[Closed] Now Playing XXXIV

I liked Beowulf as well, very, very enjoyable - much more so than Van Helsing I think, primarily due to the theme in Beowulf I guess.

Finally, another listener!

A bit too synthy in places, but overall very enjoyable and with some noteworthy action cues.

Have you heard the score to Transporter 3? It's messier, but again has standout action music.

HUZZAH!!!

Transporter 2 had the best score. "T3" is more messy, and seems to be as disjointed as action on screen. And the awesome theme was barely used.

I'm trying to find more of Azaria music, hoping that he has a few more with the same approach, but have been largely disappointed.

The Arnold/Davis approach. An apt description, for sure.

NP: las 13 rojas (Banos)

Fairly lush romantic drama score.

Also listening to Lady in the Water (Newton Howard) and Moby Dick (Christopher Gordon) this morning. Both great scores, particularly the latter. Oh, for the world where Gordon scored LOTR.

Yeah, I have no problem with the mid-section of LADY. It tells a story.

I'm not talking about the film. I hear a story in the music.

I'm happy with Shore's monumental work but I have no doubt Gordon given the same time would have delivered the goods and then some.

I agree with you there Michael.
Gordon's music is superb.
One the very best around today!

I don't think Williams would have been a great choice for LOTR. His sensibility is a bit too modern these days.

I'll get shot for this, but here goes.

I listen to MOBY DICK, and I hear the way he develops his themes. There is not one lazy orchestration there -- he's finding great new ideas for every single presentation of the journey of the themes. Shore's scores are great, dense with repeated ideas, and achieve some incredible peaks. The three single disc albums are great. The scores do however fall into repetition after a while, particularly when you listen to the complete recordings, you hear how familiar the orchestrations get -- 70% of it is left hand - right hand under a good theme, or a grim bit of low string murmurring. It could be the intention was to sound like a pre-counterpoint world, but then most of the film's musical influences come from the late 1980s New Age music movement, so I think it's just a limitation on Shore's part.

There's great stuff, and quite a bit of development mind you (particularly in Aragorn's journey), but MOBY DICK is a richer musical journey, and none of it sounds like it was written by someone who was sitting at a piano. That LOTR score wouldn't have had to end with a quote from Wagner to attach a sense of artistic intent to the 9 hours of music -- it would have been punching at a near similar level for most of its running time.

Hey, it's an opinion, and the best thing for anyone who disagrees with it is that the scores as written will always be what they are, no matter what I imagine might have been.

I wholeheartedly agree. But apart 3 scores, i don't see that rule extending to any other works in Shore's career.

New score?

Have you listened to Scott´s "Expédition Jules Verne: A bord du trois-mâts Belem"? Another great score from this composer. I agree with you by the way, my admiration for Scott gets bigger with every work I discover.

NP: The Holiday - Hans Zimmer

<- I think this icon is the most suitable one for this score.

Lemony Snicket - Thomas Newman

One of those Newman scores that I like. Probably it has to do something with the - in case of Newman - above the average lenght of the majority of the tracks. His quirky style just fits this quirky movie. The usual heartbreaking theme at the end of the album is superb.