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Michael Giacchino's THE BATMAN (2022)


Jay

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I bought this. Anything to encourage more CD releases from them. There's lots of scores they released on vinyl that could use that kind of treatment - WW84 and some Marvel things being some titles I can think of.

 

Karol

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Excuse me but I'd prefer they start with The Mandalorian Season 1 please and thank you

 

https://mondoshop.com/products/the-mandalorian-season-one-original-soundtrack-8xlp-box-set

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$30.85 for me, which is par for the course of what buying a 2CD set from labels in LA usually entails at MSRP price.

 

Feels nice to finally own a Mondo thing, having seen quite a few of their offerings in person at the near Alamo Drafthouse and some Barnes & Nobles. Also first Giacchino thing I own, since I wouldn't have grabbed any of the label expansions/premieres that have released.

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A Quick couple of things.

 

1. The new Mondo pressing looks to be the same contents as the OST correct?? From a quick glance it looks that way.

 

 

2. @crocodile Karol, are you sure your Japanese disc (quoted below) was the pressed version?? I ordered mine from Amazon here in Canada at the time, It is identical to the one you have in the photos right down to the serial numbers and text and I was always under the impression it was supposed to be a CDR...???

 

On 15/03/2022 at 2:40 PM, crocodile said:

My Japanese CD arrived today from Tokyo. Looks like a normal CD release to me:

 

20220315_172550.jpg

 

Karol

 

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On 05/02/2023 at 1:28 PM, KittBash said:

A Quick couple of things.

 

1. The new Mondo pressing looks to be the same contents as the OST correct?? From a quick glance it looks that way.

 

Of course it is. 

 

On 05/02/2023 at 1:28 PM, KittBash said:

 

2. @crocodile Karol, are you sure your Japanese disc (quoted below) was the pressed version?? I ordered mine from Amazon here in Canada at the time, It is identical to the one you have in the photos right down to the serial numbers and text and I was always under the impression it was supposed to be a CDR...???

 

The Rambling Records release from Japan is a real pressed CD, as is the Mondo release in the USA


WaterTower Records released a CDR edition in some territories

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The cue titles for the cues used in the film showed up in GEMA

 

  1. News Source (Griffith Giacchino & Curtis Green)
  2. Invasion Of Dynasty, Part 1
  3. Invasion Of Dynasty, Part 2
  4. Mayoral Ducting
  5. Can't Fight City Halloween
  6. It's Raining Vengeance
  7. Timpani Of Doom
  8. Pater-Un-Familias
  9. Cipher Of Relief
  10. Don't Be Voyeur With Me
  11. Crossing The Feline
  12. Embrace For Impact
  13. Gannika Girl
  14. The Clowder Of Sanctity
  15. The Clowder Of Sanctity, Part 2
  16. Of Morgues And Mazes
  17. Contact Delivery Service
  18. Moving In For The Gil
  19. Funeral And Far Between
  20. 100 Yard Crash
  21. Collar ID
  22. A Tough Gil To Swallow
  23. Three Riddles For The Price Of One
  24. Escaped Crusader / Penguin Of Guilt
  25. If Batmobile Street Could Talk
  26. If Batmobile Street Could Talk, Part 2
  27. Highway To The Anger Zone (Mick Giacchino)
  28. Highway To The Anger Zone, Part 2
  29. Like A Bat Out Of Hell
  30. World's Worst Translator
  31. World's Worst Translator, Part 2
  32. Growing Waynes
  33. Riddles, Riddles Everywhere
  34. Meow And You And Everyone We Know
  35. Riddler Americana (Paul Apelgren)
  36. Riddler Video Source (Paul Apelgren)
  37. Falcone Play
  38. A Room Of One's Own Parents
  39. A Room Of One's Own Parents, Part 2
  40. For All Your Pennyworth
  41. Are You A Kenzie Or A Can'tzie
  42. An Im-purr-fect Murder, Part 1
  43. An Im-purr-fect Murder, Part 2 And 3
  44. The Talented Mr. Riddler
  45. The Great Pumpkin Pie
  46. Hoarding School
  47. Riddler's Believe It Or Not
  48. A Flood Of Terrors / A Bat In The Rafters, Part 1
  49. A Bat In The Rafters, Part 1B
  50. A Bat In The Rafters, Part 2
  51. A Bat In The Rafters, Part 2B
  52. A Bat In The Rafters, Part 2C
  53. A Bat In The Rafters, Part 3 / The Bat's True Calling
  54. This Riddle's For You
  55. All's Well That Ends Farewell
  56. Batman Ends

 

 

I've seen the film one time, in theaters, and have never compared the album to the film, so this is the best I can do to line up this with the OST album for now:

 

