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Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste - SOUL (2020)


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I'm not so sure about that. The former track sounds very Reznor/Ross to me. Like the kind of thing you'd hear in Watchmen

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I attempted to listen to this OST album last week sometime.  

 

I try to listen to all the "major" new scores that come out, even from artists who don't always do it for me... I try to give every score at least one chance, listen to the OST album all the way through once.  This however was the rare case where I actually turned it off and listened to something else 4 tracks in.  The opening 3 jazz cues were fine, but then when the Reznor/Ross electronica started it turned me off immensely and I just gave up.

 

Last night, we watched the film, and I thought the entire score - the jazz parts and the reznor/ross parts - was great within the film, and I understood why Docter went this way instead of going for another orchestral Giacchino score.  It was really well done.

 

So, I'll give the OST album another chance this week at work

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If I had to pick my highlights of the Reznor & Ross material, it'd be:

  • Jump to Earth
  • Terry Time
  • Meditation / Return to Earth
  • 22 Is Ready
  • Pursuit / Terry's World
  • Betrayal
  • Epiphany (which plays beautifully in the film)
  • Earthbound
  • Just Us
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Just saw this. Great movie, easily in my top 5 of the year. Predictably solid from Docter. I liked the score on album, and I liked it in the film too -- even if it won't make it to my top 10 of the year (probably an honourable mention). The jazz/electronic contrast worked beautifully.

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We watched this last night and I really liked it as well.  Not towards the top of the Pixar pack, but not anywhere near the bottom either.  I bought the score bout haven't listened to it yet.  It was pleasing enough on film.

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Not gonna pull up a Pixar list, but off the top of my head, I can think of a handful I like more.  Coco, Toy Story 3, Wall-E, Ratatouille, Inside Out.  It's nowhere near the dregs - the Cars movies, Bug's Life, Monsters University, Finding Dory.  For me, it's nestled somewhere maybe towards the top of that mass of "pretty good" that Pixar usually produces.

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I enjoyed the film and the jazz side of the music, but the underscore itself didn't do much for me. Bits of it sounded like the more textural moments of Giacchino's Inside Out score (the more despondent moments) but without doing much beyond that. Perhaps if all of the real world scoring had been jazz based and all of the otherworldly music been electronic, the contrast would have worked better. I just kept feeling that the music should break away into something more interesting and meaningful, but it just kinda kept noodling along without any kind of emotional or dramatic arc.

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4 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Perhaps if all of the real world scoring had been jazz based and all of the otherworldly music been electronic, the contrast would have worked better

 

But that is exactly how it worked, for about 2/3 of the movie.  It only changes when the picasso guy enters the real world and brings the electronic underscore with him, and there's only jazz in the afterlife (pre-life?) at the end as well

 

At least that's how I remember it!

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

 

But that is exactly how it worked, for about 2/3 of the movie.  It only changes when the picasso guy enters the real world and brings the electronic underscore with him, and there's only jazz in the afterlife (pre-life?) at the end as well

I'm pretty sure there was some electronic scoring in the real world earlier in the movie. I appreciate that broadly that's how it was split, but, I dunno, it just didn't work for me. Maybe if they had sought to combine the two disparate styles together at the end? I think it was more that the electronic scoring didn't go anywhere dramatically or emotionally that meant it fell so flat. 

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6 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Another video game comparison :lol:

 

 

Coulda been worse I guess, it could have sounded like Metroid II cavern music! ;)

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Just now, Thor said:

I don't get that at all (i.e. Doug Adams' previous Twitter post). Those types of comparisons come from people who seem ignorant of synthwave music and the type of ambient electronica that R&R does. This score is closer to MID90s in style and tone, i.e. a more open and extrovert version of their trademark industrial, contemporary sound. Less bass, more treble, but not at all related to 80s synth music or videogame music.

 

Man, you really do miss a lot of humor in the world don't you?

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11 minutes ago, Jay said:

That's cool I never knew the SFAM and SNES versions were different before

Quite afew NES soundtracks are different from their Famicom counterparts, Zelda, Zelda II etc.

