What Is The Last Score You Listened To? (2024 Scores)

[Naïve Old Fart 12,142]

45 minutes ago, JTN said:

I liked it more than Part One.

 

That's not difficult.

[Knight of Ren 1,323]

 

Solid score! Waited to hear it in context first to better appreciate it, and while I prefere Giacchino's scores for the franchise, Paesano delivers a couple of really strong themes (his Eagle Clan theme is an earworm) that I hope he can expand in future sequels. Be warned though, the album presentation is too long, and while the tension/mystery stuff works well for the film, makes for a tedious listening on album, and it definitely needs a bit of trimming to be fully enjoyed. But yeah, nice score, that I hope allows more people to discover what a great composer Paesano is!

[Jay 43,884]

Michael Giacchino - IF

 

I really like the main theme and bunch of highlights throughout the album, culminating in a super fun final suite track.  But the album is too long, which lessened my appreciation of the good parts.  That could change on subsequent listens and/or after seeing the movie, but that's my first impression.  The whistling is a nice touch, and overall I found the score to be close in style to Inside Out, which is a good thing.

 

 

John Powell - Thelma The Unicorn

 

Well, Netflix really did John dirty here with this presentation.  I didn't listen to the songs on this OST album, only the 20 minutes of Powell's score included, and found it to be almost impossible to take in.  I even listened to it twice, but in this configuration, the music just flows by, and then is abrubtly over.  I actually think a better OST album would have been to chronologically sort the score and songs together, so you get some sort of narrative understanding of the story, and what the score is supporting.  Of course, even better that that would be if Netflix just let John release the 50 minutes he wanted to.  A shame!  I don't know how I'll be able to enjoy this music better until the rest becomes available.

 

 

John Paesano - Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

 

Wow!  I'm not even done listening yet and I wanted to post about it.  This is REALLY good stuff!  I wasn't sure what to make of things at first, as the early part of the album doesn't stand out very much.  But then things really pick up and I was kinda blown away.  "Human Hunt" and then "New Weapon" is one hell of a one-two punch, and "What A Wonderful Day" had a great, The Lost World esque vibe to it.  Can't wait to finish, and now I REALLY want to see the movie!

[Richard P 4,943]

I'm playing Powell's tracks now, and does it sound really compressed to hell to anyone else? It's good stuff, although the first score cue almost sounds like it's starting mid-cue. I hope that's not a result of Powell being given a strict time limit. His main theme is already standing out.

 

Anyway, if this is just some kid's thing (looks like it to me), surely said kids will find this album, play all the 'co0l!!' songs, then wonder what all this Powell stuff is. I can't fathom why Netflix wouldn't just release the album with the songs, then do a completely separate album for Powell. It feels like he's getting completely shafted because of some twat at Netflix.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Interview With The Vampire: Season 2 - Daniel Hart

 

Loved everything on this album. Some might be scared of by the fact it's 115 minutes, but I was engaged throughout it all.

The sound of the first season is back and is just as fantastic, but because of the change in setting (Paris in the 1940's) there's also a lot of different stuff going on. 

I thought it was a joy!

[Edmilson 10,976]

IF - Michael Giacchino

 

The main theme is decent enough... Until you heard it for the umpteenth time. Still, thankfully the score is not as repetitive as I imagined after reading some comments here and on social media. And very akin to Giacchino's music for Inside Out and Up, which were certainly the reason he got the gig for this movie.

 

I honestly liked the secondary theme better. It seems like an inversion of the main theme, so while that is more upbeat the other is sadder, like commenting on the harsh reality of the main girl dealing with his dad's illness.

 

Anyway, it's an okay and pretty score but didn't leave that much impression on me, so kinda like Gia's "minor" kid scores (Zootopia, Coco, etc).

 

Thelma the Unicorn - John Powell

 

The 20 minutes or so that Netflix allowed us to hear are okay but short of the liveliness and wholesomeness that we used to hear in everything from Ice Age to Happy Feet, Rio, Bolt and more recently on Migration (and that's not even mentioning HTTYD). The only moments that did pick my attention were the choir epic stuff at the end (cool to hear tha Powell conducted the choir himself).

 

But maybe if we had access to the other 30 minutes (not to mention alternates) I'd have a different opinion...

[Jay 43,884]

Is this configuration, Thelma really needed some kind of big suite track to be included instead of only a collection of short cues.

[Edmilson 10,976]

On 17/05/2024 at 6:15 PM, Edmilson said:

Thelma the Unicorn - John Powell

 

The 20 minutes or so that Netflix allowed us to hear are okay but short of the liveliness and wholesomeness that we used to hear in everything from Ice Age to Happy Feet, Rio, Bolt and more recently on Migration (and that's not even mentioning HTTYD). The only moments that did pick my attention were the choir epic stuff at the end (cool to hear tha Powell conducted the choir himself).

