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First Impressions: The SCORES of 2023


Jay

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I think this title makes more sense than "What Is The Last Score You Listened To (from 2023)", because 99% (if not 100%) of the posts are people's first listens to scores of the year in question

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Since I'm not sure if any interesting scores are out yet, what 2023 scores are people most looking forward to?

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I listened to 3 new scores this year.

I feel I'm one of the people on here who is highly invested in almost anything new that comes out. I listen not as much to scores from the 50's to 90's as I do to scores.from the past 22 years. And with the following 3 scores my 2023 of discovering new scores has gone off to a great start.

 

Kaleidoscope - Dominic Lewis

Quite funky in some places. Really enjoyed it. Lewis is, for me, one of the best 'new' composers in the last few years.

 

Tirailleurs - Alexandre Desplat

Thriller score, so it's not as 'catchy' as some of his other works. It has some similar passages to last hears The Outfit. But overall I won't revisit it much.

 

M3gan - Anthony Willis

Willis, like Lewis, is one of my favourite new composers and I really like this score. It has some Herrmann like string work, electronics and a bigger orchestral sound than I expected. Most projects produced by James Wann have had droning Joseph Bishira scores, so this is a nice change of pase. Hope Willis gets more projects after this where he can show his orchestral muscle.

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Indiana Jones 5, Dune Part 2, the Hunger Games Prequel, All the Light We Cannot See and Pain Hustlers and probably my most anticipated scores.

 

Also looking forward to A Haunting in Venice (if Doyle scores it) and Napoleon (if HGW scores it) and Ant-Man 3 should be fun.

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14 minutes ago, Mr. Who said:

Pain Hustlers

 

First I've heard of this one. What causes your anticipation for it?

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30 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

First I've heard of this one. What causes your anticipation for it?

It’s JNH lol. I know nothing else about it

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Just looked it up.  I hadn't realized Yates was finally making another non-Potterverse movie

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_Hustlers

 

Doesn't sound like anything that would lead to a particularly exciting score, but who knows!

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1 hour ago, JNHFan2000 said:

I listened to 3 new scores this year.

I feel I'm one of the people on here who is highly invested in almost anything new that comes out.

 

I'm with you, but right now I'm DEEPLY involved in sampling remaining 2022 scores for my annual "best of" list. I had maybe sampled 500 throughout the year, but over the course of a few days now, I'm up to 1500, spanning the globe. I need to get that out of the way first before I can delve into the year we're actually in.

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I haven't got the time to listen to M3GAN for now but I'm looking forward to it Anthony Willis' Promising Young Woman was pretty nice after all

 

There are few scores I'm looking forward to although usually I listen to score as the year goes:

  • Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (yes again but that's the only one I'm really expecting)
  • whatever Powell will be scoring this year
  • Only Murders in the Building S3
  • Creed III by Shirley, I hope it'll be a bit better than the two first which were nice
  • Oppenheimer by Göransson, I personnally didn't liked Tenet but I'm giving them a second chance to do something memorable
  • Next Goal Wins by Giacchino
  • Ghostbusters sequel by ???, I don't know if Simonssen's been announced or not but his first score was really nice
  • Quantumania by Beck, Beck and Marvel always give really fun stuff
  • Dune part. 2 by Zimmer
  • The Super Mario Bros Movie by Tyler, waiting for a nice and fun orchestral score
  • Loki S2 by Natalie Holt, her first season was really good
  • Dead Reckonning by Balfe, I know I'm one of the few who enjoyed his Fallout score (even though Kramer would have done far better)
  • The Mandalorian S3 by Göransson
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11 minutes ago, May the Force be with You said:

Creed III by Göransson, I hope it'll be a bit better than the two first which were nice

 

Göransson is not scoring Creed III.  Joseph Shirley is.

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1 hour ago, Thor said:

I'm up to 1500, spanning the globe. I need to get that out of the way first before I can delve into the year we're actually in.

I'm on a total of 634 scores fully listened to from last year. Was a new record!!

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This is the first score I listened from 2023, and is quite nice. If you liked the previous scores for NWR movies like Drive, Only God Forgives, Neon Demon or Too Old To Die Young you'll probably like this one. Synth ambient stuff, with some great EDM tracks. The album is a bit too long, but there are some great tracks to make a shorter playlist along with the highlights of other NWR scores.

