CUTTHROAT ISLAND (2-CD) - Music Composed by John Debney - Quartet Records

[JTN 2,033]

Quartet Records and StudioCanal present the CD return of John Debney’s symphonic opus for the adventure classic CUTTHROAT ISLAND. 
 

Directed by Renny Harlin and starring Geena Davis, Matthew Modine and Frank Langella, the movie is a big-budget, swashbuckling throwback about Morgan Adams, a female pirate, and her crew racing to find a hidden island containing a fabulous treasure before her uncle, Dawg Brown. Along the way there are sword fights, chases, storms at sea and all sorts of high adventure, all produced on an epic scale.

 

Keeping up with the massive visuals was composer John Debney (HOCUS POCUS, WHITE FANG 2, LITTLE GIANTS, THE PASSION OF CHRIST) who led the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices for the recording. Considered one of the 90s best adventure scores, and one of Debney’s most highly regarded works, this orchestral tour de force returns to CD with the same expanded program as the previous La-La Land Records album released in 2016 and long sold out.

 

This reissue has been produced by Neil S. Bulk, and mixed and mastered by Mike Matessino. The package includes a 16-page booklet with updated liner notes by Jeff Bond and original artwork by Drew Struzan.

https://quartetrecords.com/product/cutthroat-island-2-cd/
 

[JTN 2,033]

I don’t remember owning the previous release, so I ordered this one. 

[Pieter Boelen 740]

Same content as the La-La Land release, I gather?

[JTN 2,033]

Yes.

[Stark 316]

I’ll definitely be getting this too.

[mstrox 6,651]

What’s a good track for me to sample?  Usually I’m only as enthusiastic for Debney as I am for the music the movie was temped with, if you catch my drift.

[Edmilson 7,466]

3 minutes ago, mstrox said:

What’s a good track for me to sample?  Usually I’m only as enthusiastic for Debney as I am for the music the movie was temped with, if you catch my drift.

 

[mstrox 6,651]

Thanks, mate!

[Andy 4,139]

I like to see releases like this that give newcomers another chance.  Like they did with Cliffhanger. 

1 minute ago, mstrox said:

Thanks, matey! Argh! 🏴‍☠️ 

Fixed. 

[Pieter Boelen 740]

25 minutes ago, mstrox said:

What’s a good track for me to sample?  Usually I’m only as enthusiastic for Debney as I am for the music the movie was temped with, if you catch my drift.

This is his best work.

Alongside Lair.

[Amer 2,110]

Had to get the DeLorean to fetch this...;)

[Pieter Boelen 740]

I like that they returned the design more to the OST cover.

That's really my favourite of the bunch!

[Tallguy 3,401]

If you don't like the first track you don't have a pulse you aren't going to like any of it.

[Erik Woods 555]

Hands down one of the greatest scores ever written and I'm so happy that it's back in stock for all of those who missed out on LLL brilliant presentation of the score!

 

-Erik-

[Bellosh 3,419]

worth it for the Struzan artwork alone.

[Loert 2,515]

I adore this score. It may not be very original sounding, but what it tries to achieve it achieves with flying colours, especially thanks to the LSO's top-notch playing. Also, the End Credits of this score is possibly the most End Creditsy-sounding thing out there.

[Pieter Boelen 740]

3 hours ago, Loert said:

It may not be very original sounding

In all my searching, I've never found anything quite like it.

Sure, it's inspired on the swashbucklers of old.

But HOLY MOLY, does it run with that theme!

Main Title, Carriage Chase, complete Battle and End Credits alone are SUCH stunners!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

 

3 hours ago, Loert said:

the End Credits of this score is possibly the most End Creditsy-sounding thing out there.

Pretty much!

It does everything exactly right.

Love how it doesn't even feature the choir at all.

It really doesn't need it.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I'll have to look into this one! I've got a handful of tracks that I think I got from the OST from one of the digital retailers at least a decade ago, with 35 minutes of music, but you know what happens - you get a nice proper remaster and find lots of extra bits you like.

 

Although any brief hope I may have had that ordering from a European retailer helped with shipping.... HAH. 20 euros for one CD for the UK. I got Quartet's The Good, The Bad and the Ugly release from Intrada, so I'm probably about to start a game of waiting for Intrada to have TLW, The Rock, Hook and this in stock all at the same time. What could possibly go wrong. (considering that precisely zero of the titles I just mentioned are currently in stock)

[Pieter Boelen 740]

7 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

I'll have to look into this one! I've got a handful of tracks that I think I got from the OST from one of the digital retailers at least a decade ago, with 35 minutes of music, but you know what happens - you get a nice proper remaster and find lots of extra bits you like.

There's definitely more than 35 minutes of goodness in there.

I'd say it's pretty much never a dull moment all the way through.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I think I found it had the same issue as ID4 - just a bit loud and overwhelming when heard in full form. But I'm completely open to giving it another shot and discovering some extra parts that I haven't heard in years.

[crocodile 8,017]

Fantastic to see this back in print. I've got three albums of this already so I'm good. But I rather fancy the new vinyl of the OST album. Might get that. Fancy some Matessino/Malone magic sprinkled with cute crackles. Quartet releases are actually very lovingly done.

 

Karol

[Pieter Boelen 740]

1 hour ago, Richard Penna said:

I think I found it had the same issue as ID4 - just a bit loud and overwhelming when heard in full form. But I'm completely open to giving it another shot and discovering some extra parts that I haven't heard in years.

