What Is The Last Score You Listened To From 2022?

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

See How They Run - Daniel Pemberton

 

I love Pemberton. And this score is no different. It's a mix between some jazzy/country vibes and more noir/action stuff. Some moments reminded me a bit of Desplat.

It's Mother Brooklyn meets Enola Holmes (but still really it's own thing).

Great stuff!!

 

With Amsterdam & Enola Holmes 2 coming up. Pemberton is having a great year. And I'm hoping both Amstetdam as a film & score are great and he gets his Oscar nomination. He really deserves one.

[Jay 37,363]

David Arnold - Confess, Fletch

 

5 minutes of funky rock and roll is released on the soundtrack album.  It's nice music, but nothing special.

[Jay 37,363]

John Powell - Don't Worry, Darling

 

I liked this!  It's a damn fine horror / thriller score with some interesting vocal and synth work.  The album flows well and keeps your interest for its less than an hour run time.  I dig it, though it won't be something I listen to all that frequently.

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

John Powell - Don't Worry, Darling

 

I liked this!  It's a damn fine horror / thriller score with some interesting vocal and synth work.  The album flows well and keeps your interest for its less than an hour run time.  I dig it, though it won't be something I listen to all that frequently.

I think I found it more interesting than enjoyable. Some of the sampled breathy stuff reminded me of Ennio Morricone's weirder efforts and I have to admit that those don't do a huge amount for me. For all the people having expectations for The Fabelmans or whatever, my expectations for this were somewhere between Arnold's Stepford Wives, Desplat at his quirkier end and things like Promising Young Woman (by JP's assistant composer - or however you want to term it - Anthony Willis), but it was a whole lot weirder and less engaging than any of that. The final 8 minute action cue is pretty great, but the rest was far more sporadically engaging.

 

 

It could just be me, but if I'm terrible for having double standards when it comes to soundtracks. If this was by a composer I either didn't know or was broadly indifferent towards, I can honestly say that I would probably have given up after a few tracks, but because it was JP, I persevered to the end. I mean, I'm glad I did and I will try and give it another couple of spins (in a way that I doubt I'd have bothered had it been by anyone else!) but I think it'll go down as something of an outlier in his opus.

[Jay 37,363]

Man, I'd hate it if I had all those types of thoughts going through my head litening to a new album of music.  I just sat down and pressed "play" and listened to it and reacted to what I heard; any thoughts of which composer's work it is, or how it compares against that composer's other works, etc, is really unfair thoughts to have when judging something new.  I just listened and decided if I liked it or not without all that baggage!

[Jay 37,363]

Daniel Pemberton - See How They Run

 

Hmm, a mixed bag for me.  Parts of it are very fun and exciting, a bit along the lines of his Ocean's 8 / Bad Guys scoring.  But there's also a lot of filler tracks where not much happens.  The final title track is a nice fun end-capper, though.  This is probably a score I'll appreciate more after seeing the movie.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Vol. 1 - Amie Doherty

 

I really really like the theme in the first cue. It's carchy, fun and powerful. Fits the character perfectly.

There isn't a ton of action in the first 4 episodes, so that's also the case for the first volume.

"First Transformation" is more chaotic for the first time Jen transforms into She-Hulk.

The final minute of "What Happened To Me", "A Normal Amount Of Rage", "Ladies And Gentleman Of The Jury" & "Alleyway Attack" are more focused, but do lack a certain something.

"Covered In Goo" is my favorite action cue. The statement of Wong's motif and more heroic brass makes for an entertaining 2 minutes.

 

There are a lot of more slower tracks who sometimes can be a little anonymous, which makes the middle of the album drag a little. The short cues also don't help, but aren't too bad.

 

There are some standouts:

The statement of Silverstri's Avengers theme in "Weird Stuff Just Kind Off Finds You" was nice to hear.

"Good Deeds" offers some more statements of Wong's motif.

"Sleight Of Hands" & "The Show Must Go Wrong" are great. Both really sound like they are from a magic show, including a motif for Donny Blaze.

 

The music fits the show very well, so for me, that makes the album more enjoyable. I'm excited to hear what Doherty does with the remaining 4 episodes (I liked the music in the 5th episode a lot, especially the Titania music).