 

And I think this are the scores I'm looking forward the most in 2023:

-The Flash - Benjamin Wallfisch (Excited to hear what Wallfisch has done for the character!)

-Ant-Man: Quantumania & Shazam: Fury of the Gods - Christophe Beck (I really like Beck's work in the superhero genre, so I hope he continues his Ant-Man themes, and surprised but excited to hear his take on Shazam)

-Super Mario Bros - Brian Tyler (That clip realeased a few weeks ago sounded very promising!)

-All the Lights We Cannot See & Hunger Games Prequel - JNH (Howard is one of my favorite composers ever, so I'm always looking forward to new scores by him, and especially if he is allowed to expand on his own themes like with the Hunger Games saga)

-Indiana Jones 5 - John Williams (Williams doing another Indiana Jones movie, nothing else to say here)

-Dune: Part 2 - Hans Zimmer (Zimmer's score for the first part was fantastic in context, so I'm curious to see how he will follow that)

-Mandalorian S3 /& Oppenheimer - Ludwig Goransson (I love the Mando scores, and I'm really curious about what Goransson has done for Nolan this time)

-Creed III - Joseph Shirley (I really enjoyed the previous Creed scores, and I hope this will be in a similar vein)

-Ghostbusters sequel - Rob Simonsen? (Looking forward to this if Simonsen is doing the score, as I really liked his work in Afterlife)

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I'm weirdly specific looking forward to some Villain themes this year:

 

Beck for Kang The Conqueror & The gods in Shazam

Tyler for Bowser

Williams for Mikkelsen's character

Shirley for Major's character in Creed

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5 minutes ago, Thor said:

That's actually a 2023 release, filmmusic. Did we open a 2023 thread yet?

Oh, I see. I think there was a thread about 2023 releases but it had a different title. Not similar to this.

edit: Oh, it was moved. Thank you to whoever moved it! :)

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The Offering - Christopher Young

 

It's not the type of horror score I was hoping for from Young. Not even one I very much enjoy, but I can respect it for what it is. And it's certainly does it's job in unsettling the listener/watcher.

There are just 4 tracks. All of the tracks open with a creepy (distrorted) lullaby which (if you listen on headphones) kind of dances around you.

 

"Abyzou", "The Thief Of Unborn" & "Horrid Screams Of Hell" consist of mostly different vocals (screaming, groaning) , light percussion, big horns of some kind and some synths. The latter gets bigger and bigger throughout it's runtime, getting close to operatic when the orchestra joins.

"Hear The Souls Who Weep" is the most lyrical of the 4 and is actually quite nice.

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Ever since I first got into contact with Lamboley's music I've always been looking forward to new music from him. And this us another wonderful effort. Fully orchestral with some fun added choir. It's beautifully written and performed.

Lupin stays his best work for me, but this is wonderful.

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There are a few cues with some interesting rhythms and synth work, but other than that it's just another meanding droning thriller score on an album that is waay too long at almost 80 minutes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For someone who is 21 years old this is a really cohesive solid first score.

With a runtime of just under 30 minutes it's exactly the length is should be.

I'll be interested to see where Bear's career is going. 

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5 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

For someone who is 21 years old this is a really cohesive solid first score.

With a runtime of just under 30 minutes it's exactly the length is should be.

I'll be interested to see where Bear's career is going. 

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Sounds like it could be quite charming. Hope she works on Bear McCreary for the We're Going on a Bear Hunt Movie sometime.

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80 For Brady - John Debney

 

This is one of Debney's better comedy scofes from the last couple of year. "Tom's Theme" is actually quite beautiful. The jazz cues are enjoyable and the album is 40 minutes long, which is exactly the right length.

 

1923 - Brian Tyler & Breton Vivian

 

If you like Yellowstone or 1883, you will like this. As with those scores I really like the main theme and some cues but other than that it doesn't do a lot for me. It's all a bit too downstated and not enough happens. But I will keep "1923 Opus" & "1923 The Dawn" in my collection.

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I've had Yellowstone season 5 on my to listen/to buy spotify library for ages. For a couple of seasons now it's been very much pleasant background material with occasional bits that draw attention. I've already got the first four seasons and 1883.