GEMA Cue List OST album
BMZ991 News Source        
BMZ999 Invasion Of Dynasty, Part 1        
BNA001 Invasion Of Dynasty, Part 2        
BNA003 Mayoral Ducting 1-02 0:00-0:48 Mayoral Ducting 0:48
BNA011 Can't Fight City Halloween 1-01   Can't Fight City Halloween 4:04
BNA012 It's Raining Vengeance 1-03   It's Raining Vengeance 4:31
BNA013 Timpani Of Doom        
BNA024 Pater-Un-Familias        
BNA029 Cipher Of Relief 1-02 0:48-end

Mayoral Ducting

1:52
BNA030 Don't Be Voyeur With Me 1-04   Don't Be Voyeur with Me 2:38
BNA036 Crossing The Feline 1-05   Crossing the Feline 1:46
BNA037 Embrace For Impact        
BNA038 Gannika Girl 1-06 0:00-1:27 Gannika Girl 1:27
BNA043 The Clowder Of Sanctity        
BNA044 The Clowder Of Sanctity, Part 2        
BNA045 Of Morgues And Mazes        
BNA046 Contact Delivery Service 1-06 1:27-end Gannika Girl 1:03
BNA048 Moving In For The Gil 1-07   Moving in for the Gil 4:23
BNA049 Funeral And Far Between 1-08   Funeral and Far Between 1:45
BNA067 100 Yard Crash        
BNA068 Collar ID 1-09   Collar ID 1:15
BNA069 A Tough Gil To Swallow        
BNA070 Three Riddles For The Price Of One        
BNA072
Escaped Crusader-Penguin Of Guilt
1-10   Escaped Crusader 2:44
1-11   Penguin of Guilt 3:44
BNA073 If Batmobile Street Could Talk    
Highway to the Anger Zone
5:19
BNA074 If Batmobile Street Could Talk, Part 2    
BNA076 Highway To The Anger Zone
1-12
 
BNA110 Highway To The Anger Zone, Part 2  
BNA111 Like A Bat Out Of Hell        
BNA112 World's Worst Translator
1-13
 
World's Worst Translator
3:34
BNA116 World's Worst Translator, Part 2  
BNA118 Growing Waynes        
BNA120 Riddles, Riddles Everywhere 1-14   Riddles, Riddles Everywhere 1:54
BNA121 Meow And You And Everyone We Know 1-15   Meow and You and Everyone We Know 5:18
BNA144 Riddler Americana        
BNA144 Riddler Video Source        
BNA144 Falcone Play        
BNA145 A Room Of One's Own Parents        
BNA146 A Room Of One's Own Parents, Part 2        
BNA147 For All Your Pennyworth 1-16   For All Your Pennyworth 2:38
BNA148 Are You A Kenzie Or A Can'tzie 1-17   Are You a Kenzie or a Can't-zie? 5:45
BNA152 An Im-purr-fect Murder, Part 1
2-01
 
An Im-purr-fect Murder
3:48
BNA154 An Im-purr-fect Murder, Part 2 And 3  
BNA157 The Talented Mr. Riddler        
BNA159 The Great Pumpkin Pie 2-02   The Great Pumpkin Pie 2:22
BNA160 Hoarding School 2-03   Hoarding School 4:55
BNA161 Riddler's Believe It Or Not        
BNA163 A Flood Of Terrors-a Bat In The Rafters, Part 1 2-04   A Flood of Terrors 4:29
BNA164 A Bat In The Rafters, Part 1B 2-05   A Bat in the Rafters, Pt. 1 4:33
BNA165 A Bat In The Rafters, Part 2
2-06
 
A Bat in the Rafters, Pt. 2
6:42
BNA166 A Bat In The Rafters, Part 2B  
BNA167 A Bat In The Rafters, Part 2C  
BNA168 A Bat In The Rafters, Part 3-the Bat's True Calling 2-07   The Bat's True Calling 3:05
BNA169 This Riddle's For You        
BNA170 All's Well That Ends Farewell 2-08   All's Well That Ends Farewell 2:41
BNA171 Batman Ends        
    2-09   The Batman 6:47
    2-10   Catwoman 3:03
    2-11   The Riddler 5:01
    2-12   Sonata in Darkness 12:11

 

 

If anybody can do a better job, please share!

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I think most of that is right, except some OST tracks are two scenes in one.

 

Cipher Of Relief is the 2nd part of the albums Mayoral Ducting

Contact Delivery Service I think is the 2nd part of the albums Gannika Girl
If Batmobile Street Could Talk (both parts) is definitely the intro of the albums Highway to the Danger Zone

Also no clue why Riddler's Believe It Or Not is in there twice, but the 2nd instance is probably the correct one because I dont recall there being 2 pieces of music after World's Worst Translator and before Riddles Everywhere

 

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21 minutes ago, MedigoScan said:

I think most of that is right, except some OST tracks are two scenes in one.

