war of the words out now

[Josh500 1,615]

I love MR's score too, but this one is a much harder score to listen.

That's what we initially thought about MR!!!

[Jacck 23]

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS!*

A short overview...

01 Prologue - The track starts with what sounds like a repeating synthesised note which slowly turns into a more dissonant synthy buildup and the celestas then come in and give a sort of science fiction feel to the piece - reminded me of something out of AI. The dissonance continues for a while - and then the music turns into a particular motif which can be heard both on this track - and on track 14 (varied but harmonically similar). It's very reflective (this motif) - it doesn't at all sound spooky or dissonant like the beginning of this track - it sounds much more insightful and clever. Morgan Freeman then comes in while this optimistic lovely motif is playing - it reminded me slightly of some Philip Glass stuff... The music turns much more dissonant brassy/high strings and "scary" as Freeman describes how the aliens are plotting against the human race. The track builds and then dies down with some nice percussion.

Overall, my favorite part of this track is the motif - it has an optimistic feel and very light and beautiful I think. I like it a lot!

02 The Ferry Scene - Starts with tremolo bass strings and very tense. Rolling timpanis and low tones. The music then immediately transforms into action style with the brass bursts and string ostinato that is similar to the stuff we hear in Everybody Runs! from Minority Report. Williams uses what sounds like a Tam-Tam struck with a Wire Whisk to accent the beats which I felt was very effective. This continues throughout most of the pieces. He adds a dramatic dangerous sounding horn line over the top later on with the brass bursts and string ostinatos still continuing below. In general a fun enjoyable modern Williams action cue with some nice twists and a nice sense of tragedy/danger in places.

03 Reaching the Country - Starts off with a (synth) female choir. It actually reminded me of a light rendition of something from a tragic/dangerous part of Titanic. Strings then come in and play a tragic minute or so. The brass comes in later and it builds up - I would imagine this will be like some sort of interlude type shot in the film - overlooking the family , probably a sort of relief moment. Some beautiful harmonies and slightly reminiscent of Anakin's Betrayal in places.

04 The Intersection Scene - Starts off with low basses - timp rolls, and low brass - sounding sort of mellow yet there is a sense of foreboding. The brass and strings then play a repeating rhythm of this chord that sounds quite marchy and slowly builds up. Sounds quite dangerous and tense at the same time. There's this really great Idea used in this track that is used a couple of times on the soundtrack - it is these strings repeating this dramatic frantic chord - sounds a bit Jaws-ish. Very nice! I love it Later on the chromatic dissonant strings and choir come in and it sounds a lot like the bit from PoA where the dementors are sucking the life out of Sirious. I really love this tense frantic track

05 Ray and Rachel - This is a nice sweet theme (probably). Reminded me of parts of the cue from TPM where Anakin was leaving Tatooine. Very beautiful. Played by strings throughout.

06 Escape from the City - Similar to The Ferry Scene in some ways - features the same stacatto brass and string ostanati ... and lots of nice big timpani hits and fast repeating string chords.. This is a lot less repetitive than The Ferry Scene I felt. Sounds quite a bit like The Werewolf Scene in places. Williams makes use of his recent mixture of tremolo strings and marimba which he started in Minortiy Report - I personally love it. Nice use of mute trumpets throughout the piece. Like some of the Grievous stuff for RotS.

07 Probing the Basement - Atmospheric tense track - Like a mixture between Apparation on the train, Eye to Eye, and Dr. Eddie And Miss Van Eych .. Didn't do much for me really

08 Regugee Status - A tragic/sad sounding track. A lot like Anakin's Betrayal/Anakin's Dark Deeds in a lot of ways! In fact I swear for about 10 bars Williams just wrote this track at the same time and wrote them in different keys LOL ... But very beautiful with some very nice string writing.

09 The Attack on the Car - Action from Beginning to end - more brass / string ostinati writing. Again - some nice choice of fast repeating Jaws style frantic chords (sometimes heard played by brass instruments on this track) . Again, nice use of Mute trumpets and other nice instrumental effects.

