Alexandre Desplat's THE BOYS IN THE BOAT (2023)

[Jay 37,372]

Sony Classic OST album drops next Friday

 

 

1. The Boys in the Boat (4:21)
2. Coaches (5:14)
3. Jo’s Solitude (3:24)
4. Oars (3:11)
5. The Team (1:42)
6. Getting Stronger (2:06)
7. Training (0:56)
8. First Win (4:31)
9. Joe Out of Sync (3:17)
10. Boat Ride (3:03)
11. Love Letter (2:17)
12. Pacific Regatta (3:11)
13. We Were Never Eight (5:46)
14. Check from Cal (1:37)
15. Broke (2:14)
16. Berlin (1:48)
17. Qualifications (5:10)
18. Olympic Final (2:38)
19. Talk With Dad (4:19)
20. USA Rowing Team (Film Version) (4:04)
21. USA Rowing Team (Alternate Version) (4:03)
22. Poughkeepsie (9:30)

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/the-boys-in-the-boat-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/1718821294

 

24bit/48khz: https://www.qobuz.com/nz-en/album/z0scs2lqptgla

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

A 9 minute track from Desplat!! 

Let's hope it's something good!

[Jay 37,372]

"We Were Never Eight" is the highlight cue of the score.... and easy "Cue Of The Year" material

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

Sounds very cool!

Next week is gonna be crazy with releases

[DangerMotif 1,038]

The main theme is great but doesn’t really show up again until the end credits. Most of the score is quite different and isn’t upfront in the mix.

[Will 2,215]

Beautiful first cue! Definitely reminds me of Little Women. The main theme is a real earworm.

 

 

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

Love that first cue!

If the whole score is like that, it will be Desplat's best score since Little Women

[Jurassic Shark 12,084]

On 07/12/2023 at 9:32 PM, Jay said:

"We Were Never Eight" is the highlight cue of the score.... and easy "Cue Of The Year" material

 

Where can I listen to this?

[Mr. Who 919]

6 hours ago, Will said:

Beautiful first cue! Definitely reminds me of Little Women. The main theme is a real earworm.

 

 

Love it! The first part reminds me, a little bit of The Martian

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

It's indeed a very lovely piece. Looking forward for the rest of the album

[Alex 2,835]

The part from 1.00-1.30 sounds like something that JW could have written in the 70s/80s.

[Thor 7,518]

Not bad. While it does have some of those tiresome and typical cloppety-clop whimsy elements about it, it still leaves room for long melody lines. Should be interesting to hear the whole thing.

[TheUlyssesian 2,478]

It is a decent score. Main title shines in the film. But after that it is kinda familiar sounding though decently done. Not a stand out. Feels like even B tier composer could have delivered this score. The film is dull. The score is fine enough I guess.

[Jay 37,372]

The OST album is out now wherever its Friday already!

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/the-boys-in-the-boat-original-motion-picture-soundtrack/1718821294

https://www.qobuz.com/nz-en/album/the-boys-in-the-boat-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-alexandre-desplat/z0scs2lqptgla

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

Listened to it this afternoon. THIS is the Desplat I love! His best score in a number of years

[Jay 37,372]

20 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Listened to it this afternoon. THIS is the Desplat I love! His best scote in a number of years

 

What's a scote?

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

*fixed

[Jay 37,372]

Ah

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

Typed to quickly.

 

But this score is fantastic I feel. And like you said earlier We Were Never Eight is the best cue on the album. Very excited to see it to picture.

[Jay 37,372]

I listened to the OST album on Spotify and loved it.  This is easily one of my most favorite Alexandre Desplat scores ever.  It's too bad there's no signs of a physical release.

 

Strangely, it took me a bit to even find it on spotify.  The first two times I typed it in, all that came up with the Single from the other week.  I realized that both times I typed "the boys in hte boat" by accident.  When I fixed the spelling, the whole album came up in the results.  Weird.

[Holko 9,529]

I enjoyed it too, lots of great bits sprinkled throughout!

[Jay 37,372]

I still think "We Were Never Eight" is the highlight cue of the album and one of the best cues of the entire year by any composer.  And I love that it's in the middle of the album and not moved to the front

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

Does it play at the start of the film?

[Jay 37,372]

I doubt it, I'd imagine the OST album is chronological.

[Will 2,215]

This is a wonderful score -- I fully agree with @Jay that it's one of Desplat's all-time best. Virtually every cue is enjoyable to listen to, and the themes are nicely woven throughout (I particularly liked hearing how Desplat adapted the main title theme into very different contexts, e.g. in "Training"). At first the electronics in "We Were Never Eight" bugged me a bit but after a few listens I've definitely come to love it. Some similarities to the victorious "Florida" from Nyad, but at much grander scale and with considerable melodic elegance.

 

One cue I haven't seen mentioned yet is "Boat Ride" -- begins with beautiful, delicate orchestrations that remind me of the best parts of Little Women. And the romantic portion really soars in a way you don't often hear these days (sort of reminds me of John Barry, though obviously Desplat has his own unique voice):

 

 

Anyway, a real home run from Desplat -- definitely joins Dial of Destiny and Migration in my list of the year's top scores!

[1977 1,743]

On 14/12/2023 at 7:15 PM, Jay said:

 

What's a scote?

 

Rowing term.

[Dr. Know 326]

This is the first Desplat score that I actually wanted to listen to more than once since ARGO.

[JTN 2,040]

Listening to it right now and enjoying it a lot. Wouldn’t be surprised if it got an Oscar nom. 

[Thor 7,518]

Listening now. It's not bad or anything, and I'm willing to put it on my "to reassess down the road" list for Desplat, now that I've recently gone through his back catalogue and curated what I want to own. BUT....it is plagued with that eternal Desplat schtick -- those light, rhytmical patterns, kindy quirky, "girl skipping down the street"-type sound. It gets better when the melody lines are elongated, with that soulful trumpet.

