Movie/TV/Game Scores Through The Ages - Alan's Personal Favourites

It's good, but not really REMARKABLE. Works as a neat pop/blues/period-album.

RAIN MAN is in a whole other league, IMO.

Not a fan of the score

No love for DAYS OF THUNDER???


i really can't describe to you how much this score makes me feel ill

Tim, Zimmer himself literally HATES what he did on Days of Thunder (asked why isn't "the good music released from Days of Thunder" he said "Because there is no good music!").

100% agree.

A gentle prod for me? Now, I just need to hunt out my list from last time!

Looking down the possible candidates there's a couple from a very popular composer that are in the running - with one of these in particular that brings a tear to my eye every time I hear the climax to the film. But there's also another contender from one of my favourite composers: some great set-piece tracks in this one...



I'll try and get this year up tomorrow.

I'll never know because I don't have your old list.
Tom

1991 - Backdraft - Hans Zimmer

Another tricky year and what confirmed my selection was the fact that, when I listened to Zimmer's score again earlier, I could feel the tears well up again as I listened to the final couple of tracks. For some reason Zimmer's score just pulls on those emotional heartstrings in the last couple of tracks. Maybe it's heightened by post-9/11 feelings, I don't know but the effect is consistent! As well as the emotional aspect, this is the Zimmer mode I really enjoy: listenable, all out action scoring. Honourable (lots of brass) and militaristic (snare drums galore) all add to the mix for a great listen. It's not all great - there are some tracks that I wouldn't mind not hearing again, but this one still gets my top choice for 1991.

Zimmer in a more urban and intimate mode is another highlight from this year: Regarding Henry. A great listen just to chill out to. I like his use of synths in this one. When I hear synths I find the characteristics of the sound the synth gives out is very important to my enjoyment. I don't like my synths too harsh, rather, I want them to be "full-bodied", "rounded"...whatever than means. (That's one of the reasons I always preferred Jean-Michel Jarre over Vangelis: the latter's choice of synths was always too harsh for me, too pointy.)

Another close runner for this year was Howard Shore's The Silence of The Lambs. Tracks such as "Main Title", "Quid Pro Quo", "Lambs Screaming" and "Lecter Escapes" make for a great 20 minutes listening.

Other worthy mentions in this year: Elmer Bernstein's adaption of Bernard Herrmann's Cape Fear, Brad Fiedel's main theme for Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Richard Stone's exciting score for the western/vampire movie Sundown.

Finally, a couple of foreign-titled projects to make the year more highbrow.

Michel Legrand's Fuga dal Paradiso is a wonderful meld of classical-style passages punctured by more modernistic and atonal sections (maybe to reflect the dual prison/paradise plot?) I don't think I've seen any reference to this score anywhere but it's a little gem of a score that should have a wider audience. And George Delerue's Tours du Monde, Tours du Ciel (for a mini-series on astronomy and the history of science) is a lovely score rich in Delerue's strings-laden style: very similar to the classical-style pieces of Legrand's score.

Good selection Alan. One of the few Zimmer that I enjoy.

T'would seem so!?

Unless my memory is at fault I believe you chose SILENCE OF THE LAMBS last time.

Personally, I don't think I have a flat out favourite for this year, BACKDRAFT is a fine choice ( except for those songs Alan, no, really, they aren't good and you should be severely punished for liking them ), a few that I would add are David Newman's very fine BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, John Williams JFK, Mark Isham's POINT BREAK and Georges Delerue's BLACK ROBE.

Why not? Sounds like a good idea and who knows, maybe more folk around these here parts will have finally have a broader scope of film music that goes beyond Zimmer, Powell etc etc by that time?

I was thinking of doing a thread similar to this one, Alan, that would be about favourite films of the year, problem is I don't know where to start? I'd only be really comfortable choosing from around 1950 onwards due to my lack of knowledge and familiarity with anything earlier.

For the next 10 years or so, we're slowly venturing into my MAIN period for film music fandom. So difficult to choose it is!

BACKDRAFT is a great choice, Alan....love the "firetruck" cue, and even like Bruce Hornby(?)'s songs. That would be on my honorable mention list, for sure.

Others would be BLACK ROBE (Delerue), JFK (Williams), ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (Kamen), BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (Menken), GRAND CANYON (Howard), THE ROCKETEER (Horner) and STAR TREK VI (Eidelman).

TERMINATOR 2 is brilliant in the film, but not something I would listen to alone.

The winner, then, is:

HOOK (John Williams)



Personal trivia: My very first soundtrack compact disc was purchased in 1991 (I only had a couple of cassettes prior to that, TWIN PEAKS, among others) -- namely the soul/blues songs from THE COMMITMENTS.

Cripes! How did I not mention GRAND CANYON, THE ROCKETEER and STAR TREK VI?

I think now that my choice veers more towards JNH's GRAND CANYON, it's just such an enjoyable album.

Apart from a few tracks HOOK has never really done much for me, I loathe the film too.

I agree 100% with Hook. Perhaps my favorite score of all time.