Recommended for some highlights and a terrific main theme.

[publicist 4,643]

 

Lively adventure score, with a lot of 90's Arnold/Dodd (Stargate especially) and also recalling the good second-tier scores of that decade. Nothing new or unique, but the level of old-style is endearing.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

The Disney Book - Lang Lang

 

Not really a score, but I quite like the album.

 

The slower song performances and some of the cues with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are beautiful.

 

But I actually don't like the few faster cues. Never been a fan of solo piano playing a song which is clearly meant for more instruments or singers. And to me, it doesn't matter how good of a pianist it's being played by.

Also not a fan of the cues with a few soloist singing. Just don't really do anything for me.

 

I'll make my own shorter playlist of the cues I like.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Pearl - Tyler Bates & Timothy Williams

 

This is quite the surprise. A fully orchestral score by Tyler Bates, I never thought I would see that.

It's in the vein of Golden Age thrillers and melodrama. There are some darker thriller sections, but they are all still listenable and enjoyable. Hints of Hermann and Waxmann.

Some strong writing for strings, horns and woodwinds. One of the biggest surprises of the year for me.

 

"Pearl Main Title", "Dancing With Scarecrows", "The Projectionist", "The Whole World Is Gonna Know My Name", "Hot-House Rag", "A Bicyle And An Axe" and "I'm SoHappy You're Home" are the standout tracks for me

[Knight of Ren 789]

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis team up again with director Andrew Dominik, and I think this might be one of their best efforts. I enjoyed parts of Hell or High Water and The Assassination of Jesse James, and I loved almost all of Wind River, but I think this might be my new favorite score from them.

 

It fits the film like a glove (which I also recommend even if it might be a little divisive), enhancing the emotions of many scenes, with some tracks even channeling Angelo Badalamenti at the top of his game. It's a bit early to tell, but this could earn them their first Oscar nom. Definitely a great surprise worth checking out!

 

[publicist 4,643]

 

Aaron Zigman delivers a rather surprisingly detailed emotional score, for a Netflix movie that is. It has intimate woodwind parts, y'know...

[thestat 348]

On 24/09/2022 at 4:10 PM, JNHFan2000 said:

Pearl - Tyler Bates & Timothy Williams

 

This is quite the surprise. A fully orchestral score by Tyler Bates, I never thought I would see that.

It's in the vein of Golden Age thrillers and melodrama. There are some darker thriller sections, but they are all still listenable and enjoyable. Hints of Hermann and Waxmann.

Some strong writing for strings, horns and woodwinds. One of the biggest surprises of the year for me.

 

"Pearl Main Title", "Dancing With Scarecrows", "The Projectionist", "The Whole World Is Gonna Know My Name", "Hot-House Rag", "A Bicyle And An Axe" and "I'm SoHappy You're Home" are the standout tracks for me

 

Slightly surprised why everyone is surprised. Tyler was the film music bad boy in the early 2000s but since at least Guardians, he is what-he-is:

 

 

I'm sure Timothy Williams has much to do with the lush sound of Pearl, but this has been a Bates thing for a long time, going back to his Silvestri homage for Gunn's Sliver. Let the guy be.

Considering rock/pop stars and orchestral integration, the Don Davis / Juno Reactor stuff is legendary, and perhaps never to be beaten:

 

[Edmilson 7,448]

2 hours ago, thestat said:

Slightly surprised why everyone is surprised. Tyler was the film music bad boy in the early 2000s but since at least Guardians, he is what-he-is:

Guardians Vol. 2 is his best score, very epic and emotional. It's on the top 10 MCU scores for me.

 

 

Some people like Jon Broxton also liked his Deadpool 2 score that came out on the following year, but I haven't heard that one.

[Jules 59]

The Blonde score is indeed a great listen, can't agree about the film being worthwhile, however. Absolutely thoughtless exploitation of Munroe's life. 

[publicist 4,643]

 

[crocodile 8,012]

Thoughts?

 

Karol

[Jay 37,363]

Austin Wintory - Aliens: Fireteam Elite

 

Wow!  I really liked this.  I put it on with literally no idea what to expect, only learning of its existence yesterday, never having even heard of the game before, and being completely unfamiliar with Wintory's work outside of Journey.