[JTN 2,040]

I wasn’t bothered by the usual Desplatisms this time. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,084]

It's just kinda boring. 

[JTN 2,040]

Not to me it wasn’t.
As a matter of fact it’s one of the most not-boring AD scores in recent years. Imho.

[Jurassic Shark 12,084]

The least boring amongst a bunch of boring scores? I can agree about that.

[A24 4,345]

I don't think this movie will be good. 

[JTN 2,040]

13 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

The least boring amongst a bunch of boring scores? I can agree about that.

Well it definitely is one of the least boring AD scores, up to the point that I wouldn’t call it boring at all. :-)

[Edmilson 7,470]

1 hour ago, A24 said:

I don't think this movie will be good. 

George Clooney-directed movies are mostly shit.

[Will 2,215]

I mentioned above that I love how Desplat adapts the main title theme throughout the score in surprising ways. My favorite variation is probably still the one in the opening track, but this one from the end of "We Were Never Eight" is really amazing:

 

 

Goes from the flighty, delicate version in the opening track to this muscular, almost power anthem-esque rendition -- and Desplat makes it sound very natural in both contexts!

[GerateWohl 4,371]

58 minutes ago, Will said:

I mentioned above that I love how Desplat adapts the main title theme throughout the score in surprising ways. My favorite variation is probably still the one in the opening track, but this one from the end of "We Were Never Eight" is really amazing:

 

 

Goes from the flighty, delicate version in the opening track to this muscular, almost power anthem-esque rendition -- and Desplat makes it sound very natural in both contexts!

I find this downwards scale ostinato rather annoying. Tastes are so different.

[A24 4,345]

13 hours ago, Edmilson said:

George Clooney-directed movies are mostly shit.

 

 

I still haven't lost my touch!

[Jurassic Shark 12,084]

I don't even like tomatoes.

[Thor 7,518]

George Clooney is no great director, for sure, but he's made two fine movies - THE MONUMENT'S MEN and THE MIDNIGHT SKY (which I've seen three times now). This latest one, I have limited interest in.

[Edmilson 7,470]

Suburbicon is good, better that I expected. Nice Desplat score as well.

 

His best movie apparently is Good Night and Good Luck, which was even nominated for Oscars and such, but I haven't seen it.

[Jay 37,372]

When I saw the trailer, I wasn't that interested in the film at all.

 

When I saw Desplat was the composer, I thought maybe I'd check it out, maybe not; I like some of his scores, but most leave me cold.

 

Then I heard the OST album and loved it, and subsequent listens only reinforced that.

 

So now I am for sure going to see the movie, just to know the context for the score -- and if the movie's good, that'll be icing on the cake.

 

Gotta love when this hobby and just general movie watching overlap like this

[saulocf 79]

George Clooney best film is the underrated The Ides of March. He hasn’t done any decent film since.

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

Just went through the entire album again.

Together with Society Of The Snow the most pleasant surprises at the end of the year!

 

The orchestrations here are just outstanding. And when the theme from the opening cue is played on brass it's just incredible!

Let's hope the next few Desplat scores remain this good. I've missed him at his best in the last couple of years

[Jay 37,372]

Yeah I love when a score comes out of nowhere and totally surprises me

[JNHFan2000 2,967]

Yeah, really great!

The album also doesn't feel like almost 80 minutes. It flies by

[Jay 37,372]

Definitely

[Will 2,215]

Just saw the film today! Really enjoyed. I've listened to the score so many times by now that it was great to see where it fits into the movie. Sadly, "We Were Never Eight" is rather awkwardly edited in the film, with the ending passage (the power anthem version of the main title theme) jarringly replaced by a tracked repeat of the big statement of the team theme from earlier in the cue. But the score is otherwise treated quite well, on the whole. It obviously really shines in the main title cue ("The Boys in the Boat"), and it also plays virtually unobstructed by SFX or dialogue in "Training."

 

Although the opening of "Boat Ride" seems to be unused in the film, the sweeping romantic portion is used to wonderful effect in a kiss scene midway through the film (I won't spoil it for those waiting to watch). Interestingly, it seems that "USA Rowing Team (Alternate Version)" is actually the version used in the film! And the "Film Version" is unused. I wonder if that indicates a very late change by the director, after the album had already been finished...

 

The OST seems to not be in chronological order -- for example, "Poughkeepsie" (the last track on the album) is used midway through the film, and "We Were Never Eight" is the second-to-last cue in the film despite appearing midway through the album. 

 

Anyway, an excellent score for a great film. So glad that Clooney gave Desplat these opportunities for his music to shine, and Desplat hit it out of the park.

[Jay 37,372]

27 minutes ago, Will said:

Sadly, "We Were Never Eight" is rather awkwardly edited in the film, with the ending passage (the power anthem version of the main title theme) jarringly replaced by a tracked repeat of the big statement of the team theme from earlier in the cue.

 

Wow, that is crazy to hear.  The ending passage is the highlight of the score and album.  What was Clooney thinking?

 

27 minutes ago, Will said:

Interestingly, it seems that "USA Rowing Team (Alternate Version)" is actually the version used in the film! And the "Film Version" is unused. I wonder if that indicates a very late change by the director, after the album had already been finished...

 

Huh, weird.  Maybe someone just accidentally swapped the two track names and no one caught it.  Or its as you said.

 

27 minutes ago, Will said:

The OST seems to not be in chronological order -- for example, "Poughkeepsie" (the last track on the album) is used midway through the film, and "We Were Never Eight" is the second-to-last cue in the film despite appearing midway through the album.

 

Fascinating!  I'd love to know the full chronological order of the whole album if you can figure it out.