20 years ago: remembering the best scores from 2004

[Edmilson 7,466]

We are now 20 years removed from 2004...  But hey, I was thinking today and that was a GREAT year for film scores!

 

Lots of wonderful stuff from JNH, Newman, Debney, Giacchino, Elfman and, of course, our John Williams, who after taking a break in 2003, returned on the next year with perhaps the greatest Harry Potter score.

 

Some of the stuff that happened that year:

• After finishing 2003 on a high note with Peter Pan, JNH began 2004 with Hidalgo, a score that mixed Western and Arab music. A few months later, he released his magnificent The Village, one of his very best collaborations with Shyamalan.
• Alexandre Desplat entered Hollywood through the front door with Girl with a Pearl Earring (technically a 2003 movie, but it was released on the states in January 2004 lol) and Birth.
• John Debney tackled the death and ressurection of Jesus Christ with his powerful score for The Passion of the Christ.
• Jon Brion did a nice, sensitive job for the now classic romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind;
• Marco Beltrami had a great year with Hellboy and I, Robot, two of his best action scores;
• Alan Silvestri delivered a powerhouse Gothic score with Van Helsing and later a classic Christmas score with The Polar Express;
• James Horner replaced Gabriel Yared on Troy and got some hate from the film music community, but anyway both scores were great at their own way (and I confess I prefer Horner's work);
• Harry Gregson-Williams scored two of the funniest comedies of the year (who also happened to be animated): Shrek 2 and Team America: World Police.
• John Williams' Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was a darker departure from the first two HP scores and a wonderful work on his own, one of his best for the entire decade. Only two weeks later (!) we got another quality work from JW: The Terminal.
• Danny Elfman was done dirty on Spider-Man 2 and yet managed to provide a great score with a memorable villain theme for Doc Ock. Christopher Young's contributions shouldn't be overlooked though - I love his music for the train battle!
• King Arthur featured Hans Zimmer on epic mode similar to Gladiator and The Last Samurai before it and The Da Vinci Code and Pirates 2 and 2 after, and I adore it!
• John Powell's The Bourne Supremacy, for better or worse, was one of the most influential action scores of the entire millenium.
• Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers had Bruce Broughton on swashbuckling mode.
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow may not have been a hit but it sure as hell had a wonderful adventurous score by Ed Shearmur.
• Rolfe Ken't Sideways is very celebrated by those who heard it - I plan to someday!
• Michael Giacchino's career took over with two great scores: Lost (which had begun its season 1 on September of that year) and The Incredibles. It's almost unbelievable to me that such a newcomer with not many scores under his curriculum (mainly TV and videogams) like he was at the time was given a chance to score Pixar's huge blockbuster - and he succeeded briliantly!
• Finding Neverland had a sensitive score from Jan A. P. Kaczmarek that eventually won an Oscar. Not bad, but the other nominated scores that year deserved more the award.
• National Treasure from Trevor Rabin continued his long tradition of action scores for Jerry Bruckheimer. I haven't heard it on album, but those who did really like it.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie had a surprisingly good score for such a silly comedy, written by one of the show's composers. The music for when SpongeBob and Patrick are almost dying and saying goodbye to each other is very touching!
• Vangelis wrote an epic score for Alexander that is controversial to this day.
• Shigeru Umebayashi's House of Flying Daggers was another great sensitive Chinese score for a martial arts/wuxia movie, not too different from Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero.
• Thomas Newman's blend of quirky and emotional on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events worked really well.
• The Aviator was the closest Howard Shore ever got from his Middle Earth music in a movie that didn't feature Elves, Hobbits, Rings, etc.

 

Here's some of my favorite film music compositions from that year:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feel free to talk about your favorite movies, TV shows, film scores, film cues and personal memories from 2004!

 

PS: I have a strong feeling that every year finished with 4 is filled with amazing music, including 2014. I may do another threads like this when I find the time.

[Faleel 5,355]

It was also a pretty decent year for games and game scores:

 

Gamecube:

 

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

Mario Party 6

The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (Not great, but I have a soft spot for it)

 

Gameboy Advance:

 

Metroid: Zero Mission

Zelda: The Minish Cap

Pokemon FireRed

Donkey Kong Country 2 GBA remake

 

[Thor 7,508]

Great idea for a thread, Edmilson!

 

In 2004, I was finishing up my thesis at the university (delivered in November that year, if memory serves). About film music, incidentally. Good times, I was in shape, physically, and being very.....uhm....socially active. 2004-2007 is the peak period of my life. I turned 27 that year.

 

My favourite score of the whole year is -- obviously -- HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN, in many ways the last score in Williams' "old style". But immediate runner-ups are CRASH (Isham) and PASSION OF THE CHRIST (Debney).

 

But you mention many other gems in your list that I can only echo.

 

HIDALGO was a surprisingly action heavy score; I had expected something more broad and slow, like Barry.

 

THE VILLAGE was the last great score of JNH until the similar-sounding A HIDDEN LIFE many years later.