ID4 is indeed a good comparison.

That one similarly has barely a dull moment throughout its entire runtime.

 

I can understand it being a bit much...

But you can always listen in parts.

And when it's all SUCH QUALITY...?

 

Both do have some lovely quieter material.

"Discovery of the Treasure" is gorgeous!

[thestat 348]

Still have to agree - this is one of the GREATEST of all scores. Back in the good old 90s I used to rank this as the greatest orchestral score, and Hans and co's The Rock as the greatest more synth-based one, happy days.

 

Debney just went all out on this one. Harlin is also a great musician's director and I would not be surprised if he had a lot to say in how massive the final product is.

 

He had a tendency to hire the latest wavemaker (ie. Jones on Cliffhanger after Last of the Mohicans; Rabin on Deep Blue Sea after Armageddon, Silvestri on The Long Kiss Goodnight after Judge Dredd) - for Debney it must have been Hocus Pocus.

 

And all that stuff about how it builds or copies existing work is total nonsense. Like someone pointed out, what are the direct references? It is very much a homage to a sound, much like JW's Star Wars was, but it is purely and perfectly original in its astonishing mayhem.

 

 

 

 

[JTN 2,033]

Received my oarrrrghderrrr! 🏴‍☠️

[Jurassic Shark 12,080]

On 08/01/2024 at 4:59 PM, Erik Woods said:

Hands down one of the greatest scores ever written

 

I think you're mixing this up with Stephen Oliver's Lady Jane.

[JTN 2,033]

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

think you're mixing this up with Stephen Oliver's Lady Jane.

I’m not familiar with that score. Do you recommend it?

[Jurassic Shark 12,080]

3 hours ago, JTW said:

I’m not familiar with that score. Do you recommend it?

 

Yes.

[Holko 9,529]

I've ignored this score so far, but thankfully you guys kept insisting about its greatness so much that I gave it more of a try than just the samples. Based just on those, even back when the LLL was in stock, I wrote it off as just overwhelming orchestral noise without memorable parts, but I listened to some entire tracks and holy crap that's just not the case at all. A lot of it is very long-lined and building to a finish throughout the entire track and stuff like that, so giving just the first minute of a track as a sample doesn't amount to much and isn't very representative.

[Jurassic Shark 12,080]

It is quite relentless. 

[Loert 2,515]

I agree on the long-linedness! That's what makes tracks like Carriage Chase so great. You don't get these frustrating breaks or cuts that you come across so often in action music. Or, at least, Debney camouflages them very well. (ID4 is a lot like that, too.)

[Cindylover1969 32]

Is it wrong that I liked this  movie more than Pirates of the Caribbean:The Curse of the Black Pearl (I haven't seen any of the others - because after the 18th hour of the first one (that movie DID NOT NEED TO BE SO FREAKIN' LONG),  I'd really had enough of Pirates: Bruckheimer Style)?

[thestat 348]

Yes, glad to see the ID4 comparisons. While Debney's came first, Cutthroat Island is part of that massive orchestral turn in the mid-90s that I credit to Stargate. Best example - Silvestri going from often quite lean orchestrations in his pre-1995 work to the massive Symphony of London sound that Stargate brought in (including hiring the orchestra for Judge Dredd, a Danny Cannon film, by no obvious chance at all). It is clear to me that Arnold breaking out like he did in 1994 generated a level of industry apprehension that resulted in some reshifting of orchestra sizes and types that led to some of the greatest music known to humanity.

 

 

 

[Pieter Boelen 740]

9 hours ago, Cindylover1969 said:

Is it wrong that I liked this  movie more than Pirates of the Caribbean:The Curse of the Black Pearl (I haven't seen any of the others - because after the 18th hour of the first one (that movie DID NOT NEED TO BE SO FREAKIN' LONG),  I'd really had enough of Pirates: Bruckheimer Style)?

I like them all.

But yes, CutThroat Island is pretty great!

[Holko 9,529]

Well, I'm glad I gave this score a proper try and bought it even half-blind! It's just magnificent. And really fun! A bit exhausting though with its length and dense sound. In fact, maybe the one thing I don't like is how the recording isn't necessarily always up to the requirements of such a huge sound, it can feel a bit stuffy, the percussion can go overboard, there's that section in The Battle where the strings are supposed to carry the melodic line but they're off to the distant far left... but for the most part it sounds great!

[Loert 2,515]

3 minutes ago, Holko said:

there's that section in The Battle where the strings are supposed to carry the melodic line but they're off to the distant far left...

 

Timestamp?

[Holko 9,529]

21 minutes ago, Loert said:

 

Timestamp?

1:11-1:18 (horns take over the line from then but the strings continue in the back until 1:22)

 

Goddammit I had to listen to the full track because of you, I can't just stop there. That fiddle near the end rules! Adds some much needed diversity and more fun.

[Jurassic Shark 12,080]

Is this a new mix and master compared to the LLL release?

[Jay 37,370]

Nope

[Marian Schedenig 8,206]

2 hours ago, Holko said:

there's that section in The Battle where the strings are supposed to carry the melodic line but they're off to the distant far left...

 

I've always assumed it's an intentional orchestration effect. I like it.

[scallenger 483]

If I had to criticize, that is the one mixing choice I didn't agree with on the release. On past releases it was much more balanced at that part. I suppose they were trying to match the film mix more but it just doesn't work for me.