 

What makes this good, and sustain an 81 minute album runtime, is its variety!  This isn't just a one-trick pony that iterates on some core ideas to get you through levels of suspense and action; There's a lot of inventiveness throughout this.  Sometimes I'm hearing Planet of the Apes style percussion, sometimes it's MV-style ostinatos, sometimes its 90's Goldsmith action scoring, etc.  But it's also not just aping famous things I was familiar with, often I hear cool action music that I assume is Wintory's own style (I'm not familiar enough with his work to say).

 

Definitely worth checking out for free on your streamer of choice - what have you got to lose?

[Jay 37,363]

Yasunori Mitsuda, et al - Xenoblade Chronicles 3

 

I've listened to the full gamerip a handful of times now that it's been sorted and organized somewhat, and I think I've settled on thinking it's pretty good, with a bunch of good music, but not even close to the epic level Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is at.  That score is consistently excellent from start to finish, and is full of so many earworms that stayed in my head for days, weeks, months.  This score has nice moments here and there in between a lotttttttt of nondescript, nothing-special stuff.  Oh, and I also don't like the Moebius vocual tracks at all, where there's nothing in XB2 that really turns me off at all.

 

Oh well

[publicist 4,643]

On 30/09/2022 at 9:22 AM, crocodile said:

Thoughts?

 

Once you've accepted it's *just* a series of clever sketches without a real narrative throughline (like a movie provides), it's about as good as it gets. Wintory's expected bows to Goldsmith are clear from the outset: 'Into the Hive' opens with an ominous phrase that could have sprung from 'Outland' (it recalls a racing motif from 'Hot Water') and is joined by his own variation on the famous 'Alien' tic toc flute motif.

 

Wintory never loses sight of this basic material, but over longer stretches he abandons it in favour of his own, slightly more fiddly electronic manipulation that rely purely on rhythmic phrases (i can imagine Goldsmith having fun with the toolset from the 'Contact' cue). I wouldn't really compare it with the Goldenthal-Alien, but the pointillistic usage of electronic effects is similar. But this parallel existence also points to a certain flaw in the sense that when you are back to the more pointed Goldsmith material in 'Not a Simple Bug Hunt', you realize how random many of the cues before are (the ensuing cue has a great low trombone/plucked strings thing going on after ca. 01:50 that's also pure Goldsmith). Thankfully, things pick up after 'Search' with some urgency (time to get out the good old jagged orchestra rhythms of the 90's).

 

What i like about his musical approach - probably more than the actual result - is how he's so analytical about it. Wintory knows what's expected of him in terms of providing excitement for a video game and delivers on that front but he also deep-dives into the the aesthetics of a wholly different era, namely Goldsmith's late 70's scores and tries to inject them as smoothly as possible. Compared to the awful bluntness that has crept into sci-fi/fantasy scoring in the last 25 years, that's remarkable.

[publicist 4,643]

 

Who would've thought a Tyler Bates score ever would strongly recall an overheated John Barry romance? (but maybe co-composer Timothy Williams did the honours)

 

And, to add to the initial surprise, 'Pearl' is a psychological slasher film (a prequel to a movie called X), and serves as an origin story for the titular villain, Pearl, whose fervent aspirations to become a movie star lead her to committing violent acts on her family's Texas homestead in 1918.

 

But it's nice to have a modern thriller score building on a strong melodic main theme, for a change.

[publicist 4,643]

 

For today's standards surprisingly modest release (42 minutes!), in an idiom somewhere between 'Van Helsing' and 'Wolfman'. Unfortunately most of it is functional suspense. For the fact that the film is Michael Giacchino's directorial debut, however, the music sounds surprisingly impersonal. Perhaps the directing part was exhausting enough. My recommendations are limited to the Main Title, Mane on Ends, and the guitar-strummed End Titles (he seems to have picked up a fondness for expressive piano concertos when he did Batman, this one has a short bookending piece like that, too).

