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YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!!

General Discussions » YOUR ALL TIME FAVOURITE FILM SCORE ALBUMS!!! (Posts 511 to 540 of 1484)

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      CommentAuthorCobweb
    • CommentTimeApr 16th 2014
    Timmer wrote
    I'd also put Papillon above 2 of your choices. wink


    I like PAPILLON, too.
    •  
      CommentAuthorCobweb
    • CommentTimeApr 17th 2014
    Timmer wrote
    having heard Lambro's score I'm really not sure why it was dumped?


    Perhaps there was more than one reason why Lambro's music was dropped and Goldsmith called in to replace.
    I don't know for certain, either.

    Nevertheless, I get the impression that producer Robert Evans was ultimately the man responsible for this.
    I suspect Mr. Evans wished to demonstrate to Roman Polanski that studio producers could have more power than the directors.
    Since CHINATOWN was scripted by Robert Towne and produced by Evans, CHINATOWN doesn't come across to me as idiosyncratic as Polanski's earlier films.

    I love Polanski's REPULSION, KNIFE IN THE WATER and CUL-DE-SAC. This "trio" by Polanski displays his unique talent unfettered & undiluted by studio execs. Overall, I like ROSEMARY'S BABY and CHINATOWN, but I don't consider Hollywood as the ideal locale for Polanski's aesthetics.

    THE TENANT, made in France in 1976, exudes (for me, anyway) some of the pre-Hollywood Polanski touches.
  3. TENANT is a very solid work.

    3. Birth (Alexandre Desplat)

    Truly, this must be one of my favourite film score albums. It must be, for the film disappointed me greatly after the album excited me so much. (This happens a bit to me -- Fountain would be another example.)

    There's a theory going around that those who go on to have a career as authors often write their most potent fiction early in their careers, and this buys them the credibility to produce (slightly) less effective work for the rest of their career. Think of Alan Ball (American Beauty), M Night Shyalaman (mining The Sixth Sense glory for many years after)... It's not my theory, but it's an interesting one. Anyway, this score probably serves that function with respect to Desplat's American career. It came about on the whim of a pretty idiosyncratic filmmaker (Jonathan Glazier), was an unlikely solution for a baffling film, and it was the score that led to many follow-up jobs - The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Golden Compass, Syriana some of the more obvious scores that reference back to the ideas first presented in Birth.

    So much of the effect of the score comes down to the film's opening sequence. The long jogging sequence through Central Park, with 'Prologue' pulsing away, seemingly with no connection to what is happening onscreen until the climactic timpani roll under the arch. You couldn't not notice the music. It was foregrounded in a way that scores are apparently not meant to be (as it was in the film's closing minutes and at several points along the way). What a lot of filmmakers discovered on seeing that film was that they weren't against music that calls attention to itself as much as they thought. They just wanted to feel something new. And this score was certainly that.

    Fusing minimalism and romanticism has been one of the more exciting projects in modern classical composition. John Adams' Harmonielehre is the showcase of 'how it's done', but this score is another example of how to get at the same idea in other ways. Straussian waltzes fused with minimalism's emphasis on texture and ostinatii, together with a clean, transparent layered recording best suited to showcase that texture. Electric bass and harp play a prominent part, apparently the sonic cocktail Desplat found fit best around Nicole Kidman's register. Pulsing flutes carry the idea of something ghostly through the film.

    There's really no better showcase of the score than 'Prologue'. Like many a modern Elfman score, it's an overture in the truest sense, and if the rest of the score is never quite as exciting as it, it's because the remainder develops the ideas from that opening in a rigorous fashion.

