What is the last score you listened to?

[Incanus 5,715]

SW Episode II Attack of the Clones: A very good score despite all the bashing it receives here on the MB.

Tombstone: Bruce Broughton's excellent Western score. Vibrant and full of great orchestrations and themes it is a reminder of how great music this composer can do.

Amazing Stories Anthology 1: A diverse collection of scores ranging from brilliant and entertaining to average.

[nightscape94 965]

Jane Eyre. Such a sweat little score for a TV movie in 1970, using a smaller, chamber orchestra. It's not quite authentic period music, but it does have an air of the same idiom. Other then the main theme, there are a few extensions, or sub-themes, which branch off from it, which are all lovely. The traveling music is nice as well, such as "The Carriage Ride to Thornfield".

Many member on the MB may not have access to it, but it's worth trying to get ahold of it!

Tim

[Marian Schedenig 8,200]

Many member on the MB may not have access to it, but it's worth trying to get ahold of it!

Why not? Is it out of print again?

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Its rare by the least.

I found one in my whole city. And never seen it again...

[Incanus 5,715]

Max Steiner's The Adventures of Mark Twain. An absolutely magical score with a wonderful Americana feel and variety. Orchestrations are superb and the whole score is a delight from start to finish. The composer uses Amreican folk tunes to anchor the music to the setting but Steiner's own thematic contribution is what makes this so wonderful. The main theme just glows with such optimism and feeling of lost era of adventure. This really sparked my interest in the composer.

I warmly recommend this score for everyone

BTW Jane Eyre is a masterpiece and a gem of Williams' early career. It has elements which seem to have surfaced in his recent scores and the lyricism that has come so prevalent in his modern scores. I adore it.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Superman, its one of those great scores that this board doesn't appreciate nearly enough.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

I think you are wrong there.

But well a great Williams score never gets enough praise

[JoeinAR 1,949]

It would be nice to be wrong there Luke,

its a glorious score. I don't know which cd I like best the first or the 2nd.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

It is a score best listened to from start to finish.

When I have the time and do so, I find it excellent.

When it comes to listening to a solid part, I usually stick to the first 9 tracks.

- Marc, who'd rank The Fortress of Solitude among his all-time favorite cues.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

I would have liked to have seen the movie in 1978. Must have been special one-time-in-a-lifetime thing

[JoeinAR 1,949]

I didn't see it opening night, I saw it the next day on Saturday, and it was wonderful. Its one of those seminal movie going experiences. Men loved it, women loved it, and despite imperfections its standing the test of time, and its a classic, as is the score, which Im playing alot until the 27th when I buy Superman Returns.

[Incanus 5,715]

Superman is a glorious score and one of Williams' best. I just recently listened to it after a long time and was amazed at the sheer emotion and power of the score. I do not think it is unappreciated on this MB.

[Red 75]

John Williams Greatest Hits 1969-1999 compilation album. I know, not a score.

[John Crichton 4]

I, for one, have never been one to understate my love for Superman, but I think I've made that clear in the past.

I'm hoping that the upcoming release will lead people who've never discovered the masterpiece to find it, or find it anew.

[nightscape94 965]

It's difficult to find many scores that are better then the first disc of Superman. But the second disc isn't anything to sniff at.

Tim

[John Crichton 4]

Have to strongly disagree. The Flying Sequence, Sonic Greeting, the actual chasing rockets part of Chasing Rockets, Finding Lois and Turning Back the World are enough to make it a classic too, even if the whole rest of the disc was just one long, sustained note. Or Zimmer.

[nightscape94 965]

Who are you disagreeing with? I said it wasn't anything to sniff at, meaning it's good and sometimes underrated amongst the Williams-community.

Tim

[scissorhands 16]

I've started to really appreciate "Superman" since I recently got John Debney's re-recording

The last scove I've listened to is Joe Hisaishi latest work, "Otoko-tachi no Yamato" (Yamato of the men), which seems to have some themes inspired by the Zimmer style... but the rest is pure Hisaishi, which always means quality. For the first time in his career, Hisaishi's using real choir, by the way.

[John Crichton 4]

Who are you disagreeing with?  I said it wasn't anything to sniff at, meaning it's good and sometimes underrated amongst the Williams-community.

Tim

My bad, sorry. Next time be more clear with your sniffing or lack therof.

Still, I stand by the rest of the post.

[Ollie 1,059]

I agree, the second disc is just as good as the 1st one.

Take A Hard Ride - Goldsmith

Leviathan - Goldsmith

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

Superman, its one of those great scores that this board doesn't appreciate nearly enough.

They don't? I thought everyone loves it....

