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Arcsquad12 posted:Video game music I know, but I have to give Paul Ruskay credit for making some absolutely killer scores for the Homeworld games. Yeah, McCreary clearly took a lot of inspiration from there. Speaking of video game composers turned Hollywood guys, Michael Giacchino killed it with Medal of Honor: Frontline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1nHihn2Hp4 I wish he could produce that kind of output on a regular basis, but it feels like he takes on a half-dozen projects a year and a creative brain can only do so much before you're repeating yourself or phoning it in.
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Mar 6, 2019 07:40
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Giacchino frustrates me because he has made a lot of music that I really really like, but his score for Rogue One just hit everything wrong to my ear. Trying to mimic John Williams only ever ends in failure. His soundtrack, while having a few good tracks (Krennic's theme is sweet), sounded like half a million other half-baked star wars fanfilm musical scores. The main title theme is so unbelievably bad and corny it actually managed to spoil the Star Destroyer ramming scene for me. Overreaction? Yes, but then I'm also the guy who shudders violently whenever I hear a James Horner soundtrack cannibalizing half a dozen other James Horner soundtracks.
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Mar 6, 2019 07:50
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Arcsquad12 posted:Giacchino frustrates me because he has made a lot of music that I really really like, but his score for Rogue One just hit everything wrong to my ear. Trying to mimic John Williams only ever ends in failure. His soundtrack, while having a few good tracks (Krennic's theme is sweet), sounded like half a million other half-baked star wars fanfilm musical scores. The main title theme is so unbelievably bad and corny it actually managed to spoil the Star Destroyer ramming scene for me. Horner wrote his Battle Beyond the Stars score for Corman, and then he spent his entire career re-using it. He re-used in Star Trek II and III, in Aliens, in loving Braveheart, in Clear & Present Danger, in motherfucking Titanic. He was the laziest son of a bitch and he never heard a Prokofiev piece that he couldn't ape. Giacchino just needs to slow down. He takes on too many projects at any given time and as a result he winds up just churning out generic fluff because he's too busy to sleep. I mean, there's no reason that the Romulan villain theme from Star Trek '09 should be part of the ending credits theme of the next two movies, but it is, because he just doesn't have time to do more. That said, London Calling from Star Trek Into Darkness is a pretty magnificent piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfP6o-61e2s Edit: Yeah, the Rogue One score really, really is awful. Giacchino is trying to hint at the major leitmotifs but he doesn't quite hit them and the overall effect is just ... off. The weird attempt at melding Giacchino's Rogue One theme with the Imperial March is weird. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxL8bVJhXCM Timby fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Mar 6, 2019 |
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Mar 6, 2019 07:58
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Arcsquad12 posted:Giacchino frustrates me because he has made a lot of music that I really really like, but his score for Rogue One just hit everything wrong to my ear. Trying to mimic John Williams only ever ends in failure. His soundtrack, while having a few good tracks (Krennic's theme is sweet), sounded like half a million other half-baked star wars fanfilm musical scores. The main title theme is so unbelievably bad and corny it actually managed to spoil the Star Destroyer ramming scene for me. He did the whole score for Rogue One in 2 months due to Disney trying to fix it in the final hour. It's not great but it's not like he had any time to do anything interesting.