10 The Separation of the Family - The start of this reminded me of some more dissonant/spooky stuff from Eye to Eye. Mute brass and cymbal roll crescendo to a silence... Low bass comes in and the piano plays a slightly dissonant/chromatic melody. Quite nice. Sort of feels like a "looking back" sort of motif to me. Very nice

11 The Confrontation With Ogilvy - I thought this track was very inventive - It features some really cool instrumental effects! A really cool mixture of sppoky and action music.. Really really cool ideas. Glissandos, trill flutes higher than you have ever heard in your life, mute brass, weird choir effects, fast repeating chords, and beautiful building chromatic chords. This track has it all! Williams really went all out for ideas on this track

12 The Return to Boston - Starts with quiet, solemn strings playing a nice little passage.. A militaristic passage comes in later which again sounds a lot like the bit from Eye to Eye where Williams used the 2nd JPark theme in a marching kind of style. Marching builds up and it's quite an obvious milatirstic sort of piece by the end - with snare ensembles and such

13 Escape from the Basket - The beginning few seconds sound almost identical to "Can you See?". This track is quite long and about 9:30 mins long.. and I felt for the most part there was really nothing interesting.. Just some atmospheric stuff. Some nice action stuff comes in at the end but to be honest the repeating jaws-style strings are boring me now LOL

14 The Reunion - The horn comes in at the beginning playing a very American sounding melody... The piano then takes over playing it's little theme that sounds very final and like "ahh what a relief.. it's all over ^_^" .. the strings then come in and it sounds like some stuff from Anakin's Betrayal. A nice final sounding major chord then comes in and the strings play a nice final sounding passage beforing the piano has one last little melody with the strings (with a beautiful romantic run) and the light final sounding major string accomp). Usual Williams style Harp marks the end of the held major strings. Some horns then come in and play a nice final sounding melody that really sounds so much like "The war is over ^_^" ... Williams captured this feeling beautifully. The horn melody quietens and that bassy synth as heard in the Prologue comes in again and Morgan Freeman starts yacking. Again - that nice melody here that I loved from the Prologue is used again here - it sounds very sciency and optimistic - I can't describe it but I love it so much. The track ends with a nice major chord being played on the strings and it obviouslly marks the end of the film. ahhhh ... this is probably my favorite track - that motif is so beautiful and final sounding and enlightened.

15 Epilogue - Sounds a lot like Cybertronics with that beautiful Divisi Strings idea that Williams used in AI. The track sounds more dissonant than I expected for a happy ending... but I guess it's probably the End credits anyhoo... Nice trumpet duet near the end.

I like this soundtrack alot - There's a lot more action and atmospheric stuff than Williams would usually put in one Soundtrack but it's all good nontheless

7/10

[ins 42]

amazon removed the star indicating narration at the last track

[Ray Barnsbury 8]

I'm surprised so many of us would just buy audio files of an important new John Williams scores. I've listened to all the released clips, but as far as purchasing goes, I'll contentedly wait for the CD and perhaps even see the film first....that's a whole *gasp* six days away!

Ray Barnsbury

[bondo 33]

You're surprised? I'm not!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I've got my copy. 15 bucks (Australian).

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I've just listened to War of the Worlds all the way through about three times, some tracks over and over. This is a score I'm sure I'll appreciate more after seeing the film. It's very atmospheric, dark and at times, surprisingly optimistic. The only thing that pisses me off is Morgan Freeman's narration in the opening track as he just so happens to be talking over some of my favourite music on the CD. Hopefully, someone can do a DVD rip.

There's also a lot less "alien" type music than I was expecting, but there may be some of that in the film that wasn't included in the album. However, I was right when I said this score may be comparable to Jerry Goldsmith's Alien score, as the styles are somewhat similar.

Overall, it's The Terminal's evil twin.

[David Coscina 3]

I wouldn't get your hopes up about the opening music being unencombered with narration in the film. As far as I know, the narration is in that too.

[TIEfighter 0]

I wouldn't get your hopes up about the opening music being unencombered with narration in the film.  As far as I know, the narration is in that too.

i guess that Drax was talking about extracting the music from the rear channels...or something like that

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I wouldn't get your hopes up about the opening music being unencombered with narration in the film.  As far as I know, the narration is in that too.

i guess that Drax was talking about extracting the music from the rear channels...or something like that

That's what I meant.

[Jacck 23]

I can pass the narration through a Vocal Remover if you like .. it wont get rid of it but it will quiten it a lot. .... ?

[Josh500 1,615]

I have it, too. I bought it at Cosmos (in Austria) for 17.99 Euro. I couldn't believe they had it so early. I can't wait to put it in my CD player!!!! Tell you about my first impressions later.

8O

[King Mark 3,631]

The only thing that pisses me off is Morgan Freeman's narration in the opening track as he just so happens to be talking over some of my favourite music :

I was afraid of that.They could have put the narration over some unimportant generic underscore bit,but I knew it was going to be over a musical highlight.I'm prepared to be majorly pissed off at this.

K.M.