Battle: Los Angeles
Brian Tyler
" note to myself for the morning: copy myself ... again! "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
Battle Los Angeles was a stereotypical alien invasion spectacle that turned out to deliver enough fun for a Saturday afternoon watch, preferably with a big bad ass sound system. Why? So you can experience the music for what it delivers. Namely big orchestral music. Sounds tempting does it? Well it might if you're a Brian Tyler fanatic, because what you get is stereotypical Brian Tyler music. Expect of him 2 themes, enough percussion and brass to last the entire LA coast line and a soundtrack experience that once again goes for the record running time on a CD. Meaning, you've heard it all before of him, making him the most unoriginal voice of Hollywood as we know it. But I still like Battle LA for what it is.
Yes I hate it when I want to say nothing but bad stuff but can't. Battle LA is so unoriginal that I still appreciate it for what it is. It's big, it's loud and the 2 themes are again easy like able tunes that do share so much similarity with all the themes (especially Partition and Children of Dune) that Brian Tyler wrote before it, and will write after it. Making my review pointless considering I could copy / paste a review of dozens of Brian Tyler soundtracks here and it really wouldn't differ much. I mean why do I have so much compassion for a score that lacks everything I hate about a composer? Because Tyler keeps it enjoyable during most of the tracks.
So, here goes. You have 2 themes, a main theme and a heroic theme. They appear a lot throughout the score. Performed by an orchestra and an occasional choir or guitar, they don't differ much from one another. They are even found around loads of percussion thumps, blazing brass and soothing guitar twangs. It sounds pompous, energetic, gloomy and resolving throughout. And between all this you don't get a single moment where you say to yourself: "this I haven't heard before".
I know this review doesn't give you anything you wanted to hear, but when a score delivers me nothing I haven't heard before, then it's pointless to write about it. I admire Brian Tyler for actually taking the time to write a copy / paste job, but even he has to realize that this is like everything he's written before in his career. Where's the inventiveness? Where's the creative new idea? The approach of trying to do it differently? None of that is here, so why write about it? Plain and simple Battle Los Angeles is fun, and I can guarantee you that you've already heard it before you've actually heard it. And still I enjoy it.
Note to myself: copy / paste this review for Fast Five!
Tracklisting
1. Battle Los Angeles Hymn (2.32)
2. Battle Los Angeles Main Theme (4.18)
3. Arrival (2.13)
4. Marines Don't Quit (2.48)
5. Command and Control Center (3.44)
6. Elegy (4.59)
7. Redemption (8.27)
8. For Home, Country and Family (4.02)
9. War Hymn (2.28)
10. Evac (3.12)
11. To Hell and Back (6.27)
12. Mobilized (5.08)
13. The Freeway (1.56)
14. The Drone (3.07)
15. Casualty of War (1.37)
16. Rebalance (1.27)
17. Regret (1.28)
18. Shelf Life (2.33)
19. The World is at War (1.41)
20. Abandoning Los Angeles (5.11)
21. Battle Los Angeles (5.39)
22. We Are Still Here (3.15)
Total Length: 77.56
Yes I hate it when I want to say nothing but bad stuff but can't. Battle LA is so unoriginal that I still appreciate it for what it is. It's big, it's loud and the 2 themes are again easy like able tunes that do share so much similarity with all the themes (especially Partition and Children of Dune) that Brian Tyler wrote before it, and will write after it. Making my review pointless considering I could copy / paste a review of dozens of Brian Tyler soundtracks here and it really wouldn't differ much. I mean why do I have so much compassion for a score that lacks everything I hate about a composer? Because Tyler keeps it enjoyable during most of the tracks.
So, here goes. You have 2 themes, a main theme and a heroic theme. They appear a lot throughout the score. Performed by an orchestra and an occasional choir or guitar, they don't differ much from one another. They are even found around loads of percussion thumps, blazing brass and soothing guitar twangs. It sounds pompous, energetic, gloomy and resolving throughout. And between all this you don't get a single moment where you say to yourself: "this I haven't heard before".
I know this review doesn't give you anything you wanted to hear, but when a score delivers me nothing I haven't heard before, then it's pointless to write about it. I admire Brian Tyler for actually taking the time to write a copy / paste job, but even he has to realize that this is like everything he's written before in his career. Where's the inventiveness? Where's the creative new idea? The approach of trying to do it differently? None of that is here, so why write about it? Plain and simple Battle Los Angeles is fun, and I can guarantee you that you've already heard it before you've actually heard it. And still I enjoy it.
Note to myself: copy / paste this review for Fast Five!
Tracklisting
1. Battle Los Angeles Hymn (2.32)
2. Battle Los Angeles Main Theme (4.18)
3. Arrival (2.13)
4. Marines Don't Quit (2.48)
5. Command and Control Center (3.44)
6. Elegy (4.59)
7. Redemption (8.27)
8. For Home, Country and Family (4.02)
9. War Hymn (2.28)
10. Evac (3.12)
11. To Hell and Back (6.27)
12. Mobilized (5.08)
13. The Freeway (1.56)
14. The Drone (3.07)
15. Casualty of War (1.37)
16. Rebalance (1.27)
17. Regret (1.28)
18. Shelf Life (2.33)
19. The World is at War (1.41)
20. Abandoning Los Angeles (5.11)
21. Battle Los Angeles (5.39)
22. We Are Still Here (3.15)
Total Length: 77.56