Laura Karpman - Marvel's What If...?

[tomsmoviemadness 3,762]

Episode 6 of S3 featured some really nice Western music. Both the old time full orchestral stuff and the more modern guitar riff etc.

 

Most fun were the "Westernised"? statements of Joel P West's Shang Chi theme and the way the Asian instruments were combined with the western style. Really great stuff.

[Gabriel Bezerra 476]

Yup, I think it's the first of the season to use any themes besides the Avengers. However, its use was more akin to Wenwu's.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,762]

Great thing about Shang-Chi's theme is (I think), is that is the themes for his father & mother combined.

 

So you're correct in that it's Wenwu's theme. It starts out that way, until later in the score when Shang-Chi gets the Ten Ring. Then it becomes his theme combined with the theme for his mother.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,762]

Great use of The Newton Brothers' theme for Storm from X-Men 97 as well as the X-Men theme from the animated series in episode 7.

[wtrz 8]

Was hoping there'd be an album release today, but doesn't look like that's the case. Fingers crossed for next week.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,762]

Karpman has answered to a message of mine that an album was coming. I was also expecting today, but I guess not.

[wtrz 8]

It's out!! 31 tracks, just shy of an hour; much better this go-around than last season. Can't wait to dive in.

 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/what-if-season-3-original-soundtrack/1789632276

 

 

Tracklist:

 

1. Chat

2. Big Guns

3. Comradery

4. Stand Down

5. Friends Again

6. Never Surrender

7. You Again

8. We Fight Together

9. Visitors Arrive

10. Bedtime

11. Light the Fuse

12. Incoming

13. The Alliance

14. Lost Everything

15. Revenge

16. Ghost Train

17. Spooky

18. Ringing the Bell

19. Born to Play

20. The Greatest Footage

21. End Credits...Hollywood

22. Shards

23. Arrivals

24. Not Strong Enough

25. Warrior

26. Help

27. The Oath

28. Not Losing

29. Lessons

30. Learn to See

31. Another Question

 

Post-listen edit: the tracks aren't in order this time. 

Episode 1: 1-6

Episode 2: 19-21

Episode 3: 7-8

Episode 4: 9-10

Episode 5: 11-15

Episode 6: 16-18

Episode 7: 22-26

Episode 8: 27-31

 

Sadly no MCU score quotes but damn her writing for this season, especially the last two episodes, is really good. Only critique I have is that "Warrior" and "Lessons" sound like Giacchino's "London Calling" cue from Star Trek Into Darkness was temp tracked. The repeating piano intro and the strings are quite uncanny. 

[darkspine10 24]

I've done a listen of the first few tracks to try and get them in order, but noticed some anomalies. Track 6, Never Surrender, is actually from the car chase in episode 3 (I figured it out from the Red Guardian quote in the name).

 

Track 4, Stand Down, was harder to identify. The section from 1:21-end is when the giant creatures emerge from the ocean at 16:02 in the ep, but the preceding cue is from later in the episode, at 23:16. The first three tracks are simpler, they all play in that order in ep 1 (conference call scene, battle on the ice, and Sam goes to Bruce's island respectively), and track 5 is the final cue of the episode.

 

Haven't listened past that, so can't give any more detail for the other episodes.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,762]

I went through the album and the episode and made chronological order that I think is right. 

 

I'm glad we got a better album here than for S2 and although I don't want to seem ungrateful. There is still music missing that easily could've fit in there. Especially the action music and end credits from the final episode with the biggest statements of The Watcher's theme in the entire series.

And I am missing the statements of previous MCU themes. Especially in the Shang-Chi episode.

 

Either way, here's the chronological order:

 

Episode 1
Chat
Big Guns
Comradery
Stand Down (1:21-end)
Stand Down (0:00-1:21)
Friends Again

Episode 2
Born To Play
The Greatest Footage
End Credits...Hollywood

Episode 3
Never Surrender
You Again
We Fight Together

Episode 4
Visitors Arrive
Bedtime

Episode 5
The Alliance
Incoming
Light The Fuse
Lost Everything
Revenge

Episode 6
Ghost Train
Spooky
Ringing The Bell

Episode 7
Arrivals
Shards
Not Strong
Warrior
Help

Episode 8
The Oath
Not Losing
Lesson Learn To See
Another Question

[darkspine10 24]

Episode 2 and 3's tracks play as full cues without any editing or cutting I could notice, but the other episodes are a bit messier.