[Incanus 5,715]

Heartbeeps: I just got the CD a few days ago and I must admit it is a charming little score if not there on the top of my Best of John Williams list. It is full of melody and upbeat action and I find it a nice addition to my collection

Amazing Stories: Williams/Delerue: (Re-recording) Mission is a wonderful TV score. It keeps building to the great classic JW finale which just makes me wish that he would get to write this kind of music more.

Georges Delerue never fails and delivers a heartfelt music for a poignant story. The man had such a gift for both melody and writing that just tugs your heartstrings.

[Ollie 1,059]

Heartbeeps: I just got the CD a few days ago and I must admit it is a charming little score if not there on the top of my Best of John Williams list. It is full of melody and upbeat action and I find it a nice addition to my collection

Crimebuster's theme is the hi-light of the album.

Amazing Stories: Williams/Delerue: (Re-recording) Mission is a wonderful TV score. It keeps building to the great classic JW finale which just makes me wish that he would get to write this kind of music more.  

Georges Delerue never fails and delivers a heartfelt music for a poignant story. The man had such a gift for both melody and writing that just tugs your heartstrings.

I'm hoping that Intrada will include Delerue's original score for that episode on one of the next two volumes.

[Romão 2,274]

I admit that although I've always loved the score for Superman, I never ranked it among Williams ultimate achievements, but recently, I started listening to it more carefully, and it's one of the best scores I've ever heard. I do think the Rhino album, as complete and wonderful as it is, suffers from some redundancy, specially in the second cd. All the versions of the Superman march do break a bit the flow of the listening experience. Debney's re-recording, although inferior (but still great), offers a great selection of tracks and that track list provides a wonderful listening experience.

I also think the score is at its strongest until we get to metropolis. Those first tracks are seminal achievements in the world of film music.

I'm listening to the Crimebuster's theme for the first time, and I must say it's one of the most infectiously catchy tunes Williams has ever written. I loved it

[Red 75]

Return of the Jedi. It is becoming my favorite of the OT.

[Romão 2,274]

It still is my favorite.

[John Crichton 4]

I love all the SW scores equally, but there's always been something about that last 40-45 minutes of Jedi that's been really special for me.

[QMM 4]

listening to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang right now, John Ottman

Liking it a lot better than I did in the film

[davy 0]

ive been listening to alot of different John Williams pieces lately.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Frailty by Brian Tyler.

[King Mark 3,631]

Hawaii,by Elmer Bernstein(Tsunami release).Pretty epic and bold themes,reminded me of The Blue Max for some reason.Pretty good.

K.M.

[Ollie 1,059]

Varese's 2 disc Hawaii is superb.

[Incanus 5,715]

Wyatt Earp by James Newton Howard

[QMM 4]

Jon Brion's Punch-Drunk Love and Magnolia, the latter of which is very very good.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Michael Kamen - X-Men

My favorite out of the first two scores. A very underrated score. Not every superhero movie needs wall-to-wall bombast, and Kamen proves it here in my eyes.

John Ottman - X2

I like the main titles, but I was a bit disappointed when I heard it outside the film. A nice listen, but nothing to really blow me away.

John Ottman - Superman Returns

I like it. I think it's better than X2 and a very enjoyable listen. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie more and more.

John Williams - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Williams kicks it up a notch. This score rocks from beginning to end, which in album form, unfortunately lasts only a measly 40 minutes. But Williams pulls all the plugs and scores one of Spielberg's biggest roller coaster rides with one of his biggest scores. Sweet.

[Ollie 1,059]

John Williams' Superman.

[Trent B 337]

The Matrix (promo of course)

A damn good score that Don Davis wrote. It's also probably the first score that I heard that has a good callobration between techno and vocal songs. Don Davis wrote a very complex score for this film in my opinion.

I remember shortly after The Matrix came out I saw the OST at Borders one day (when I still living in Vegas) and I bought it. I had not seen the movie yet and it was rare for me at the time (still kind of is) to listen to a score for a film I hadn't seen. At first I thought it was just bombast loud sound and was wondering what the hell I was listening to.

Well I decided not to listen to it for quite a while until I had acutally scene the movie. When I watched the movie for the first time (literally about 6 months later) with my oldest niece I paid close attention to the score and realized it worked pretty well in the film. I also had noticed there was quite a bit of music that was left off the OST. So I figured I'd give the OST another shot again and I started listening to it more and more. I really loved what I heard after listening to it more.