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4 hours ago, Thor said:

I don't get that at all (i.e. Doug Adams' previous Twitter post). Those types of comparisons come from people who seem ignorant of synthwave music and the type of ambient electronica that R&R does. This score is closer to MID90s in style and tone, i.e. a more open and extrovert version of their trademark industrial, contemporary sound. Less bass, more treble, but not at all related to 80s synth music or videogame music.

 

It's the lack of melody that makes it so appropriate in this case. All the passion and drive -- the "jazzing", as they say in the movie -- is on earth. The afterlife is not yet defined. The soul is not yet ready. So the beautiful, repetitive electronic textures create that space. Even when they use analogue stuff, it never sounds dated or alluding to previous styles, like synth/retrowave does.

 

Btw, if you haven't heard MID90s yet - their only previous work that can be compared to this, really -- check it out on Spotify

 

I also got a bit of that undertone as well from that tweet, but it honestly might just be projection. There are quite a few people that don't take electronic music seriously in scoring or even in general. There's plenty of people who hear that the score is going to be electronic and can literally only equate it to early video game music (and others assume it will only be droning or something). Not saying anyone on this board does that or even that Doug Adams thinks that, but some people certainly do. It's a point of view that I have heard before. It is kind of funny, but I can't help but pick up on some disdain, whether it's intentional or not.

 

Of course, this implies that comparing something like this to Retro video game music is a bad thing. Which... it's not, necessarily. But a lot of people do mean it to be a bad thing.

 

In other news, I had not heard MID90s yet so thanks for linking that @Thor

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5 minutes ago, TSMefford said:

 

I also got a bit of that undertone as well from that tweet, but it honestly might just be projection. There are quite a few people that don't take electronic music seriously in scoring or even in general. There's plenty of people who hear that the score is going to be electronic and can literally only equate it to early video game music (and others assume it will only be droning or something). Not saying anyone on this board does that or even that Doug Adams thinks that, but some people certainly do. It's a point of view that I have heard before. It is kind of funny, but I can't help but pick up on some disdain, whether it's intentional or not.

 

Yes, nail on head! I hate that stuff in general, whether it's a joke or not.

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1 hour ago, mstrox said:

I’m absolutely certain that mission number one for the music was to find an actual black jazz musician to write the music for the group of black jazz musicians in the film.  It’s respectful and authentic and it helps Pixar avoid a certain type of social media backlash.  The bigger question for me is, why didn’t they let that composer score the whole film?

Exactly, Batiste is a fine composer and it's strange that they felt the need to have another pair of composers to do the underscore. 

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I'm guessing that kind of music is probably not in Batiste's area of expertise. They were clearly looking for two radically different sonic palettes.

 

I just think a Batiste/Newman combo would have been more interesting. 

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4 hours ago, KK said:

I'm guessing that kind of music is probably not in Batiste's area of expertise. They were clearly looking for two radically different sonic palettes.

 

Exactly. Even if a composer could do both modes, one would still hear the same composer's sound (like the aforementioned Newman -- I mean, something ilke PASSENGERS could fit the afterlife, but it still sounds unmistakably Newman). I think this was beautifully solved.

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I am wondering why my absolute Pixar favourite, Monster Inc., seems to be nobody else's top list. 

 

Soul was nice. Seemed particularly a little bit constructed around the message. Especially towards the ending. 

 

And the score was good but not very memorable, at least to me.

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The first three TOY STORY movies are the best, IMO, followed by WALL-E, then a shared spot between Docter's UP and SOUL. That's how high I place it.

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Toy Story never really worked for me. First issue is that with how  this romantic relation between child and toys, especially when kids grew older, was shown, I could not identify. Secondly, when I watched the films with my kids I realized in every of the films there are very scary scenes. So, I think, they should not be watched before the age of six, just to prevent nightmares.

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9 hours ago, mstrox said:

I’m absolutely certain that mission number one for the music was to find an actual black jazz musician to write the music for the group of black jazz musicians in the film.  It’s respectful and authentic and it helps Pixar avoid a certain type of social media backlash.  The bigger question for me is, why didn’t they let that composer score the whole film?