 

Cipher Of Relief is the 2nd part of the albums Mayoral Ducting

 

Timestamp?

 

21 minutes ago, MedigoScan said:

Contact Delivery Service I think is the 2nd part of the albums Gannika Girl

 

Timestamp?

 

21 minutes ago, MedigoScan said:

If Batmobile Street Could Talk (both parts) is definitely the intro of the albums Highway to the Danger Zone

 

That makes sense!

 

21 minutes ago, MedigoScan said:

Also no clue why Riddler's Believe It Or Not is in there twice, but the 2nd instance is probably the correct one because I dont recall there being 2 pieces of music after World's Worst Translator and before Riddles Everywhere

 

Ooops, that was a mistake on my end.  Fixed now.

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The product page says its a digipak, yea

 

On 01/02/2023 at 2:09 PM, Jay said:

 

I'm jealous yours arrived already, nothing here yet

 

EDIT: Just found my tracking info, it arrived in my town this morning at 11am so it'll be delivered to my house tomorrow

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I forgot to say on Sunday that I had missed that I got tracking info on Friday. It's definitely nearby, but they seem to have handed it off to our regular carrier. So I'm unsure if it'll get here today or tomorrow.

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I opened up my Mondo release today, and it's very nice!  I really like the red that the front and back cover feature; I like it more than the black closeup of Bat's face they used for the standard OST.  Though that being said, that cover is used on the traditional booklet inside the digipak, so you could still shove that in a jewel case if you wanted to.

 

Listening now - I forgot how much I liked this score!  I think this is one of the rare scores of the past 10-15 years that's continued to grow on me with every single listen (which admittedly, I haven't listened to this score too much yet - this is maybe my 8th or so listen ever)

 

 

Incidentally, I saw Paul Apelgren credited with additional music in the booklet, which made me realize that I missed his cues when compiling that complete cue list from GEMA up above.  So I've added his two cues into that post - "Riddler Americana" and "RIddler Video Source". 

 

Incidentally, since Apelgren is credited in the booklet but Curtis Green is not, I can assume that "RIddler Americana" is on the OST album (maybe inside "Meow And You And Everyone We Know"?), and "News Source" is not (which was obvious anyway)

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Watching the film for the first time, when Batman escapes from the Police station (?) the theme is played really fast and sounds like an alarm, thought that was kinda humorous.

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Received my copy from Mondo today. Interesting that the booklet design is identical to the Rambling Records but with some movie still-only pages removed.

 

I really like this:

 

20230220_183602.jpg

 

Karol

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BTW listening to the score again the other day thanks to receiving this: I still like the score a lot, and think the album flows really well -- from the start until the finale cue.

 

For some reason, I don't really enjoy any of the concert arrangements.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because they just sort of feel like really straightforward presentations of themes that came first, and then get worked into the score sometimes very similarly. where on like a Williams score, its like he crafts the concert arrangements after to take the theme to a new place or two he didn't get to within the score.  I dunno.


What do you guys think of the concert arrangements here?

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I like "The Batman" a lot, it's probably my favorite single track on the album. It's a nice, in-depth exploration of the Batman themes. Catwoman track is good too. The Riddler I don't care for as much, just because I don't care for the theme itself that much. I'm not aware of which parts of the score are so similar to the concert versions, so that doesn't factor in too much, although if you picked up on that I can see why it would bother you. It's a long score, and I just put the whole thing on and let it play all the way through without focusing on the details.

 

 

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I didn't particularly go for Sonata at first but having become more familiar Batman's themes, the first couple of minutes stand out to me more now. I've got it on right now and it comes across as an intringuing exercise in how to use the piano in multiple ways to play the main theme. I also love the two secondary Batman themes.

 

Like Smeltington, I don't really like the Riddler theme much - I guess it achieves what it needs to in the film, but as a theme and a piece of music I don't find it very satisfying.

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Yea, maybe my biggest issue is that the Riddler concert arrangement doesn't really offer much - the score already has all the Riddler material you need.  It isn't very deep.


I did the Batman and Catwoman themes a lot.  Maybe I should find a place to slot them in within the flow of the score.  Something about them coming on afterwards just doesn't work for me, for some reason.  It works for me me with his Star Trek concert arrangements >shrug<

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2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

I didn't particularly go for Sonata at first but having become more familiar Batman's themes, the first couple of minutes stand out to me more now.

 

Yeah, it's a grower. But it's kind of a nice change of pace after the intensity of the main score.

 

2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

I also love the two secondary Batman themes.

 

Yes!!

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  • 2 months later...
On 17/2/2023 at 2:30 PM, Jay said:

Listening now - I forgot how much I liked this score!