 

Desplat fortunately in a more rough and snappy mode than usual. The rhythmic dissonances always remain slightly ironic, the airy instrumentation with lots of woodwinds, harp and percussion keeps the tempo quite tight. The motivic ideas are short and precise (they won't knock the socks off the common Star Wars fan). All in all, however, a pleasantly up-tempo comedy-Desplat, incidentally his sixth collaboration with Stephen Frears.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

1 hour ago, publicist said:

For today's standards surprisingly modest release (42 minutes!)

The special is only 53 minutes long. All the score is on the release I believe. There are some needledrops, but other than that, most is here.

I really like this score. But I might be a bit biased because I'm a big fan of Giacchino and like even his lesser scores

[GerateWohl 4,368]

 

Just as expected the typical modern music pretending sound scapes.

I miss the good old days a little.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Funny, I thought it wasn't like that at all.

 

Look, it's nowhere near the brilliance of Young's 2 Hellraiser scores. 
But there are some cues I really like. I thought this would be another droning horror score so I was quite surprised and delighted to hear some of the string work.
And what a joy to hear some reprises of Young's themes as well!!!

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Amsterdam - Daniel Pemberton

 

Another fun score. I really like his work. It's a bit more laid back than some of his other scores. The album is maybe a tad to long, but I like it a lot.

Great writing for woodwinds and Pemberton's usual jazzy rhythms make plenty an appearance.

Time, one of the songs, based on one of the main themes is also quite lovely.

 

In my mind he's having an excellent year with this, See How They Run, The Afterparty, Slow Horses, The Bad Guys (the nest of his scores this year) and the upcoming Enola Holmes 2. Whixh I'm sure is going to be a treat.

[thestat 348]

Like a lot of Wintory's stuff for Aliens - I appreciate his novel approach. Back in the olden days of the 1990s, he probably would have been hired for Alien 5 or Covenant or whatever, back when people were hired on merit. I would be very surprised if he ever got hired on a major franchise nowadays to be honest. He is too intelligent and aware of his compositional talents. You can hear this all over the Aliens score he has done - good on him to stick to the games, not the film industry. The Regicide cue with its Horner references is brilliant, but it is not Jed Kurzel burbing into a tube for 2 hours and having Harry Gregson Williams come and clean up, is it?

[Jay 37,363]

Michael Giacchino - Werewolf By Night

 

One of my favorite albums from him in a while - this is really fun!  Nice 41 minute running time, too

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Agreed. Wonderful album.

 

Small edit: 41 minutes😉

[Jay 37,363]

Alexandre Desplat - The Lost King

Woah!  I really loved that opening titles cue!  Damn!  The rest of the album wasn't on that level, but I heard some good stuff

[publicist 4,643]

 

[crocodile 8,012]

 The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Season One by Bear McCreary. My "complete" 8-hour and 2 minutes playlist consisting of all the suites and individual episode albums. Obviously, listening to it all the way through seems like quite an endurance test as this in itself is longer than many epic movie trilogies. Having said that, it is a very enjoyable accompaniment for my walks, everyday chores etc. I am enjoying it very much, both in contest of the show and on its own. It's somewhat similar to Howard Shore's scores in some aspects, especially in choral work, but it manages to establish its own identity. This is definitely closer to Shore's The Hobbit trilogy in that the thematic focus follows individual characters rather than big concepts. That, obviously, is dictated by the fragmented narrative of the show itself. Also, it sounds younger and more shiny in contrast to the movies. Which, if you think about it, makes some sense as the Tolkien's Middle-earth is decaying ever so slightly with each age and even Shore's The Hobbit trilogy pushed the palette towards slightly more modern sound. It does makes sense McCreary's music feels even more so, given the huge chronology leap. Having said that, I do not have a huge desire to think about the other scores while listening to this, just as I don't think of them while listening to Leonard Rosenman or Johan de Meij's interpretations. I enjoy many themes and how they progress - especially The Stranger, Elrond and Galadriel. I also warmed up to Nori's theme, even if it reminds me slightly of James Horner's main theme from Avatar. A lot of love went into this music and it definitely is Bear's magnum opus so far, a true testament of his love for Tolkien as well as past film music masters. And this is (hopefully) just the fifth of it!

 

Karol

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

The School For Good And Evil - Theodore Shapiro

 

I quite enjoyed this. It's a bit like Ghostbusters at some points with some interesting choral moments and a good theme.