 

They wanted a white composer for the white people?

 

On 12/28/2020 at 5:28 PM, Thor said:

Surely, he makes that "joke" because he thinks there is some sort of similarity. Otherwise, the joke wouldn't work.

 

Am I the only one who finds Jay's "wow" reaction to this (and other posts) to be on the rude side?

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32 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Am I the only one who finds Jay's "wow" reaction to this (and other posts) to be on the rude side?

 

A bit, yes. As with other petimeter corrections, "google this" comments and things like "how can you NOT have noticed this?" or some such variation thereof - giving me the impression that I'm the dumbest person who ever walked the face of the earth - but I've come to ignore this kind of stuff over the years. :)

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Saw the movie. It's good albeit extremely predictable and commonplace.

 

The jazz music made an impression. It was very good.

 

The afterlife music - it was all pleasant textures but nothing memorable. Nothing that I would be able to recognize if you played it back t me. The only motif that stuck out to me was the motif for Terry? (The afterlife guy doing the counts).

 

His motif sounded Newman-esque anyways.

 

And Newman could do this kind of texture stuff in his sleep to high level of polish and sophistication.

 

 

This cue could be applied to the afterlife scenes without problem.

 

And he's a house composer getting them academy award nominations in the past.

 

Why were Reznor and Ross hired again?

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On 12/30/2020 at 8:09 AM, TheUlyssesian said:

Saw the movie. It's good albeit extremely predictable and commonplace.

 

The jazz music made an impression. It was very good.

 

The afterlife music - it was all pleasant textures but nothing memorable. Nothing that I would be able to recognize if you played it back t me. The only motif that stuck out to me was the motif for Terry? (The afterlife guy doing the counts).

 

His motif sounded Newman-esque anyways.

 

And Newman could do this kind of texture stuff in his sleep to high level of polish and sophistication.

 

 

This cue could be applied to the afterlife scenes without problem.

 

And he's a house composer getting them academy award nominations in the past.

 

Why were Reznor and Ross hired again?

 

I know this is a John Williams board and people absolutely like to ding Reznor and Ross...but it is possible that Disney just want a new voice? That is a good thing right? My biggest criticism with Disney is that they never take risks anymore. I am glad they decided to go with Reznor and Ross just to show that they have...you know...a soul. That they are not a machine that recycles names for every movie. 

 

I said it in an earlier post that the score is good but not great. Nevertheless, I am glad they gave someone else a chance. Guys like Newman, Zimmer, Newton Howard, Giacchino, etc. will always have chances to do movies like this. Picking someone else for one film isn't the end of the world. 

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53 minutes ago, Mephariel said:

 

I know this is a John Williams board and people absolutely like to ding Reznor and Ross...but it is possible that Disney just want a new voice? That is a good thing right? My biggest criticism with Disney is that they never take risks anymore. I am glad they decided to go with Reznor and Ross just to show that they have...you know...a soul. That they are not a machine that recycles names for every movie. 

 

I said it in an earlier post that the score is good but not great. Nevertheless, I am glad they gave someone else a chance. Guys like Newman, Zimmer, Newton Howard, Giacchino, etc. will always have chances to do movies like this. Picking someone else for one film isn't the end of the world. 


it isn’t but it feels to be a mere symbolic gesture if it doesn’t change the direction of the company in any way. I personally think symbolic changes are pointless and real changes make a difference.

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On 12/30/2020 at 5:32 AM, Thor said:

 

A bit, yes. As with other petimeter corrections, "google this" comments and things like "how can you NOT have noticed this?" or some such variation thereof - giving me the impression that I'm the dumbest person who ever walked the face of the earth - but I've come to ignore this kind of stuff over the years. :)

And most recently....

" unclog your ears".

The epitome of what an administrator should be. 😒

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Listened to the album yesterday.  It was fine.  It certainly reflected the narrative of the film, likely complete (except for the bad HS band music that opens the movie) but is full of short cues and loses some steam in the bigger  Reznor/Ross portions.  It drags at 65 minutes.  Def one of those things that would work much better honed and arranged into a listening experience.

