Jump to content

Jerry Goldsmith's ALONG CAME A SPIDER (2001) - NEW 2021 Varese Deluxe Edition


Jay

Recommended Posts

AlongCameaSpider_2048x2048.jpg?v=1615495

 

Jerry Goldsmith - Along Came A Spider: Music From the Motion Picture (CD)
$ 19.98

 

One of Jerry Goldsmith’s final film scores comes to the CD Club in a long-awaited Deluxe Edition: Along Came a Spider (2001), Paramount Pictures’ second film adaptation of James Patterson’s Alex Cross thriller novels, although taken from the first book. Morgan Freeman reprised his role as Cross (from Kiss the Girls), teaming up with Monica Potter as a Secret Service agent in search of a U.S. Senator’s daughter, who is kidnapped by a twisted adversary.

 

Goldsmith reteamed with New Zealand-born director Lee Tamahori, for whom he scored The Edge (1997), and provided a tense, taut score in his thriller wheelhouse. From his earliest days scoring television, to 1970s landmarks like Capricorn One and Coma, to the granddaddy of the 1990s sex thrillers, Basic Instinct, no composer was as fluent or effective with the thriller genre as Goldsmith. By 2001, the composer had modernized and refined his suspense style to the point where there was not a single wasted note. Along Came a Spider pulses and twitches with uneasy throbs, lurching into orchestral action for moments of shock and violence, and nobly sets a powerful French horn theme (for the forces of good) against a brooding tapestry of darkness—all while the clock ticks away on a young victim’s life.

 

Released as a 35-minute CD by Varèse Sarabande at the time of the film, Along Came a Spider is expanded for the Deluxe Edition to the complete 64-minute score, in film sequence. A bonus track of outtakes (including Goldsmith’s chit-chat on the scoring stage) is curated by Goldsmith’s longtime friend, recording engineer and album producer Bruce Botnick.

 

Limited Edition of 1500 Copies

 

1. Night Talk (3:07)
2. Testing (2:10)
3. Alone (1:03)
4. Megan’s Abduction (3:19)
5. The Message (:52)
6. A Closed Book (1:49)
7. Re-Play (:45)
8. Watching (:36)
9. Hello Megan (1:04)
10. The Missing Picture (4:20)
11. The Photos (2:25)
12. Please Help (:38)
13. Megan Overboard (4:51)
14. Cyber Meeting (1:52)
15. No Guard (1:15)
16. Cop Killer (3:50)
17. Missing Girl (1:07)
18. The Ransom Pt 1 (4:36)
19. The Ransom Pt 2 (2:51)
20. Hi Alex (:47)
21. Where’s Megan? (2:29)
22. The Rat (:55)
23. Not Alone (1:50)
24. Profiling (3:46)
25. Open The Door (1:02)
26. Not My Partner/The Ransom (End Credits from the motion picture Along Came A Spider) (10:38)
27. That’s It! (2:13)

 

https://www.varesesarabande.com/products/jerry-goldsmith-along-came-a-spider-music-from-the-motion-picture-cd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also don't own this so will be getting this release. But maybe not in the next couple of weeks. Got a lot of other stuff to sort out first.

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I doubt there's much of a revelation in this release. I've seen the movie many times (I watched it a lot on DVD back in the day), and the bits missing from the OST are mostly hissy, drony suspense and atmospheric material.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Does Yavar think it's any good?

 

Since you asked... I have never warmed up to this score outside of a few highlights I appreciate ("Alone" is some nice solo piano work, and I like "The Ransom" and "Megan's Abduction" well enough). I don't really consider any Goldsmith score to be worthless but this is probably among my 20 least favorite Goldsmith scores if I'm perfectly honest.

Still, there are some people whose opinions at FSM I respect who seem very excited by this expansion, so I look forward to receiving it and giving it another chance in complete form. (I should probably also see the film to appreciate what Jerry was doing in context.)

 

Matinee: The Deluxe Edition or Mom and Dad Save the World: The Deluxe Edition would excite me a lot more.


Yavar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, BryonDavis said:

It's one I pushed to do for two years BEFORE a certain producer left the company.  I like it that much.

 

Cool! I'd be very curious to know what your favorite cues are, in the film and/or on the album. I will give them special attention when I get my copy because I like listening more closely to pieces other people are passionate about.

 

Yavar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Matinee: The Deluxe Edition or Mom and Dad Save the World: The Deluxe Edition would excite me a lot more.

That is really a beautiful score. I stumble across this one by surprise in the 90s. And since then it remained in my personal top 10 of Goldsmith's scores.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes but the weird part of the title is that it should be "Eight-Legged Freaks", implying freaks with 8 legs.

 

"Eight Legged Freaks" implies there are 8 freaks, who have legs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Koray considers this one of her first roles? I'd already seen Ghost World and The Man Who Wasn't There in the cinema before this one, and wiki says she'd been in 10 others already too

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/21/2021 at 5:06 PM, Kasey Kockroach said:

I was always disappointed the title wasn’t literal. I wanted a Goldsmith-scored spider monster movie!

 

You will have to do with that:

 

lp1u42LrDuHJZw2eK9KMjTvWRBu.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I hadn't noticed there was a dedicated thread for this release. Anyways, here's the Celluloid Tunes review of this, perhaps more appropriate here than in the general JG thread:

 

http://celluloidtunes.no/along-came-a-spider-jerry-goldsmith/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I totally forgot to share the Goldsmith Odyssey Soundtrack Spotlight with Bruce Botnick here...

 

74cb75bab2243992e98fab5156007185827084cf

 

https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/8360054-odyssey-soundtrack-spotlight-along-came-a-spider-2001

 

More focus is given to additional music and elements which are different from the original album, here.

 

Yavar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I understand how this might not be exactly a top-drawer Goldsmith but why do people dislike this score? I finally got around to checking out my Varese disc (forgot I had it!) and it is actually a pretty neat thriller score. Nothing original but what would I give to have a score like this in a modern thriller film. It's a perfectly solid work and I really enjoy it.

 

Karol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I understand how this might not be exactly a top-drawer Goldsmith but why do people dislike this score? I finally got around to checking out my Varese disc (forgot I had it!) and it is actually a pretty neat thriller score. Nothing original but what would I give to have a score like this in a modern thriller film. It's a perfectly solid work and I really enjoy it.

 

I hadn't heard a note of it until I got this new release (because back in the day it got unfavourable reviews, so I skipped it then). That was about 2 weeks ago; I played it twice after ripping it and can't really remember anything now, so it's not one of the more memorable Goldsmith scores - but I still found it a more enjoyable listen than I was expecting based on the comments. It's certainly not top shelf Goldsmith, but it's also not the most boring thing he's done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.