFan/SW geekdom. It's a good old musical adventure yarn with a shared DNA (you name it, Potter, Tintin, maybe even a dash of Ron Goodwin et al.) and while i would give it high marks for effort alone i find it highly suspect how many outspoken fans are virtually handing out an Oscar trophy at this point just for nostalgia's sake. Though there really were no better genre scores this year, i'm not so sure about more original ones.

 

I haven't heard the Morricone yet. But one of the things about TFA that stand out for me is a symbiosis between film scoring (and often action film scoring, at that) and concert writing that goes beyond at least most of what Williams has done before (or anyone else, for that matter). Pieces like Rey's Theme, March of the Resistance and Scherzo for X-Wings are full bodied concert arrangements - yet their building blocks appear in more or less the exact same form throughout the score, without seeming artificial. In that regard at least, I consider it one of the best scores of Williams' career, which automatically makes it a very likely candidate for best score of the year. And (although very unlikely) an absolutely Oscar worthy score, in any year.

 

(My second favourite score this year is Doyle's Cinderella, which has probably become one of my favourites of his. I like Giacchino's output as well - his strongest year so far - and Kramer's MI score was a very welcome surprise. But none of these are even remotely in the same category as TFA, in my opinion)

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I agree with Marian!

[skyy38 21]

On 12/19/2015 at 3:28 PM, E.T. and Elliot said:

Maybe of all time.

Wrong!

 

..and here's *why*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHQrcyerVQQ

[Quintus 5,399]

12 hours ago, publicist said:

Hard to say, heavily doctored (stuff cut off, like the end credits or the awful ESB duel insert) but that's what iTunes shows me:

 

1 The Revenge of the Sith

2  Anakin's Dream

3  The Battle Over Coruscant (alter...

4  Battle of the Heroes

5  Anakin's Betrayal

6  Palpatine's Teachings

7  Grievous Speaks to Lord Sidious

8  Anakin vs. Obi-Wan

9  Anakin's Dark Deeds

10  Enter Lord Vader

11  The Boys Continue

12  The Birth of the Twins and Padm...

13  A New Hope

14  Bail's Escape

15  Going to Utapau

16  I Am The Senate

 

 

Nice one for this, I'll put it in the car. 

[artguy360 1,843]

What other major scores were there last year? I'm still listening to The Hateful Eight's score so I'm not sure about that yet. I think Carter Burwell did an amazing job with the score for Carol. It's one of his best works in a long, long time. I didn't care much for Desplat's The Danish Girl score. Inside Out is definitely a contender but I felt Jurassic World was a very underwhelming score. Obviously I like TFA to a biased degree, but at the same time, I'm also just not hearing anything else out there that screams Oscar or best score of 2015. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

#OscarSix

[publicist 4,643]

9 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

But one of the things about TFA that stand out for me is a symbiosis between film scoring (and often action film scoring, at that) and concert writing that goes beyond at least most of what Williams has done before (or anyone else, for that matter). Pieces like Rey's Theme, March of the Resistance and Scherzo for X-Wings are full bodied concert arrangements - yet their building blocks appear in more or less the exact same form throughout the score, without seeming artificial. 

 

Facetious as it may sound, but that's a bit like awarding your supermarket for stacking food: that's just what a well-written score does, at least when it's written by a great composer - don't know bout those building blocks but it's exactly what he does, i. e. 'just recently Snowy's Theme' and i don't see why that now is something so out of the ordinary?

 

1 hour ago, artguy360 said:

Obviously I like TFA to a biased degree, but at the same time, I'm also just not hearing anything else out there that screams Oscar or best score of 2015. 

 

Probably not, Morricone notwithstanding. At least not among the eligible competition.

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

My point about the building blocks was that what has all the makings of a fully fleshed out concert piece is in fact actual underscore, often for action scenes. That's more than just a well written score, it's a score that on a purely musical level has few contenders, and not just this year.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Its a grower....

[publicist 4,643]

Maybe. But not because of any building blocks.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Lego?

[publicist 4,643]

No, they don't come with minor chords.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Giacchino has underwhelmed this past year and you should expect more of the same in '16. 

 

Thank God for John Williams. 

On Sunday, January 03, 2016 at 6:48 PM, Stefancos said:

I agree with Marian!

No you don't at least not about MG.