    Really? Does this album trump Star Wars, Star Trek The Motion Picture, all those other glorious epic scores? These things usually succeed with our emotions because they came at particular times. For me, the art of scoring was wearing thin in 2004. This was such a breath of fresh air. Clear recordings! (John Kurlander's Middle Earth score recordings from that time provide the best point of contrast.) Classical forms, brought back to life with new energy! (Someone who could do both old and new... at the same time. Film music then, as now, often feels like two hands at a piano extrapolated out to a 100 instruments. It doesn't matter if you're name is Zimmer, Tyler, Powell or Shore.) Flutes! (This wasn't long after the 'no flutes' rejection of Alan Silvestri's Pirates of Caribbean, and while history will always be on Zimmer's side there, it was feeling like when John Williams left us, the woodwind player industry wouldn't survive.)

    And thanks to what seems like half the directors in Hollywood, that wasn't the end of it. The film industry, more than many industries, marches blindly into the future, mining present popularity at the expense of innovation. Occasionally a new idea gets clear air, and the endless imitation that follows is normally a sign of how hungry the makers of films are for a genuine opportunity to try new modes of expression. This time it took on a curious variation. The world has not been filled with Desplat imitators the way it was with Thomas Newman imitators... The cocktail seems difficult to distil. All they can do is hire the man himself, and they do. In 2004, I didn't think American film music would be as interesting as it is in 2014.
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    •  
      CommentAuthorCobweb
    • CommentTimeApr 22nd 2014
    Is Timmer OK?

    He seems to be posting an entry in here only once about every 2 weeks ...

    ... is #18 coming this week or next week?
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    oops shame
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    franz, thanks as always for the elaborate arguments. While Desplat either bores or grates on me 90% of the time, sometimes he does something I like. BIRTH is such a case. They keyword for that score, for me, is 'ornamentation'.
    I am extremely serious.
  7. It's not a bad word to put with it. 'Fairy tale' is one that often comes to mind for me as well.
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    # 18 coming today.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    Do it in your own time, Tim -- but obviously not too long between each.
    I am extremely serious.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    Thank you Thor beer

    BIRTH

    Great post Michael, agreed with a lot of what you wrote. It's a gorgeous score and as an album I seriously wonder and consider whether it could be in my top 50!?

    If it does my writing will be nowhere near as eloquently put, I'm far too lazy a writer. rolleyes wink
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd number 18....


    # 18 HEAVY METAL - ELMER BERNSTEIN


    It's worth pointing out to Mr Cobweb that this may be the nearest I get to an LP choice because it's the old LP presentation I love the most and what makes it such an enjoyable and complete listen compared with, the admittedly wonderful, FSM complete release which has many glorious moments missing from the LP which I'm very thankful for but also gets a tad bit tedious to sit all the way through.

    This is truly film music with balls, BIG BALLS, huge, thunderous, operatic even, and occasionally jazzy but chock full of great melody and proper themes, there's not one single second wasted on this album, a pure joy from beginning to end. I'd say this is probably my favourite score to an animated movie ever, yup! That's right kiddies, the likes of any animation score by Horner, Zimmer, Powell et al come nowhere near this classic in my opinion.

    I should also point out that the recording, done in an English church, is just magical and gives the score a real sense of breathing space, for a score that's cathedral-like in it's dimensions it's just perfect.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    Never seen the film, but I think I have a track on the BERNSTEIN ON BERNSTEIN compilation from Denon. Wasn't there a lot of actual heavy metal music in it?
    I am extremely serious.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014 edited
    From what I remember Thor, I don't think there was that much Heavy Metal in the film despite a double LP ( or was it just a fold-out? ) full of Black Sabbath, Nazareth, Blue Oyster Cult etc released commercially at the time. I could be wrong? I have only ever seen the film once and it's not very good, a case of great score shame about the film.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  14. Billy: Ol' Pat... Sheriff Pat Garrett. Sold out to the Santa Fe ring. How does it feel?
    Garrett: It feels like... times have changed.
    Billy: Times, maybe. Not me.

    My No. 18: is:

    Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid by Bob Dylan

    I love, love , love this film despite all its shortcomings. Sam Peckinpah is my second favourite western director after Sergio Leone. This film is so moody, so violent, so beautiful.