 

I'm expecting very much the same for 1923. I've never seen any of the shows though, so these are entirely concept albums to me. I largely suspect that by this point Vivian is doing the bulk of the scoring.

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SILED1724-BodyParts-covevr-V1B.jpg

 

Never been too enamoured with Desai's previous work, but here she is on to something. The use of human voices, the timbres and harmonies, send associations to SWISS ARMY MAN, and are nice. However, some of the surrounding elements are rather static and uninteresting. But a good attempt.

 

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I allowed myself to have some expectations, given Dan Levy's (no, not the SCHITT'S CREEK actor) brillant score for I LOST MY BODY (reviewed here). However, it was rather disappointing. Fussy oscilations aplenty, static textures without the loftiness of BODY.

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g0g7_f62O87PxGfp.jpg

 

A delightful surprise! Of course, I've loved a lot of Mika's stuff as a singer/songwriter before; his retro, disco-esque songs (I had a thing for Mika and Scissor Sisters some 10 years ago or so). But I was not aware he could compose such fullbodied, largely orchestral scores with beautiful use of voices. Had to look him up on Wikipedia, and lo and behold -- he has background both in choirs and from the Royal College of Music.

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I absolutely adored the film. Here's my recently published review (as run through Google Translate), for anyone interested. I did notice some interesting effects and even melody lines in the film itself, especially towards the end, but I must admit it doesn't fare quite as well on album. Stefánsdóttir is one to watch, though -- yet another export from Iceland who quite impressed me with her more softspoken score for THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR a couple of years ago.

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ab67616d0000b273ec0d6f92c6780e54ff89a324

 

Whoa, cool! Finally, Martinez gets to do some dark beats all on his own (inbetween the hypnotic ethereal textures that he always does well) -- usually, those tracks have been done by Julian Winding on the earlier Refn soundtracks. For those who don't know, this was a Refn short that had a brief festival premiere in 2022, but got its soundtrack release now in 2023.

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This is a very different type of score from Dern than her previous work. This is a full on action/thriller/horror score with quite a bit of religioso choir in there.

There are some really strong parts (mostly the choral work and some of the action cues), but there is also a lot of more challenging synth work and distortion. There are some parts which remind be a bit of the harsher parts of Angels & Demons or Inferno. The whole score has an RCP feel to it, but it is done in a good way that I didn't find it very distracting.

 

But be warned, it's not the easiest album to listen to. And if action music with lots of low string, brass, layers of drums & electric guitars in 'The Dark Knight' style aren't your thing, than parts of this album will be tough to get through.

 

Overall, I enjoyed it a great deal and it's nice to hear that Dern shows that she can do more that family style scoring.

cover.jpg

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11 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

This is a very different type of score from Dern than her previous work. This is a full on action/thriller/horror score with quite a bit of religioso choir in there.

 

Sampled it a few days ago. I did like the "Agnus Dei" track there, but otherwise this score did nothing for me, I'm afraid, for the reasons you cite. I appreciate that she branches out into other idioms, because I haven't really been a fan of Dern's other, more traditional work in the past (might be down to my general preferences these days), but I had hoped for a direction slightly more interesting than trite RC-isms/trailer music tropes.

 

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This, however, was another positive surprise. Given the subject matter, one might expect something big and bold, but it's actually delightfully alternative - with synths, soft jazz, a little dash of 70s prog rock and the like. Will be a fav of 2023, this.

 

[Ah, it's great to have 2022 over and done with now, with everything published that needed to be published, so that I finally can catch up on 2023 titles!]

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On 12/01/2023 at 3:48 PM, filmmusic said:

 

A couple of very good themes, but I found it a bit repetitive...

 

 

Finally got around to this one now too. I love it. I used to be very lukewarm towards Yared, but these days, I very often find him a breath of fresh air with his very European, smaller ensemble sound based on old-school ways of instrumentation and melody. Don't really find it repetitive at all; even when he's employing the same themes, there is variation there. The songs have a Michel Legrand "swagger" about them.