I wish I could like this score so much as you do. Or at all. I tried listening to it on its own, watched the film and tried to enjoy it with it, but I just can’t

”make” myself like it. Your enthusiasm is enviable, but I simply can’t feel the same way about it. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the film.
I even love Zimmer’s and Howard’s Dark Knight scores, then again I like the films a lot, so maybe that’s a factor as well. 

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Yeah people really seem to love this score, but other than the Catwoman suite, it bores me to tears. No worries though, there’s tons of other good stuff out there. Every time Gia bores me with a new score I just go back to Jupiter Ascending, Star Trek or the Jurassic World suite.

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I didn't 'love' this score at all to start with, and I still have to properly unlock the Penguin material.

 

However, when I saw the film, the only bit that I suddenly 'got' was the Batman rhythm, and I didn't latch onto his other themes or really Catwoman's. Now I absolutely adore all of Batman's themes.

 

This track in particular gets a lot of playtime. The slow strings at the end performing the outline/chords of the Wayne theme, followed by... well I'm not actualy sure what the following motif is, but it's melancholy, reflective and just plain beautiful.

 

So I don't 'love' the score as a whole - the Riddler's theme is a bit on the 'meh' side, and the underscorey cues aren't always that exciting - but I certainly think Gia provided what the film needed.

 

 

 

1 hour ago, JTW said:

I wish I could like this score so much as you do. Or at all. I tried listening to it on its own, watched the film and tried to enjoy it with it, but I just can’t

”make” myself like it. Your enthusiasm is envious, but I simply can’t feel the same way about it.

 

I feel this way about many classic Williams scores that most here adore - his 'classic' era is before my period of interest. I just listen to other stuff that I do like. (If you heard some of the horror/experimental stuff I like, you'd probably understand why Golden Age Williams isn't really my thing :) )

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12 hours ago, Edmilson said:

TBH, I think 2000s/early 2010s Giacchino was much more interesting

Yes, he came to my attention by his excellent jazzy score to The Incredibles and back then I thought here was the next great film composer. But as time went on, I couldn’t find anything truly great in his work, yet I saw how he was regarded as the new John Williams which I simply found and find ridiculous. Imho Giacchino is a good craftsman who often tries channelling John Williams, but nothing more. And I saw many films that he wrote the music to. 
 

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I respect Giacchino not so much as a musician but more as a musical storyteller. He has amazing dramatic instincts and his choices of colour/texture are also fantastic. He has a really good taste, if that makes sense. What I'm not as excited a lot of the time about is the actual composition, although there are exceptions (the Catwoman theme would be one of those). But he's a busy film composer for a good reason and for being a solid "filmmaker" he deserves a lot of credit.

 

The Batman is actually a perfect exhibit. I don't necessarily love his Batman motif on its own or repetitive ideas like The Riddler theme on their own terms. But in the context of the story, he manages to create quite an unique soundscape and it does absolute wonders to the movie. It's not WHAT he does, but HOW.

 

And no, I do not mean the above as a backhanded compliment.

 

By the way, I bought this album for the third time. As a vinyl. :lol:

 

Karol

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Maybe the problem is that I can't help but compare his scores when he writes the umpth installment to a franchise, to the ones that came before his, and in that regard his music always lets me down. 

 

I mean his Batman theme sounds like a half-finished idea by itself, but especially when comparing it to Elfman's, Walker's, Goldenthal's Batman themes, Giacchino's  - imho - doesn't even come close. Maybe that's the problem, that he always has so big shoes to fill that he just can't succeed (for me).

 

If his theme had been the first Batman theme I’d ever heard, then I would probably like it. But that's a big if.

 

His theme has a great beginning, but then I start to feel the urge for it to get developed into something grander, into the "real" theme which alas never happens, and I feel disappointed like I was promised something bigger and I was let down in the end. 

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1 hour ago, JTW said:

I mean his Batman theme sounds like a half-finished idea by itself, but especially when comparing it to Elfman's, Walker's, Goldenthal's Batman themes, Giacchino's  - imho - doesn't even come close. Maybe that's the problem, that he always has so big shoes to fill that he just can't succeed (for me).

 

It would feel like a half-finished idea if the film were looking to achieve the same thing as previous Batman films, but it's not. There's a constant feeling of menace that this incarnation represents, which an orchestral theme might not achieve.

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Could be, I accept that, nevertheless it doesn’t work for me for some reason.
But so many of you here keep saying how good this score is that I’m starting to think I’m the one who’s wrong and there’s something about it I just can’t grasp.

 

I have a feeling that if I liked the film a little bit more, I would enjoy the score more as well. 

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Tastes differ thats all. Nobody is wrong in the end.

Though you are probably right that context does help. And I liked the score more because of the movie.

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