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Mar 6, 2019 08:00
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Enterprising Young Men is Giacchino's masterwork and one of the best themes from any Star Trek project. I am disappointed that Alexandre Desplat dropped out of the Rogue One scoring stage, because it gave us a Giacchino rush job, but at the same time I'm kind of glad that he did. He had an interview a couple of years ago where he said that he was uncomfortable working with the spectre of John WIlliams hanging over him when he did the last couple Harry Potter soundtracks, so he didn't want to go through that again. I can understand that, and I think he made the right call, even if a Desplat Star Wars score could have been amazing. John Powell managed to come out with his own unique musical style that still fit Star Wars with his Solo soundtrack. The main theme for Solo may have been adapted from a John Williams piece, but Powell really made the music in the film his own. Meanwhile I loved Williams's work on Force Awakens, but found so much of The Last Jedi's music dull dull dull. My favourite thing about Williams is how he builds on his leitmotifs and then tailors them to suit each scene. I can immediately tell the difference between the use of the Rebel theme during the Tie Fighter attack in A New Hope from the theme's use in Return of the Jedi because he's added more layers and given it greater urgency to emphasize the higher stakes. I was so let down in Last Jedi where he just reused Rey and Kylo's themes wholesale and did nothing to change them up. Then he reused the Rebellion theme again during the Battle of Crait because they were doing an homage to the Death Star 2 attack by flying through the caves. Again, just a recycled theme rather than a further development of the theme, all because the scene was a reference to Return of the Jedi. Yes, when I play them back to back, I can hear the differences in notation and they are distinct, but they don't feel like they're being used to develop the theme as much as they're just there to be a call back. Williams had every chance to do something different, and had a golden opportunity to tailor the music given that he was working with the editors from day one to make sure each scene had the right themes playing at exactly the right times. So many composers come in after filming is finished and are told "make this sound good", while Williams had months to work on the score. And it does work: the musical timing in Last Jedi is superb, the new themes, what few there are, hit the notes perfectly and can make even the most inane crap like the cat-horse rampage through casino world at least sound exciting. It's just when Williams does callbacks to his older music, he's really lacking that polished touch he'd use to make them new again. They just sound like placeholders, and it's a letdown. The lack of development in the music seems to mirror how Last Jedi as a story just spins its wheels and does very little to actually push things forward. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Mar 6, 2019 |
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Mar 6, 2019 08:05
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I wanted that too. I wish they didn't gently caress with Rogue One as much as they did. A Gareth Edwards fully directed Star War with Desplat doing the score? hell yeah. Solo's the best score still though,
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Mar 6, 2019 08:08
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Arcsquad12 posted:Enterprising Young Men is Giacchino's masterwork and one of the best themes from any Star Trek project. The only better ones are the Voyager and The Motion Picture / TNG themes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtVXAugaSm0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b52b4yORX6U Jerry Goldsmith was a god among men.
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Mar 6, 2019 08:11
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If/when Williams finally retires, I hope that DIsney gives Jesse Harlin or Mark Griskey a shot at scoring a bigtime Star Wars movie. KOTOR 2 The Sith Lords has one of the best non-williams Star Wars soundtracks ever, and the Force Unleashed had a really good main theme as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LBsU4rNkkM It, like Powell's music, manages to hit the vibe of Williams without copying him. It's so easy to slap a WIlliams tune on a product and call it a day, much harder to make something unique. I roll my eyes anytime someone like Kevin Kiner or Giacchino think they're being clever or feeding nostalgia to people by playing a few bars of the Imperial March. Arc Hammer fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Mar 6, 2019 |
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Mar 6, 2019 08:18
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Obligatory Elliot Goldenthal's Alien 3 score is loving amazing post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDqhEa7HUl4 Saturniid19 posted:It’s even more impressive considering JNH had five weeks to write it. E: Re: King Kong -- There's a scene in the film with all the giant insects killing people that's pretty disturbing and I vividly remember the score being nothing but this haunting choir and goddamn if it's not on the actual album. I can't find it anywhere. E2: Oof there's a recent version of the score? Anyone have it? https://twitter.com/Alien_Archives/status/1095934169081819136 Stare-Out fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Mar 9, 2019 |
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Mar 9, 2019 01:24
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I've never thought the scores I've listened to of Giacchino have been that great, but The Park is Closed from Jurassic World is something else entirely. It's so good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uekquXATUhY
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Mar 9, 2019 05:15
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Jurassic World’s score is pretty good. It’s probably the sole reason I find the film watchable. Or at one point watchable. I haven’t had any desire to watch it since it came out on Blu Ray.
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Mar 9, 2019 05:49
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Stare-Out posted:Obligatory Elliot Goldenthal's Alien 3 score is loving amazing post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX6W-DZDkqg Probably one of my most listened to videos on youtube.
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Mar 9, 2019 10:56
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CelticPredator posted:Jurassic World’s score is pretty good. It’s probably the sole reason I find the film watchable. Or at one point watchable. I haven’t had any desire to watch it since it came out on Blu Ray. I definitely agree with that. re: Rogue One; the one place the score is good is when he's composing in his own style. The sequence of the Death Star wiping everything out bridged into Vader attacking is good. Its when he was aping Williams that it suffered.
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Mar 9, 2019 14:34
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Since someone brought up Jurassic Park I'll point out that The Lost World's score is amazing and I think Williams was taking some big inspiration from Maurice Jarre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6laPiPI4RKU I feel that Williams was directly referencing the overture to Lawrence of Arabia with the opening drums.
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Mar 9, 2019 19:04
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Only issue with TLW is Williams overuses the (great) main theme in the score.
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Mar 11, 2019 00:42
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The T. Rex attack theme when Eddie is trying to save the trailer is so good. I also like the little rising four note theme Williams uses to create a sense of foreboding throughout the film. It's a nice contrast to the descending four note progression of the first film's raptor leitmotif.
