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Great score and film.

The Debt - Thomas Newman

Like many of his scores, this is terribly underrated. It's basically a much more restrained precursor to what would become Skyfall.

One of my favourite war movies ever made.

NP: PROMISED LAND (Danny Elfman)

This is the kind of Elfman I love these days, not the noisefests of MEN IN BLACK 3 and similar fare. More in line with the Serenada Schizophrana approach. Love the 10-minute recording sessions track, complete with Elfman's guidance!

It's one of the first films I went to see without my parents. It bored the shit out of me! I was 11 years old at the time and at that age you want lots of action, not lots of talking, because of that I avoided the film for years. Now I also think it's one of the best war films ever made.

Brian Tyler - Eagle Eye

So now we come to what's my favourite Brian Tyler score. It also helps that a long time after dubbing it my favourite I watched the quite decent (if stupid) movie. The music gave it a lot of tension, I would give it 4 and half stars for the music as heard in the film. The avant-garde moves, which I think Tyler ditched for the next few years are great. Some wonderful dissonance in this one.

The album is not without its problems, though somewhat the 70+-minute amount of the music *is* works better for me than in rest of the character. The main theme is a bit of a Crimson Tide lift, there is also some John Powell in the underscore/suspense writing. A usual problem with Tyler's music is that I think he doesn't layer his music too well. This got better with The Expendables 2. He tends to throw everything including the kitchen sink and while his writing may be very layered (if you listen into the details he has a quite fiery sense of action trumpet writing, very motivic and rhythmic at the same time), I lose all the layers because of the sheer amount of them mixed loudly or overly silently (if you want your woodwinds to be heard, either mix them or write them louder than you tend to do). This time it also works better, because the additional layers in this one are often very dissonant (and I always liked Tyler's dissonant string glissandi) which adds to the excitement of the action music. There is simply a bigger sense of drama than just writing for the fun of it.

One thing I observed with myself about Tyler's memorability. I stand by what I said about Brian Tyler being a weak thematic writer. Very often after repeated listens I may get a glimpse of the thematic material of a composer. In Tyler's case I remember his rhythmic patterns much better than I do his themes. Again, things started to change for the better, in this case it was Battle: LA. In Eagle Eye the not so strong thematic material fits well with the overall sound, better than with, what I think, he usually tries to achieve with his music, stylistically.

I think the only Tyler theme I remember easily off the top of my head is the Partition theme...I wish he would do more scores like that, although I love his action writing. I understand that its very derivative of something else, but since I don't know whatever its derivative of, it works for me

But yes, I agree that most of his themes are very unmemorable. I mean, I know them if I hear them but I can't remember them without listening to them. Like I know I love his theme for Rambo and Children of Dune but I can't hum them to myself...I can't even remember the Expendables theme even though I was just listening to The Expendables 2 a lot last month.

Yes. Be sure to see the movie. The score sounds wonderful in it; Mendes and Newman are a dream team.

It's raining and it's foggy outside a perfect time to listen to one of my favorite scores of all time:

The Village - James Newton Howard

I saw the trailer the other day, at the cinema, and i thought the score would fit very nicely; seemed like a very witty film, can't wait to watch it

Hans Zimmer - Broken Arrow

Fun at its purest.

NP : THEMEPENDIUM - John Barry


Superb 4 CD box set of mostly original recordings, many familiar and some rarities. When it comes to themes Barry may have a small handful of equals but he has no betters.

It's gorgeous, the score; let us know if the movie goes beyond the religious fluffs.

n.p. CLINTON SHORTER - District 9

I think this man should be offered way more projects; it's very interesting how he's both modern, at times edgy and at the same time wholly melodic and thematic. Why can't more composers combine modern elements with actual music like he does here, instead of the dubstep electronic noise-crap we get as scores nowadays? The excuse is always 'the director / producer' wanted it to sound 'modern' but where does it says that modern= noise? The other day i was trying to listen to - an otherwise promising composer's - new score, Jason Graves' ZombiU and only made it to track 2...

Religious fluffs made me the man I am today.