    In the reconstructed Director's Cut of the film they used the vocal version of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" isntead of the instrumental one used before. I did not like that decision because that song is so famous it takes you practically out of the movie. Anway, Dylon wrote a wonderful folky score for this film. There is one cue I miss on the album (There is only the LP presentation on CD.): When Billy surrenders to Garrett at the beginning of the film.

    This Cd is not much talked about on film music boards. The CD usually isn't even tagged as film music. When in a record store you will find it filed with Boby Dylan.

    Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014 edited
    I've never seen the film for some reason? ...and I like Peckinpah.

    However, I can't stand ( save a few exceptions ) Bob Dylan.

    As some here could already tell you, I worked with Bob for 3 days ( I was an extra in the film Hearts of Fire ), Bob did not impress me.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  16. I'm a casual listener when it comes to Dylan. I have only two Dylan CDs in my collection, but I don't turn off the radio when he comes up. More than with his music I am impressed with his lyrics. I seriously consider Dylan among the great English language lyricists of our time.

    I don't know if had had such a strong reaction to the music had I first heard it outside the film. As always my love for this music was ignited and catalysed by the film.
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014
    I love All Along The Watchtower......Jimi Hendrix version cool
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014 edited
    I have zero connection to that album, although I've seen it loads of times in record stores over the years. Bob Dylan is very on/off to me.
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeApr 23rd 2014 edited
    My pick:

    18. THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS (James Horner)

    As I mentioned earlier, it was a very tough call as to who I would put first -- this or AVATAR. Eventually, the Cameron epic won out for reasons previously expounded upon. But I have a more personal connection to this. Not necessarily because of the film, which is so-so (at times great, at other times a bit saccharine), but because of the ethereal beauty of tracks like "An Odd Discovery Beyond the Trees". No one can do emotional texture as well as Horner. Of particular notice is the recurring theme for the boy, which Horner himself described as a "Brahmsian lullaby" in my interview with him last year. I think that sums it up well.

    Usually Horner albums are a bit on the long side, but at 53 minutes this is just perfect. Each track is almost a mini-suite onto itself. Not a low point in the whole experience.
    I am extremely serious.
  20. The climax of that album is really quite something. Horner went a bit heavier on that one.
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    •  
      CommentAuthorCobweb
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2014
    #18: LES MISERABLES (1952) by Alex North, on Varese Club CD (2007).

    On my top 50 soundtracks, there're 5 titles with music by Alex North. No other composer has as many entries on my list as North does, but a few composers will appear thrice.

    LES MISERABLES is my 3rd favorite soundtrack by North, and it was written during what I consider to be North's initial peak period (that is, North's earliest 7 film scores that appeared throughout 1951 & 1952).

    The Varese CD contains only one "source" music cue (#11 called Magnificat), but, since it is a church choral piece that eminates from a background cathedral during the film's story, this is not incongruous with the score's orchestral tapestry and does not interrupt the listening experience as would other types of source music (such as dance tunes or popular songs).

    And what an orchestral tapestry Alex North did weave! Each track possesses qualities which enrapture me, but the longest cues have become my favorites with their elaborate aural frescoes and intricate continuity.

    The disc's showpiece (track #14) is entitled "Barricade" and lasts just under 12 minutes. Upon listening to this, one might think it could belong to North's CLEOPATRA from a decade later - such is the progressiveness/modernity of North's writing.
    Further outstanding passages are track #3's "This Is For Your Memory" (6:28) and cue 10's "Order, Order" (4:43). North's lovely theme for Cosette (Debra Paget) blossoms fully in track #13 (4:47).