 

Ep4: Visitors Arrive is edited, 0:23-end is when Fury arrives on Jotunheim (17:30 in the episode), and is based off a reused cue from the Party Thor episode (Mellow/OH NO!!!! from that ep's OST). 0:10-0:23 of the track is when Zeus arrives (18:34 in the ep), but I couldn't find the first 10 seconds, possibly they're unused, or the whole cue plays more than once in the episode.

 

Ep5: The Alliance is two cues, 1:06-end is when Riri first meets the Alliance (3:48 in ep), 0:00-1:06 is  at 16:02 in the ep, but only plays for 14 seconds before cutting to another cue. Light the Fuse appears to be a variant of what's used in the episode (13:25 in ep), there are definitely differences between the episode and OST (a slower tempo on OST and missing synth backing elements). The other three tracks from this episode are one cue only. So the order for ep 5 is The Alliance 1:06-end, Incoming, Light the Fuse (alt), The Alliance (0:00-1:06, truncated), Lost Everything, and finally Revenge.

 

Ep6: Ghost Train is also two cues. The two halves of the track do play back to back, but there's a silent section between them in the episode. 0:00-1:12 is from 8:22 in ep, 1:12-end from spotting the train (9:58 in ep), a variant of the Guardians of the Multiverse theme from Season 1. 1:48 onwards is unused/alternate to what's in the episode.

 

Spooky 0:00-0:27 is when the Hood first appears (16:24 in ep), 0:27-2:01 is when the Hood becomes invisible and Kate is hypnotised (17:54 in ep). I couldn't find 2:01-end anywhere in the episode, and there appears to be some kind of strange edit at 2:31 where the track fades out then awkwardly resumes at a slightly earlier section before fading into another cue, like whoever assembled the track wanted to transition between cues, but forgot and left their transition at the end after the previous cue was already fully over. It's possible this music was dialled out and replaced by tracked music, as there's some reuse of music from the Ultron fight in S1Ep8 earlier in the fight with the Hood, that or I'm just missing it from somewhere else in the episode.

 

Ringing the Bell 0:00-0:49 is another section I couldn't identify, 0:49-end is when Shang-Chi hears the bell and recovers (22:49 in the ep).

 

I'll check episodes 7 and 8 later.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,762]

Great work.

 

I noticed the stuff you've written down, but didn't bother to make an expansive post like yours. Great work!

 

I feel like the cuts in "Spooky" are all to edit out the themes from Joel P West from Shang-Chi. But I could be wrong.

[wtrz 8]

39 minutes ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

Great work.

 

I noticed the stuff you've written down, but didn't bother to make an expansive post like yours. Great work!

 

I feel like the cuts in "Spooky" are all to edit out the themes from Joel P West from Shang-Chi. But I could be wrong.

I have nothing but a gut hunch that Disney doesn’t wanna pay whatever fees are involved to reuse themes. The S2 album also didn’t have any quoted music. 

[darkspine10 24]

Ep 7: Arrivals, 0:00-0:09 is unused, replaced with a more subdued Captain Carter theme in the episode. The next section is also slightly micro-edited in the episode.

Shards plays over the opening titles for this episode.

Not Strong Enough, 0:00-0:54 is after Storm fails to use the Shard  (10:37 in ep), at 0:54-end is unused, it's replaced by other music around the point where Kahorri brings up Ultron (11:30ish in the ep). That's nearly two minutes of unused music, so it could possibly be from another ep or I'm just missing something obvious?

Warrior, 0:00-2:08 is from Storm talking to Peggy on the ship (13:09 in ep), 2:08-end appears to be unused, replaced with some unreleased material and tracked music from S1Ep7.

Help, 00:0-1:21 is from when Ultron's reflects on peace (20:08 in ep), 1:21-2:06 is when the others find that Peggy took the last shard (17:56 in ep), (1:40-2:06 is partially dialled out), 2:06-3:04 is when the group attacks Ultron (18:40 in ep), 3:04-end is unused or I couldn't find it elsewhere.

 

All the cues in episode 8 are complete, no editing weirdness. The Oath is the opening cue of the episode, then the remainder are all from the final ten minutes, from when Peggy defeats the Eminence on (20:59 in ep). There's one missing cue which has the Doctor Strange theme (between Not Losing and Lessons), Learn to See is dialled out from 0:48-end, and the credits music isn't on the album either.

 

Actually, about the credits, the first 9 seconds are pitch shifted from the next section of the credits, while the rest is identical to the track as released on the Season 2 album, followed by a reprise of Warrior for 1:26, then the last 43 seconds or so sound unique.