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Mar 11, 2019 01:23
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I'd say the Eddie Carr sequence is the best in a JP movie, and its scored absolutely perfectly.
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Mar 11, 2019 01:35
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Darko posted:Only issue with TLW is Williams overuses the (great) main theme in the score. That’s on Spielberg, though. IIRC, the only times Williams used the cue originally were the “arrival at the island” sequence on the boat and then the “moveable feast” travel montage. Spielberg liked the theme so much that he stuck it in other places, like when they run to the helicopter and Ludlow’s demise, off the top of my head. You can hear the unused cues on the Lala Land release from a couple years ago, if you can find it.
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Mar 11, 2019 03:00
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Re-watched Fincher's Zodiac once again and his decision to get David Shire (All the President's Men/The Conversation) to score it was totally brilliant. The music, both soundtrack and score alike, do so much to ground that movie in the late 60's/early 70's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_3pgprgv84 Stare-Out fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Mar 14, 2019 |
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Mar 14, 2019 02:56
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Double post but whoa goddamn I just found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjUIZt3rCs That version of "The Gift", fuuuuuck. Stare-Out fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Mar 14, 2019 |
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Mar 14, 2019 04:49
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Listening to Horner's work can be such whiplash. Put on his score to Batteries Not Included tonight, was enjoying it, thinking 'he's handling those emotional shifts so well...' and then in comes a chunk that he used in Krull. And also used in Pagemaster.
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Aug 10, 2019 02:55
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Horner started out working for Roger Corman so he really internalized the lesson that you should recycle whenever you can.
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Aug 10, 2019 20:04
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For Horner, I realized that you just find the pieces that recycle the most stuff and listen to it as a kind of "best of" thing. So instead of listening to Bicentennial Man, just listen to A Beautiful Mind, which recycles it and multiple other things and slightly improves on it.
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Aug 11, 2019 13:51
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Darko posted:So instead of listening to Bicentennial Man, just listen to Seriously, this drove me to distraction while watching Bicentennial Man.
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Aug 11, 2019 22:19
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Phylodox posted:Seriously, this drove me to distraction while watching Bicentennial Man. Well Horner sucks that way, but at least he's stealing from himself most of the time as far as I can tell. (He steals brazenly from 2001 for Aliens). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB3IokHelRk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnPJRJbVEIg&t=57s If I were a more astute scholar of film I could probably nail down where he steals everything from, before proceeding to re-use it all at least 7-8 times apiece. Still, it's better than 300: https://open.spotify.com/album/2MhORIIiEX9gE51YVlTzKO?si=E9nX1kPdTMCNue5HXoWOeg See all those song titles that mention Elliot Goldenthal? quote:"Warner Bros. Pictures acknowledges and regrets that a number of the music cues for the score of "300" were, without our knowledge or participation, derived from music composed by Academy Award winning composer Elliot Goldenthal for the motion picture "Titus." Warner Bros. Pictures has great respect for Elliot, our longtime collaborator, and is pleased to have amicably resolved this matter."
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Aug 11, 2019 22:34
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Speaking of Goldenthal, I never knew Heat had his music in the climax instead of the Moby song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etB56TutHVs I like this a lot, it sounds kind of un-Goldenthal and reminds me of the Moby track but I still prefer what they had in the movie overall.
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Aug 11, 2019 22:44
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TIL John Williams has a brother, Don Williams (who plays the timpani!) and he's recently been talking up The Rise of Skywalker's score:video transcription posted:Well John's started up with another Star Wars, we started out last week. He's got 135 minutes of music to write, okay, so that kind of tells you how long the film is. It is top to bottom music. We've done 4 days and we've just scratched the surface. I think we've got something like 34 minutes in the can at this point but I can tell you that every theme you've ever heard is gonna be compiled into this last effort. Every one -- Leia, Yoda, the Phantom, Darth, all of it is gonna be in there. And in his usual style he hides them, you gotta go look for them. You'll find them but you gotta go look for 'em! You'll be sitting there watching the film go by and there it is, two bars of it and it grabs you and takes you away. I find that happening a lot with this while I'm playing which takes me away from what I'm supposed to be doing which is counting and coming in at the right place. The Phantom, meaning... Duel of the Fates? 
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Aug 11, 2019 22:59
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Cross-Section posted:The Phantom, meaning... Duel of the Fates? Wouldn’t the titular Phantom be Darth Sidious? So, Palpatine’s theme?