    Not to ignore the shorter cues, though, permit me state that the briefest item (the 30 seconds of track #6) was recycled by North about 6 years later into his 1958 score for THE LONG HOT SUMMER! smile
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2014
    I've not seen this film or heard the score. I've just looked on Spotify and saw that it's there and will rectify that.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2014 edited
    Me neither, but I was vaguely familiar with the fact that North had scored a version of LES MIS. North does not feature on my list at all, but ONE of his scores was very close and is in the 'runner-up' list.
    I am extremely serious.
    •  
      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2014 edited
    So, it's time for a little catch-up, as I only got up to number three previously!
    All in all I have to say it's really quite HARD to get a proper top 50.
    At first I thought I'd never get fifty albums, getting stuck at thirty or so at most... but when push came to shove I took the a very long time whittling my 60+ list down to 51...and then nearly had a nervous breakdown trying to decide which ONE album I still needed to cut!

    It was Quo Vadis I finally cut (bleedin' Quo Vadis! Rozsa's Quo Vadis! Seriously, I feel like I've just had my left ear amputated!).
    I gather this choice will be even more of a surprise given some less-than-obvious choices on my list, but in the end I've tried and adhere as much as I could to Timmer's guidelines without making a very boring middle-of-the-geek-road list.

    For example, as they are a kind of "best of" compilation by definition, I eliminated any TV show albums, much as I enjoy them. So no Doctor Who, Mannix, Babylon 5, Young Indiana Jones or Peter Gunn (which I all play to death!).

    I also tried to keep the list as varied as possible. So while I could easily have filled the top ten with only Williams' Star Wars and Indiana Jones scores, or Morricone spaghetti western scores, I didn't.
    I just took the most iconic one as a kind of 'representative'.

    Additionally I had to cut some albums that contained scores I play all the time, simply because they were bundled with another score that I do not care for (this is why, for example, Prodromides' Le Voyage En Ballon and Delerue's Our Mother's House didn't make the cut, even though either would have been in my top ten otherwise).
    And then I cut scores I love but which I never play all the way through (this is how for example Williams' Superman and Schifrin's The Four Musketeers were dropped).

    As you can see lot of thought went into this. Which, I'm sure, everyone deeply appreciates.

    And so, after that fascinating insight into my troubled mind, I'll deliver the first ten shortly, accompanied by a mercifully brief justification for each.
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2014
    I look forward to it. smile
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
    •  
      CommentAuthorMartijn
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2014
    1. (recap) Ben-Hur - Miklos Rozsa (specifically the Decca Four release).
    Grade A listen. Five stars throughout. No lowlight. None.

    2. (recap) Conan The Barbarian - Basil Poledouris
    Couldn't have put it better than Timmer himself. It's an opera of a score. A true magnum opus.

    3. (recap) Return Of The Jedi - John Williams
    The most climactic and apotheotic of the Star Wars scores. Everything somes together, musically as well.

    4. Romeo & Juliet - Nino Rota
    For some it's just sickly sweet. To me it's the very epitome of young love. The deepest soaring heights and the absolutely abysmal despair. Rota catches both with a seeming ease that -to me- is unparalleled. The textures (and melodies) are hardly subtle, but then they shouldn't be. 'Cause, you know, it's only the most well-known and famous love story in history!
    If this can't move you, I venture you have no heart.
    Or at least no young heart. smile

    5. Jane Eyre - John Williams
    I'm such a sucker for Romanticism, and on this short album, Williams really shines: a thoroughly lovely main theme, revisited often, one of his strongest scherzo's (a musical figure he excels at) and beautiful writing for flute to easily rival any Delerue or Morricone.
    The score powerfully alternates the pastoral with the passionate, and as such is a riverting listen throughout.

    6. El Cid - Miklos Rozsa
    We will see some names pop up more than once, I'm afraid. smile
    What can I say about El Cid that I haven't already so many times?
    Arguably the composer's most passionate and one of the few scores where I can listen to each issue (original, expanded, rerecording) without without skipping anything. Every single track oozes blood, sweat and/or tears.