 

But maybe if we had access to the other 30 minutes (not to mention alternates) I'd have a different opinion...

Okay, after all the discussion regarding this score on its own thread, I warmed up to this score after a somewhat negative first impression. It's a warm and wholesome score from Powell like he always did for kids movies. And the choir material in "Schemes and Fantasies" and "Rescue & Coming Clean" is really impressive. Love to see Powell delving deep into choir and voices for his works over the past few years. 

 

Anyway, it's a good score that I'll be listening to a lot, and the two tracks I mentioned will probably end up among my favorite cues of the year (unless he hopefully comes up with something even more impressive for his Christmas movie!). 

 

Would I prefer if it had 40 instead of 20 minutes of music? Absolutely. But thanks to @JNHFan2000's rip of the end credits, the listening experience is now a lot smoother.

[filmmusic 2,762]

 

A good score (for this genre I mean).

Korzeniowski said at facebook he avoided traditional orchestral effects like the clusters, which have become clichéd in the horror genre, but I can't think how one can avoid clichés in this genre, and this is no exception.

On another note:

I'm really curious to listen to a happy Korzeniowski score one day. I wonder how would that be. Everything I have listened to, is melancholic.

[GerateWohl 6,189]

1 hour ago, filmmusic said:

I'm really curious to listen to a happy Korzeniowski score one day. I wonder how would that be. Everything I have listened to, is melancholic.

Then you should try this one.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4bWiUVnl2XXxXxAEOyUdmK?si=hT5pBJ9nTWOrUdsgVa0nbQ

 

This is probably as close as we will ever get to a happy Korzeniowski score. And I absolutely love this.

 

[filmmusic 2,762]

1 minute ago, GerateWohl said:

Then you should try this one.

I don't see anything...

[GerateWohl 6,189]

2 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

I don't see anything...

Sorry. The Auto fill doesn't work currently. 

[filmmusic 2,762]

1 minute ago, GerateWohl said:

Sorry. The Auto fill doesn't work currently. 

oh, it's Escape from Tomorrow. I have listened to that one too.

But again, I didn't find it too happy IIRC.

 

[Edmilson 10,976]

I love this theme from Korzeniowski, it's so sad and tragic:

 

 

[Jay 43,884]

As we head into the summer I hope there are more 2024 scores that I will enjoy.

 

So far I've only really loved Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, while both IF and Thelma The Unicorn are in that "hard for me to get into until I've sen the movie and re-evaluate" phase.

[Edmilson 10,976]

This summer seems fairly uninteresting in terms of scores.

 

Out of all scores for new movies this month, the only one I'm even remotely interested is Debney's Horizon Part 1. Don't care for Lorne Balfe's Bad Boys Whatever and Andrea Datzman's Inside Out 2 is one of those "eh, we'll see".

 

July seems to be more interesting with Wallfisch's Twisters, let's hope he produces something as good as Mancina's 96 original. There's Rob Simonsen's (I think) score for Deadpool & Wolverine but it doesn't look like the kind of score I'd like to hear. We'll see.

 

Then there's August with Debney's Horizon 2, September with Elfman's Beetlejuice 2, October with Hildur's Joker 2 (I like the first score)... Eh, not exactly an interesting year.

[Jay 43,884]

Yeah out of all that Inside Out 2 is the one I'm most interested in.  I can't imagine Twisters will actually sounds like Mancina's Twister score

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Scores I'm most looking forward to the rest of the year are:

 

Inside Out 2 - Andrea Datzman

House Of The Dragon S2 - Ramin Djawadi

Horizon: An American Saga - John Debney

The Acolyte - Michael Abels

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - Lorne Balfe

Fly Me To The Moon - Daniel Pemberton

The Rings Of Power S2 - Bear McCreary

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Danny Elfman

 

[Jay 43,884]

8 minutes ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - Lorne Balfe

 

Why?

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Because I'm interested to hear what Balfe does with the theme. I liked his use of the Bad Boys theme. That's about it really

[Thor 9,323]

New tentpole/mainstream/blockbuster scores rarely interest me. However, I've discovered a lot of lesser known gems this year. I've covered them in the "reviews-on-the-go" series (a new entry coming up soon, btw). So plenty of good stuff so far!

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

I'm exploring the less mainstream score more and more. And you're posts always really help!

 

This year I really enjoyed Stormskerry Maja, Ezra & Go For Grandma.