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Aug 11, 2019 23:05
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Sodomy Hussein posted:Well Horner sucks that way, but at least he's stealing from himself most of the time as far as I can tell. (He steals brazenly from 2001 for Aliens). He also cribbed his Star Trek III score for Aliens; III's score was itself largely recycled from II's, which was a straight re-use of his work on Battle Beyond the Stars.
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Aug 11, 2019 23:17
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Phylodox posted:Wouldn’t the titular Phantom be Darth Sidious? So, Palpatine’s theme? Makes sense, and "the Phantom" could indeed refer to a new arrangement of Palps' theme specifically done for TROS, but in my heart of hearts, I really would just love for DotF to show up again. It's good music. Cross-Section fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Aug 11, 2019 |
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Aug 11, 2019 23:20
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It kinda did in Solo
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Aug 11, 2019 23:47
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Got a pleasant surprise with a film today that had Horner’s name pop up in the opening credits: House of Cards, from 1993. One score that Horner did put in some fresh work on (unless he had something prior with a lot of Peruvian flutes that I don’t know about). Nice work all around, a stirring and memorable main theme, and capable atmosphere switching for the virtual reality scene cues. So of course the score’s only had one limited official release, 16 years after the movie came out. 
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Aug 11, 2019 23:59
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CelticPredator posted:It kinda did in Solo But it didn't make it onto the soundtrack, which was a bummer. Such a nicely-understated version of it, too.
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Aug 12, 2019 00:36
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Cross-Section posted:But it didn't make it onto the soundtrack, which was a bummer. Such a nicely-understated version of it, too. Someone's put together a good version of it in YouTube, most likely using the rear channels of the 5.1 mix with a bit of filtering: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPC5ur9wQak
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Aug 12, 2019 00:40
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Tomtrek posted:Someone's put together a good version of it in YouTube, most likely using the rear channels of the 5.1 mix with a bit of filtering: Good stuff, thanks. Shame so much of the dialogue and SFX leaks through even on the rears, though.
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Aug 12, 2019 01:46
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I didn't like Solo's use of the asteroid theme, speaking of Solo. It's possibly the greatest piece from Star Wars and worked because it moved so well with the Falcon's movements. Just kind of jamming it in to a space scene just ended up being distracting to me.
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Aug 12, 2019 13:10
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Darko posted:I didn't like Solo's use of the asteroid theme, speaking of Solo. It's possibly the greatest piece from Star Wars and worked because it moved so well with the Falcon's movements. Just kind of jamming it in to a space scene just ended up being distracting to me. Yeah it's kinda like how lower budget Star Wars video games just insert random Williams tracks in where they would have otherwise hired a composer. Anyway came in here to talk about a couple of things. Rogue One is cementing itself in my head as the best of the contemporary Star Wars films, and a big part of this is Michael Giacchino's score, which sounds like a Star Wars score while actually sounding like its own score. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf-cg9W5fQY Like, the Imperial Suite will just be Another loving March Remix, right? No actually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C2wCcuKmLI It's just a really intense soundtrack that does a lot of work to push the movie's different direction. It's like the opposite of Solo, a Star Wars movie with an actual idea. While listening to this on Spotify I also discovered that the player changes to a lightsaber, so that was fun. For those of us who like things that sound like Star Wars now and then but have listened Star Wars to death, might I recommend Trinity and Beyond (also on Spotify): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM8-xN2v6Ws I would also like to randomly add that Batman Returns is Danny Elfman's best work.
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Aug 30, 2019 20:57
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Sodomy Hussein posted:I would also like to randomly add that Batman Returns is Danny Elfman's best work.
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Aug 30, 2019 21:21
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Darthemed posted:Just curious, what places it above his first Batman score, in your estimation? The entire soundtrack sounds like a singular piece and is extremely listenable, instead of a couple of jagged edges here and there (like, where the hell did Roasted Dude come from in Batman?) The three main characters of Batman Returns interact constantly and are all building on the same vibe, so the score has to gel well and it does.
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Aug 30, 2019 21:51
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Sodomy Hussein posted:Yeah it's kinda like how lower budget Star Wars video games just insert random Williams tracks in where they would have otherwise hired a composer. I actually rank Giacchino's Rogue One below Powell's Solo, largely because the former's incidental/action cues sound a lot like his JJTrek stuff, but his themes (Jyn's and Chirrut's specifically) are top-tier for motifs that were essentially banged out in 2 weeks. Trinity and Beyond almost sounds more Holst-ian than Williams-esque, which, I guess, is appropriate enough.
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Aug 31, 2019 01:43
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