There are some contemporary elements to the score, but I also quite enjoyed those.

Solid score by Shapiro.

[Bespin 8,481]

• Danny Elfman - Dr Strange in the multithing of madness (Spotify)
• Howard Shore - Crimes of the future (Spotify)

[publicist 4,643]

 

Fans of real music instead of glorified sound design should take a listen here: Daniel Hart's new score for the 'Interview with the Vampire' series.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Yess. It's really good. Not interested in the series, but Hart is a very strong and versatile composer. Another win for him.

[publicist 4,643]

 

Overall impression: meh. One hears that Britell could, but was not really allowed to. Many deadly organ chords (feel excused for falling asleep even during the relatively benign running time of 50 minutes), dull ostinati figures, but at least orchestrated with a certain elegance (great solo violin part at the end of 'Past/Present Suite'), it's quasi the counterpart to what someone like Balfe would have produced under the same guidelines.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Yes, it's a snoozer

 

[filmmusic 1,829]

Interview with a Vampire (Daniel Hart)

 

When TV scores are better than many film scores of today.

Marvelous score!

Listen especially to this:

 

 

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

It's incredible how good the TV scores are this year.

Moon Knight

The Orville

Westworld (not for everyone probably)

The Rings Of Power

House Of The Dragon

 

And Willow coming up

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

You forgot

Only Murders in the Building Season 2

Miss Marvel

Light & Magic

 

and Williams' Obi-Wan and Ross' Obi-Wan

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

Glad @May the Force be with You name checked Only Murders in the Building (great show in a mad way) as I love the music for that. The main theme is winning and the underscore superb. Looks like they went from having a few themes and ideas to track in at will during the first season to more “properly” composed underscore for the second.

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

2 hours ago, May the Force be with You said:

You forgot

Only Murders in the Building Season 2

Miss Marvel

 

1 hour ago, Tom Guernsey said:

Glad @May the Force be with You name checked Only Murders in the Building (great show in a mad way) as I love the music for that. The main theme is winning and the underscore superb. Looks like they went from having a few themes and ideas to track in at will during the first season to more “properly” composed underscore for the second.

Indeed, forgot. Wonderful score(s)

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

The Curse Of Bridge Hollow - Christopher Lennertz

 

Lennertz is great at fully orchestral writing and this a perfect example. Truly fun Halloween score with a full orchestra, choir, themes and strong orchestration.

At 55 minutes the album doesn't outstay it's welcome.

Give Lennertz more projects where he is allowed to go fully orchestral. It almost looks like Netflix is the only one who lets him do that.

[Romão 2,274]

9 hours ago, filmmusic said:

Interview with a Vampire (Daniel Hart)

 

When TV scores are better than many film scores of today.

Marvelous score!

Listen especially to this:

 

 

 

 

It reminds me quite a bit of this, actually:

 

 

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Anyone listen to the album (or seen the series) for Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet Of Curiosities? It's by various composers.

 

I haven't seen or listened to it yet myself, but I would like too. But I'm seeing lot's of positive things about the whole project. Just wondered if anybody got any thoughts on it.

[Under-Terrestrial 51]

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/wendell-wild-soundtrack-from-the-netflix-film/1649290661

[filmmusic 1,829]

TILL (Abel Korzeniowski)

 

Masterful for its kind and I love Korzeniowski, but I often wonder if this minimalistic music leads to anywhere... I mean, minimalistic scores seem to me like recycling the same material over and over.

 

[JNHFan2000 2,961]

Put some favorites of mine from this year on during the week while recovering.

 

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumedore

House Of The Dragon

Jurassic World: Dominion

Le Temps Des Secrets

Lightyear

Moon Knight

Ms. Marvel

Paws Of Fury

Redeeming Love

The Bad Guys

The Batman

The Rings Of Power (Season album)

Werewolf By Night

Westworld

 

How I love all this scores.

For me personally, 2022 has been a stellar year for scores. And I'm excited for the next 2 months to add more wonderful stuff to this list.

[Jay 37,363]

Damn looking at that list I kind of forgot what an incredible year Giacchino had!