[Knight of Ren 1,323]

The scores I'm expecting the most for the rest of the year are from TV shows: Djawadi's House of the Dragon and McCreary's Rings of Power and Outlander S7. Oh, and also the second half of Gareth Coker's score fo Ark: The Animated Series, which I thought was awesome and one of the best scores of the year so far!

 

Debney with Horizon, Wallfisch with Twisters and Alien and Harry Gregson-Williams with Gladiator 2 are some other scores I'm really interested in, as they could turn out quite great, but I think that's about it for the mainstream releases.

[Edmilson 10,976]

Oh right, there's Rings of Power as well. And hopefully HGW's Gladiator 2 will turn out great, but for years now I've been keeping hope for his next "epic" scores only to usually be disappointed... Even though he did some decent work for Scott in The Martian and The Last Duel.

[saulocf 91]

Others than the ones mentioned, I’m also looking forward to the new Indiana Jones game soundtrack. Really loved Jedi Survivor last year.

[Thor 9,323]

Reviews on-the-go # 7: https://celluloidtunes.no/reviews-on-the-go-7/

 

CTRL+ALT+DESIRE (Ishai Adar)
THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ (Hans Zimmer & Kara Talve)
SIGHT (Sean Philip Johnson)
MASTERS OF LIGHT (Waveshaper & Paul Zimmerman)
THE LAST KUMITE (Paul Hertzog)
ALIENS: EXPANDED (Various)
YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA (Amelia Warner)

[Jay 43,884]

First track online from Beverly Hills Cop 4's score

 

 

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Cue releases tomorrow all over the world on other platforms

 

https://music.apple.com/nz/album/axels-return-from-the-netflix-film-beverly-hills-cop/1752011705

 

[Thor 9,323]

Great track, and lovely to see Sunglasses Kid involved. Bodes well for the rest of the score!

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Almost halfway through year, so time to go through some scores again.

First one is Echo by Dave Porter

 

Nope... boring, loud. Action music is just awful, nothing interesting going on, best cue is probably "The Mighty Tuklo".

Quieter moments are just beds of strings doing not a whole lot.

 

Disappointing.

[Jay 43,884]

Just watched the season 3 premiere of The Bear and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are scoring it now. I guess this was completely unannounced beforehand.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Just the first episode.

 

https://filmmusicreporter.com/2024/06/26/fxs-the-bear-season-3-features-original-music-by-trent-reznor-atticus-ross/

 

Quote

"Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (The Social Network, Challengers, Watchmen, Soul, Mank, Gone Girl, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) have contributed original music to the first episode (entitled Tomorrow) of the third season of the FX original series The Bear.

 

Jeffrey “JQ” Qaiyum with Johnny Iguana (who previously scored the first two seasons) have composed the score for the third and seventh episodes of Season 3, while the other seven new episodes don’t have a composer credited."

 

[Jay 43,884]

Huh.

 

Their score was super effective in the episode.  The combination of their music and the many montages was like you were put under a spell watching.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

 

It's a quiet score, with 2 themes kind of dancing around each other.

But it's really beautiful. I really connected to it. Beautiful performance and clean recording as well.

I cut about 10 minutes of cues that were under a minute long, so left with a 39 minute album.

 

Just stunning. Really love it.

 

Cue below is definitely my favourite and one of the most beautiful pieces I've heard this year.

 

[Edmilson 10,976]

I don't think anyone here was expecting the second coming of Tombstone or The Magnificent Seven or whatever... But still, this is pretty mid. Not bad by any means, just... fine. 

 

There's some great moments in it, especially the more intimate and sad ones. My favorite stretch of tracks is from 10 to 15, which apparently cover the aftermath of the opening massacre, some pretty nice sad and tragic music here. 

 

Aside from that, the action music is quite disappointing, verging on contemporary thriller and much of the album is just happy on being nothing beyond fine. Some pretty parts that remind me of JNH's Wyatt Earp here and there, but not much else. And the last cue with the montage almost made me laugh imagining this music is from a Transformers movie set on the wild west.

 

Come on Kevin, you worked with the greats! And John Debney will do pretty much anything you tell him to do. Couldn't you ask him to tone down the Zimmerness? Either way, I think that eventually one will be able to create a nice playlist with tracks from the, what, 4 movies on the saga?

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

I think this score is great!

The main theme for Clarence is fantastic.

The final 8 cues contain a lot of beautiful and powerful music, which is really well orchestrated. With some beautiful solo moments for violin.

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Some scores I've been revisting from the first half of the year.

 

Griselda - Carlos Rafael Rivera

There's some really oustanding moments here. Rivera really know how to get the most out of his orchestra. But the short cues and the one theme doesn't do it favors.

