Now Playing L

I feel that these judgements are predicated somewhat on the “cut it down to the highlights” mentality that seems lately to have dominated the film music community. JNH understands that in order for the big moments to be truly big, there needs to be contrast, there needs to be subtle, more atmospheric cues as well. Contrast and ambiguity seem neglected these days in favor of music that spells out every action on screen. I can enjoy that, of course, but I do prefer music that shows diversity. I have a hard time enjoying a movie that sticks with a single tone throughout, and I feel the same about music.

There’s many leitmotifs he develops during the subtle cues that make them worthwhile. They might not be apparent on the first listen, but I’d say the scores are just as dense with themes as Powell’s Dragons, albeit less ostentatious themes.

To be fair to JNH, with the Hunger Games series there aren't exactly a lot of powerful emotional undercurrents and subtexts for his music to latch onto and produce more interesting "underscore" in the contrasting, non-highlight sections of the films. It's pretty much just doom and gloom and grimdark and unrealistically flat characters and relationships. IMO anyway. I know some people see more in the series than I do and I don't mean to try to deflate anyone's enjoyment.

Yes, but it is essentially a dystopia story. It doesn't even have an all to too optimistic ending. There is a lot of gloom and melancholy. That given, JNH has done great.

Volker

There have been mentions that it's not exactly the same material. Is it true?

There are complaints the arrangements are different.

I'm not sure I care that much for the source piece or the early "wild" demos.

Listening to my Marvel playlist (anyone who says this series doesn't have great themes in it is talking bollocks) and it strikes me that the most traditionally heroic theme in the whole thing is possibly Patrick Doyle's for Thor. (And Silvestri's for Captain America I guess.) Wish there was a great new theme in Infinity War. I've heard people talk about Thanos's theme but I haven't got a clue where that might be on the album.

A little correction here: The Piano source Piece is there on the new album. It's called "Charlie tries to Hug Raymond". What you are missing are those two early demos. I wouldn't see that as a problem.

Volker

I think the "marvel has bad music" attitude that seems so strangely commonplace is the fault of that horrifically ignorant video essay that came out called "The Marvel Symphonic Universe" that got over 4 million views on YouTube, and gets cited whenever people are talking about why "marvel music isn't memorable". The video essay argued Marvel's music isn't memorable because it follows temp tracks and plays with and not against the emotions on screen, which has to be perhaps the worst explanation I can think of... considering how many heavily temp tracked scores rank among the most memorable scores of all time (Star Wars, anyone?) and how many of the most memorable scores do often enunciate what is happening instead of playing against it (Lord of the Rings, anyone?)

There was also a "response" video to that essay that argued that the reason Marvel's music wasn't memorable was because it "didn't have any melodies", which leads me to believe that the creator of the video had not listened to a single marvel score.

Continuity, as Steven pointed out, or the lack of it, seems the much simpler explanation.

God of War - Bear McCreary

Having just finished the magnificent game, I'm convinced this is one of the few masterpieces of 2018. The album is a little too long but in game, it is completely flawless, making me tear up on several occasions. Pruning the album down to about an hour makes it a five-star score.

(I also really liked Cloverfield Paradox so this has been a strong McCreary year so far.)

That's rather offensive to say about one of our time's greatest film composers. He's done many great scores, both pre- and post-Hollywood, but yeah -- I agree that's a great one. One of the best last year in general.

Exploring Rahman is like a neverending journey. You never know what gem you'll stumble across (and with more than 170 credits, there's a LOT of stuff to explore).

I'll recommend some titles once I get my music in order.