    7. Last Of The Mohicans - Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman
    It should be noted that I am talking about the original album release which divides equal attentions to Jones' and Edelman's contributions...which is the main reason why it works so very well. A MUCH less intricate score than any of the previously mentioned, and certainly not a classic...but what an album. Jones' spellbinding, slow-building theme sets the tone and mood perfectly, and then, just when things might start to get a little too monothematic, Edelman's more modern-sounding material kicks in rounding the album off most satisfactorily.
    One of the finest produced albums in soundtrack history. Inspired and a brilliant listen.

    8. Andes To Amazon - Nicholas Hooper
    Sometimes it still happens: being completely and utterly blindsided in the world of soundtracks. This is one such occasion. This score to a BBC documentary absolutely soars with Southamerican majesty, panache and -maybe most importantly- joie de vivre. It's always the rawest of emotion that hits home hardest with me in music (I appreciate subtlety and intelligence, don't get me wrong. But given the choice, raw emotion will get me every time.), and this album just oozes with it! And it's all positive! Most, if not all, tracks are in a major key, which powerfully endorses a positive feeling, and there's no doubt clearlya lot of love went into the composition.
    Love this one. Love it!

    9. Walk On The Wild Side - Elmer Bernstein
    There are more Bernstein jazz scores on my list, but this one struck such a note that it has to end up in my top ten.
    I won't lie: it's mainly to do with the absolutely haunting, brilliant main theme (which I first heard many decades ago in a spellbinding arrangement by the legendary Oliver Nelson (who did much of the arranging for Count Basie) starring Jimmy Smith).
    I never knew -until that very point- that jazz could be different from fourties' swing or sixties bebop. Those punctuating chords in the bridge are like a hammer to the pleasure centre of my brain!
    And it sure as hell put Elmer Bernstein on my radar as something more than a western composer.
    So yeah, it's mainly here for sentimental reasons.
    But even if it's sometimes an uneven listen with the (excellent) dramatic tracks alternating with the (awesome) jazz cues, fuck me, it's still a fantastic album.

    10. For A Few Dollars More - Ennio Morricone
    There's GOTTA be a Morricone in the top ten, and this score I find the composer's very finest in his redefinition of western music.
    So many themes in so many layers: the diegetic use of the "horloge tune" just being one (and a very clever and powerful one, working seemlessly into the dramatic Goodbye Colonel cue tying it directly to his loss). And while the main theme isn't as iconic as The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, the punctuating mouth harp and the shrill whistle leading into a fantastic melody line are still most memorable in its own right (especially in the film after the initial, long drawn-out scene that features a senseless and anonymous killing).
    'no passion nor excitement here, despite all the notes and musicians' ~ Falkirkbairn
  27. Thor wrote
    Me neither, but I was vaguely familiar with the fact that North had scored a version of LES MIS.


    Quite honestly I wasn't. This is intriguing because I already have the versions by Honegger and Poledouris. (And I have a highlights album of the musical, London cast.) I love collecting scores that are based on the same story.

    Volker
    Bach's music is vibrant and inspired.
    • CommentAuthorTimmer
    • CommentTimeApr 25th 2014 edited
    I love your top 10 Martijn, not a dud there in my not always humble opinion and one or two that feature in my future choices.

    Kudos on mentioning the brilliant Oliver Nelson, it kills me that his fantastic, incredibly exciting work on The Six Million Dollar Man is unlikely to see the light of day.
    On Friday I ate a lot of dust and appeared orange near the end of the day ~ Bregt
  29. I think I need to go back to 1 and start again. Or my list of 4 to 10 will basically co-opt entries from Martijn's list. smile I think I'm probably consciously focusing on the titles that wouldn't normally come up, but which I have spent a lot of time with as albums. Of course Empire Strikes Back, The Good the Bad and the Ugly and etc are the best soundtracks of all time. smile
    A butterfly thinks therefore I am
    •  
      CommentAuthorThor
    • CommentTimeApr 26th 2014
    For my own part, I went purely personal -- which meant leaving out a LOT of soundtracks that are hailed as all-time best by most people. I don't think I have ANY Morricone on the list, for example.
    I am extremely serious.

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