 

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING is one of the few Desplat scores I like. And I mean REALLY like.

 

THE POLAR EXPRESS was Silvestri at what I consider the tailend of his most fruitful period. 

 

KING ARTHUR was likewise a delightful Zimmer score that was at the tailend of the power anthem style.

 

THE TERMINAL is a sweet and airy Williams score.

 

ALEXANDER is Vangelis' last masterpiece, a film that is quite underrated (especially in its latest cut). Stupendously gorgeous.

 

Beyond the ones you mention, shout-outs to METROPOLIS (Korzeniowski), ICEHOTEL (Williams), HECTOR (Illarramendi), A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (Badalamenti), LA TERRE VU DU CIEL (Amar), SOMETHING THE LORD MADE (Young), THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (Kloser), BOBBY JONES: STROKE OF GENIUS and THE FORGOTTEN (Horner), COLLATERAL (Howard), EARTHSEA (Rona), BROTHERS (Söderqvist), FORBIDDEN WARRIOR (Verta), NOUVELLE FRANCE (Doyle), LA RIVINCITA DI NATALE (Ortolani) and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (Jones). 

 

Sorry for the long post.

 

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

Well I guess like many here my favourite score of that year is Prisoner of Azkaban which is one of Williams most perfect score bringing so many new flavours to the HP universe while building up the old themes in a very clever way.

 

A not so close second but also absolutely brillant score is Williams' The Terminal, with it's delightfull and light Navorsky's theme

 

Horner delivered a couple of very good score, my favourite being Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, but his Troy was quite fantastic too and The Forgotten a nice little addition to the year.

 

King Arthur was quite a great score in the continuity of his powerfull peplum anthem

 

Powell wrote three scores that year: Supremacy a strong and fun action score, that I find even better than Identity, Alfie and Mr. 3000 two fun comedy score, not his best effort but really pleasent ones. This two last never got a proper release so Mr. Powell if you read this, I would love a release for both of them

 

Van Helsing despite an OST presentation that I didn't really like and a poor movie, Silvestri gave a nice fantasy score

 

Two other great action scores are Rabin effort on National Treasure which is hell of a fun ride and Beltrami I, Robot

 

Finally the last great action score of 2004 was Elfman & Young Spider-Man 2 a terrific sequel score (not up to the first one but quite close though)

 

Despite not being back with Emmerich on The Day After Tomorrow, Arnold wrote a really fun score for The Stepford Wives

 

JNH delivered a lovely violin driven score for The Village with perhaps one of his best theme

 

2004 had also two terrific animated score Giacchino's The Incredibles and Gregson-Williams Shrek 2

 

 

Also this list reminds me that there is a tons of them for which I would love an expansion to happen (plus a little Troy reissue with Yared's score as a third disc)

 

[JTN 2,030]

2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Vangelis wrote an epic score for Alexander that is controversial to this day.

Why is it controversial?

 

2 hours ago, Thor said:

THE VILLAGE was the last great score of JNH until the similar-sounding A HIDDEN LIFE many years later.

Nah.

 

8 minutes ago, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

Arnold wrote a really fun score for The Stepford Wives

That’s the best Danny Elfman score that Elfman didn’t write. The main theme is pure Elfman, really good.

[eitam 364]

There was also Steamboy (my favourite Jablonsky, and a great movie too), Howl's Moving Castle (Miyazaki + Hisaishi, what more need be said), and the first season of Battlestar Galactica which put Bear McCreary on the map.

[Jay 37,369]

One of Desplat's best cues is from 2004!

 

 

[Edmilson 7,466]

5 hours ago, Thor said:

BOBBY JONES: STROKE OF GENIUS and THE FORGOTTEN (Horner)

I considered adding Bobby Jones to the main list, but I'm not really a fan of that score. It isn't awful by any means (I am unable to completely dislike a 90s/2000s James Horner score), but the Braveheart quotes on this score were even more annoying than in Bicentennial Man (and those quotes were already the weakest part of BM, a score I otherwise love dearly).

 

I read on James Horner Film Music that the For the Love of a Princess quotes on Bobby Jones were a request by the director though.

 

And I keep confusing The Forgotten with The Missing! Lol. I guess this is why I haven't heard The Forgotten yet. Judging by the movie's synopsis, it is a suspense psychological thriller, so I imagine it's a darker, perhaps more synth based score?

 

2 hours ago, JTW said:

Why is it controversial?

 

I read somewhere (I think it was here on another thread) that it has as many fans as it has haters. It's not controversial due to any problems like the ones Troy faced, more due to the mixed reception amongst film music fans.

[Jim Ware 526]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

And I keep confusing The Forgotten with The Missing! Lol. I guess this is why I haven't heard The Forgotten yet. Judging by the movie's synopsis, it is a suspense psychological thriller, so I imagine it's a darker, perhaps more synth based score?

 

The Forgotten is almost all synth, piano and solo violin. It's a little bland and lacking in memorable thematic material. The Life Before Her Eyes from 2008 is similar but better.