When the DVD for the movie was released and I had read that it had an isolated score I instantly bought the DVD and ripped the score once I got home with it. I loved the score even more since I was able to hear a lot of the missing music from the OST. All though I was still disappointed since one track was not usable and some cues at their beginings or endings were not usable because of Don Davis' voice that over laped them.

It wasn't until recently when the real promo leaked and I was able to get it and I've been listening to it quite a lot now that I have every cue from the film in perfect sound quality.

Anyways sorry for my long post...but I do give the score 5 stars.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

A little off topic, but how did you rip the isolated score without the louder parts clipping? Short of doing a re-record through my on-board sound, I can't rip stereo tracks properly (I use DVD Audio Ripper v1.0.11 from 5starshareware.com).

I've acquired mountains of new music recently, but I've given solid listening time to:

Chinatown

X-Men 3

United 93

[Trent B 337]

I used Smart Ripper 2.41 to rip the isolated score and used HeadAC3he to convert the AC3 file to WAV then loaded the WAV program up into Cool Edit Pro (the audio editor I use).

All though when I ripped the isolated score I ripped it as two parts (devided the movie up evenly) because when I ripped it as a complete whole for some reason Cool Edit Pro didn't show all of it.

[Richard Penna 3,694]

I've figured out what was wrong - I had the input volume set to 3, instead of 1, which I've set it to now and makes the WAV nearly identical to the OST track in terms of peak heights.

[nightscape94 965]

Danny Elfman's Black Beauty. Probably one is last really excellent scores. I honestly don't consider anything he's done for the last 10 years to be 100% perfect, or at least on par with his older stuff, although he's come up with some fantastic main titles. There was a period of about 6 years in the late 80s and early 90s where he was pumping out really great scores, and it was during this time that he came out with Black Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, Sommersby, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and, of course, Batman.

Black Beauty is a beautiful, very pastoral, score which has heavy focus on the violin and flute to great effect.

Tim

[Trent B 337]

Independence Day World Record 006 version

In my honest opinion it's the best damn score that David Arnold has written. It's a pitty no offical complete score has been released yet... however I'm still happy to have the bootleg version.

I know it's July 1st, but I'll probably end up listening to it again on the 4th of July and watch the movie that time too. I haven't seen the movie in years.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

In my honest opinion it's the best damn score that David Arnold has written. It's a pitty no offical complete score has been released yet... however I'm still happy to have the bootleg version.

Considering the bootleg version is virtually complete, and has BETTER sound quality than the official 50 minute release...

Why does it matter if an official expanded version of the score has been released?

[Indiana_Fett 0]

I have no idea.

On that note, Gabriel Yared and James Horner's scores for Troy. Both have the wailing female vocal that I always have and always will despise, but cues such as D-Day Battle, Approach of the Greeks, Battle of the Arrows and Troy, Hector's Death, and The Trojans Attack, respectively, more than make up for it.

[ridan 0]

I just listened to both, and the only places where Yared's vocals bother me is in 'Mourning Women' and 'Hector's Funeral' - and even 'Hector's Funeral' is slightly musical.

Horner seems to use his awful wail randomly, like for a shot going over the Trojan walls at night. near the beginning of the film. And it never fits.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Edward Shearmur - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

For some reason this score never got the playing time it deserved since I bought it last year.

But recently some of the music got planted in my head after listening to a track on shuffle, and now I'm loving it (I "merely" really liked it before). Great all-out symphonic bombast. Love that kind of stuff.

The song at the end very roughly pulls me out, though, as a) it's a cover version (and not one I really like) and B) doesn't fit with the rest of the album.

Great score, though.

[King Mark 3,631]

I think the Shearmur's orchestral bombast in Sky Captain is better than Silvestri's (Mummy Returns,Van Helsing)and Debney's(cuthroat Island) orchestral bombast.

K.M.

[Trent B 337]

Considering the bootleg version is virtually complete, and has BETTER sound quality than the official 50 minute release...

Why does it matter if an official expanded version of the score has been released?

Because I perfer physical pressed CD's versus CD-R's and Mp3's on hard drive.

If a legit 2-CD set for Independence Day was released I would buy it in a heart beat.

By the way ID-4 is missing ONE cue. The real "Incoming Reports" cue, it's mis-labeled on the World Records 006 version (which is actually "Crop Duster") and the old 2000 bootleg.

I'm not really complaining, I'm glad to have the bootleg score but as I said I would perfer a physically pressed legit CD set for the score.

[Damo 0]

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Soundtrack

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

By the way ID-4 is missing ONE cue.  The real "Incoming Reports" cue, it's mis-labeled on the World Records 006 version (which is actually "Crop Duster") and the old 2000 bootleg.

Isn't it also missing the film version of Russell's sacrifice?