 

Argylle - Lorne Balfe

Really fun action/drama score. Cues like "Mini Moke Mayhem" & "Mama's Gotta Go To Work" are such fun cues. Also credit to Balfe on how The Beatles' song is used. Very nice.

 

Dune: Part Two - Hans Zimmer

I just love this. It's not Zimmer's best score, but to me there are so many fantaatic parts. The dramatic and emotional moments are especially great. "Kiss The Ring" is one of my cues of the year so far. Goosebumps everywhere. 

 

Ark: The Animated Series, Vol. 1 - Gareth Coker

Fabulous work from Coker. I don't think all of his themes are distinct enough and start to kind of sound alike at points. But his action music is great, strong and powerful. When the music shines, it's some of tye most enjoyable this year. But the long runtime doesn't do it any favors. I think at least half could be edited out.

 

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Probably the most fun score of the year. The whole score is a fantastic homage to Morricone & Barry's non-Bond spy films. Really impressed in the way Benstead created this. It's very easy to do these homages the wrong way, but he pulls it of in spectacular fashion.

His music is clearly inspired by it but also very much it's own thing, with his themes and voice also shining through.

 

I really really love it!!!

 

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

The Fall Guy - Dominic Lewis

 

Just like their last collaboration Bullet Train this is a score that won't be for everyone, but I enjoy both immensely.

I really love the whole orchestral rock approach. It works really well in the film and it has a great energy to it. Love how Lewis was able to incorporate Kiss' I Was Made For Loving You is several cues. Most notably "Sexy Bacon" & "Ball Biter". The latter is so much fun!

 

Final two cues "Wire Straits" & "The Fall Guy" are up tempo high energy action cues, which are outstanding if you love the style on display here. There are a couple of songs, which are all pretty great and nicely round out the album. I just really love the whole thing!

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

Unfrosted - Christophe Beck

 

It's not just a comedy score. It's a comedy pastiche score. Which means it's very scatterbrained, with loads of different ideas and styles. But I do think Beck keeps it interesting for 40 minutes and credit to him, because a with a lesser composer this would've been very chaotic. It still is, but it's intentional. I wish the main theme was used more though, because that's really charming and fun.

It's nowhere near the top of this year, but I enjoyed it.

[Muad'Dib 1,997]

I recently watched the movie Young Woman and the Sea (it was mostly ok, not bad but not groundbreaking either) but I was pleasantly surprised by the soundtrack -it's quite loud but it feels like a sort of old-school Zimmer -dramatic with lots of ostinato- with a purely acoustic orchestral treatement

 

 

I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Thor 9,323]

It's good, although more Trevor Rabin than Zimmer, I thought. My two cents here (at the end).

[Jay 43,884]

Twisters score album coming this Friday.  Preview track:

 

 

[LSH 1,098]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

It's good, although more Trevor Rabin than Zimmer, I thought. My two cents here (at the end).

 

Trevor Rabin and the sea? Give me The Guardian anytime! And a dash of Deep Blue Sea for good measure.

[Thor 9,323]

It had a definite THE GUARDIAN vibe, I felt.

[Richard P 4,943]

Listened through Twisters today. Most of the RCP influence is limited to a couple of the action sequences, but the main problem for me is that it feels so anonymous - nothing even vaguely resembling the great theme from Mancina's score, and while the choir is back, Wallfisch uses it in such a generic way behind the orchestra that the score almost never made me sit up and pay attention to it. The recording also feels a bit thin to me.

 

The whole thing almost comes across as a demo version of some sort of early, less thematic version of the original. Man it wouldn've been good to have Mancina back.

 

 

[Thor 9,323]

I agree with that, Richard. I had high hopes for the score, being a fan of both Wallfisch and the original TWISTER, but it felt like autopilot RCP most of the time. Mancina's score is on a whole other level.

 

That being said, I've heard good things about the film itself (which I missed, because it was screened while I was on holiday), so looking forward to seeing that.

[Jay 43,884]

Lots of new film music albums today!

 

Christophe Beck - Instigators

Batu Sener - Harold and the Purple Crayon

Benjamin Walfisch - Twisters

Frederik Wiedmann - Batman: The Caped Crusader

 

Plus this is coming next week:

 

Steve Jablonsky - Borderlands

 

Busy summer!

[tomsmoviemadness 4,418]

The Instigators releases today, Borderlands is next week. And Instigators is a bit of a disappointment I thought.

 

Also this coming Sunday/Monday will be the release House Of The Dragon S2!

 

Busy summer indeed. Finally! It took a while.

 

[Marian Schedenig 10,820]

 

The first three arrived last week (the Korngold replaces a CDR copy I've had for 25+ years). The Broughton just came today.