 

On 07/01/2023 at 1:09 AM, Knight of Ren said:

This is the first score I listened from 2023, and is quite nice. If you liked the previous scores for NWR movies like Drive, Only God Forgives, Neon Demon or Too Old To Die Young you'll probably like this one. Synth ambient stuff, with some great EDM tracks. The album is a bit too long, but there are some great tracks to make a shorter playlist along with the highlights of other NWR scores.

 

I had high expectations for this, being such a massive fan of Martinez, Winding and previous NWR soundtracks. Alas, it didn't quite work for me (unlike the aforementioned TOUCH OF CRUDE, for example). First of all, the album is ridiculously long at 2 hours, and padded out with LOTS of uninteresting textures. Second, the funky/interesting cues -- which NWR scores usually have plenty of -- are few and far between. Winding's "Hausgemacht" is great; would have loved more of that. But....at some point, I will try to turn this into a more reasonable 30-40 minute playlist of some kind, I think.

 

As for the other new releases mentioned in this thread so far -- KALEIDOSCOPE, MEGAN, LA GUERRE DES LULUS, MISSING, DOG GONE, 80 FOR BRADY -- they didn't do much for me.

 

I did enjoy a few bits and pieces in 1923 (including, as JNH2000 mentions, the "1923 Opus"), just as I've done the previous scores in the series, but just as with those, it needs some serious whittling to work. Never seen any of the shows.

 

THE OFFERING had some interesting textures, but wasn't really that rewarding on album. Unlike so many of Young's earlier horror scores infused with a sense of 'delicious darkness'.

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I was listening to some of Hogwarts Legacy video game soundtracks. There's 4 hours of it out there! It is quite pleasant in the 00s JNH kind of way. To be honest, on the surface it sounds more appealing than his last two entries into that world. But as with many video games music, there's a question of musical identity and personality. Sounds more like a ln emulation of a thing rather than a thing of its own. Still, a rather pleasant backgroumd listen.

 

Karol

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13 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I was listening to some of Hogwarts Legacy video game soundtracks. There's 4 hours of it out there! It is quite pleasant in the 00s JNH kind of way. To be honest, on the surface it sounds more appealing than his last two entries into that world. But as with many video games music, there's a question of musical identity and personality. Sounds more like a ln emulation of a thing rather than a thing of its own. Still, a rather pleasant backgroumd listen.

 

Karol

 

Yes, my impression too. In fact, I was listening to it now just as you wrote that post. The soundtrack on Spotify is "only" 2 hours, but that's at least 1 hour too long. As you say, hints of the 'general soundscape' of Potter, but with very little in terms of identity, memorable themes or interesting orchestrational details. And then "beefed up" with trite RC/trailerisms. Not my thing at all.

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22 hours ago, Thor said:

g0g7_f62O87PxGfp.jpg

 

A delightful surprise! Of course, I've loved a lot of Mika's stuff as a singer/songwriter before; his retro, disco-esque songs (I had a thing for Mika and Scissor Sisters some 10 years ago or so). But I was not aware he could compose such fullbodied, largely orchestral scores with beautiful use of voices. Had to look him up on Wikipedia, and lo and behold -- he has background both in choirs and from the Royal College of Music.

Listened to this today. I'm very impressed. Very beautiful score!!

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That's cool, JNH2000. From what I've read, I think we have slightly different preferences (these days, I generally don't veer much towards new stuff in the traditional and symphonic, neoromantic idiom -- although I dig those types of scores from my formative years in the 90s and before), but occasionally something comes along in that idiom that I like, and this was one of them. Kind of a reminder of what I used to like in the 90s. So a rare overlap! :)

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Meh, this is considerably darker and less fun than the other two Beck Ant-Man scores. Kang's theme barely registers. In a way, it's kinda like Ludwig Gorannsson's Black Panther 2 that it's darker and less enjoyable than its predecessor, but that one was at least inventive and feature some cool creative moments. This one is more RCP-style, with a greater emphasis on synths.

 

Still, at the very least there is some cool action music. Sting Low, Sweet Variant is a terrific cue and will probably be one of the best the year for Hollywood productions (unless the year is surprisingly packed with it, but we'll see).

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25 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

The film got two on the dice in a Norwegian newspaper. 

 

I didn't even bother to attend the press screening earlier this week. I've been all Marveled/superheroed out for years now.

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