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3 hours ago, toothless said:

Liked the movie (though bellow Inside Out and Coco imho). As for the score I found it to work perfectly.

 

 

I agree on both counts. Really liked the movie. And the score works perfectly within the film.

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On 1/1/2021 at 7:39 AM, Mephariel said:

 

I know this is a John Williams board and people absolutely like to ding Reznor and Ross...but it is possible that Disney just want a new voice? That is a good thing right? My biggest criticism with Disney is that they never take risks anymore. I am glad they decided to go with Reznor and Ross just to show that they have...you know...a soul. That they are not a machine that recycles names for every movie. 

 

I said it in an earlier post that the score is good but not great. Nevertheless, I am glad they gave someone else a chance. Guys like Newman, Zimmer, Newton Howard, Giacchino, etc. will always have chances to do movies like this. Picking someone else for one film isn't the end of the world. 

I'm not sure that picking Reznor and Ross was really much of a risk given that they have considerable mainstream movie scoring experience and an Oscar. It's not really picking some new or obscure or well known but without much/any film scoring experience. Indeed, the more choice of Jon Batiste is probably more daring as he falls into the "well known but not much/any scoring experience" bracket (I've not heard of him, but in his field he is clearly well known).

 

Plus, worth remembering that the choice of Randy Newman for Toy Story was pretty surprising given that he'd not really scored anything like it before (it was a mix of his own song albums and dramas). Similar for Thomas Newman on Finding Nemo. Think that was his first animated film and certainly an unusual choice at the time. And Michael Giacchino was pretty obscure when he scored The Incredibles. While he was clearly a great choice in retrospect it was by no means certain. By those benchmarks, Ross and Reznor are kinda left field, ish, but not exactly startling daring and what they produced isn't really the kind of music that required their particular experience either (unlike, again, Jon Batiste, whose jazz background was clearly required). I think any number of composers could have written some electronic noodling like Ross & Reznor.

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5 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I'm not sure that picking Reznor and Ross was really much of a risk given that they have considerable mainstream movie scoring experience and an Oscar. It's not really picking some new or obscure or well known but without much/any film scoring experience. Indeed, the more choice of Jon Batiste is probably more daring as he falls into the "well known but not much/any scoring experience" bracket (I've not heard of him, but in his field he is clearly well known).

 

Plus, worth remembering that the choice of Randy Newman for Toy Story was pretty surprising given that he'd not really scored anything like it before (it was a mix of his own song albums and dramas). Similar for Thomas Newman on Finding Nemo. Think that was his first animated film and certainly an unusual choice at the time. And Michael Giacchino was pretty obscure when he scored The Incredibles. While he was clearly a great choice in retrospect it was by no means certain. By those benchmarks, Ross and Reznor are kinda left field, ish, but not exactly startling daring and what they produced isn't really the kind of music that required their particular experience either (unlike, again, Jon Batiste, whose jazz background was clearly required). I think any number of composers could have written some electronic noodling like Ross & Reznor.

 

Exactly this.

 

And I am also going by the adage that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

 

I found Soul's score entirely unremarkable. I firmly believe Thomas Newman would have delivered a superior score and he can do this kind of tinkling ethereal texture stuff in his sleep.

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On 1/1/2021 at 1:39 AM, Mephariel said:

 

I know this is a John Williams board and people absolutely like to ding Reznor and Ross...but it is possible that Disney just want a new voice? That is a good thing right? My biggest criticism with Disney is that they never take risks anymore. I am glad they decided to go with Reznor and Ross just to show that they have...you know...a soul. That they are not a machine that recycles names for every movie. 

 

I said it in an earlier post that the score is good but not great. Nevertheless, I am glad they gave someone else a chance. Guys like Newman, Zimmer, Newton Howard, Giacchino, etc. will always have chances to do movies like this. Picking someone else for one film isn't the end of the world. 

Agreed, though I didn't really care for the score.

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