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After Earth James Newton Howard

This is a 2013 score, but what might surprise some is it isn't Man of Steel by Hans Zimmer. This is actually an entirely different movie and score altogether, with a composer who isn't Hans Zimmer (well, yet).

Joking aside, there's some truly impressive material to be found in an otherwise boring album (I've made a pretty decent 30 minute album with a couple of edits here and there). Few scores hit such oxygen deprived heights while also reaching such insufferable lows.
Frustratingly wonderful stuff.

Sorry for going off topic in this Hans Zimmer thread. But I'm playing The Talented Mr Ripley which was composed by Gabriel Yared some era's ago. After the excellent concert last Saturday, which suprisingly for this time of the year didn't feature any electronic instrument, I had to hear it again.

It's one of my favourites of this non-Zimmer composer. Lullaby for Cain (performed by Sinead O'Conner) is as good as Zimmer's lullaby in The Prince of Egypt. I cannot deny I am often tempted to think of Hans Zimmer when listening to The Talented Mr Ripley, because, yes .., talented both are! That's why my post could be declared on-topic after all!

However, Yared seems to know a thing or two about themes too and I absolutely recommend this score to all Zimmer fans (and it's on Spotify, but only if you look for the album itself).

NP: Samples from Varese Sarabande: A 35th Anniversary Celebration, 2013

I think this is a thoughtful put together compilation. A 4-CD set for 20 €: You can do no wrong here.

About 20% of the scores represented here are part of my collection. So 80% I have not. Since one cannot collect everything, I regard this set a great extension of my collection.

I miss those best-of-the-year compilations VS used to do before Christmas during the 90s.

Volker

That was one of my biggest issues with the score. There are sections where the music is so intrusive that it's incredible distracting. That's not good film music.

-Erik-

Right, I forgot that most of the score was written before hand. Nolan's an idiot.

BTW, I enjoyed Zimmer's Inception as a stand alone listen, which I guess you might call a concert work inspired by the film (or the script or whatever) more so then a film score

-Erik-

The mix of INCEPTION is a curious issue. I also found when I saw it, there was a sense of strain to hear dialogue (particularly Ken Watanabe's). At other moments in the film, the music was incredibly loud in the cinema. It seems to have been a thing for some viewers but not others -- perhaps there was a quirk to the way it was mixed for 5.1 such that it played very differently in different spaces.

I personally have no issue with the use of a suite of music composed prior to the edit as a score, since its worked as many times to help a film as any other method. No fan of the greatest films scored by Ennio Morricone or Georges Delerue could disagree. Just because post-scoring is a Hollywood norm doesn't make it normal.

Okaaaaayy then... the national guard has been recalled. A bout of morning earnestness there on my part.

THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY

...is a bloody wonderful album, I love the mix of score and period tracks, it's brilliant and very surprisingly ( no, be still your beating hearts for I doth speak the truth ) it's not by Hans Zimmer, shocking YES? But also true.

Bregt, I recommend you also try RIPLEY'S GAME, shockingly it's a superb score that's not written by Hans Zimmer. It's written by ENNIO MORRICONE who, even amongst film score fans, only a very few people have heard of.

Fantastic! I hadn't heard of this news before now! The 25th anniversary celebration albums were wonderful and I discovered tons of goodies because of them. Gotta get my hands on this new one.

Peter

Same here, although I think Inception works great in the movie (I watched it at home and had no problems with the sound mix, I could understand everything quite well), and "Time" is a fantastic track (especially when attached to that Charlie Chaplin speech ), but TDK was much better. Pirates 3, though, didn´t leave my car player for weeks, which is my personal greatness criteria. ^^

I haven't heard either of Ennio Morricone before but will check it out. So not unsurprisingly, it's not on Spotify.

In my continued quest to play Zimmer related scores:
BAND OF BROTHERS | michael kamen

Its sequel was composed by Neely and Zimmer and friends, so it seems obvious that Kamen's score is directly connected with Hans Zimmer. It's one of those scores that starts of with a fantastic couple of tracks, then gets a bit of peace and takes on again for almost the whole album. Parapluie, Boy eats Chocolate, Plaisir d'Amour, ... All such a heartbreaking beautiful tracks.

Actually, the scene during Boy eats Chocolate reminds me of a story of my 92 year old grandma. When their village was liberated during WWII, she told about the soldiers that passed through and they were all happy and smoking. They also brought chocolate. Some incredible stories she has!

Nothing can stop me. Next in row is the dark score for PANIC ROOM by Howard Shore. For obvious reasons, this score is undoubtedly related to the composer of this thread. I liked this score a lot in the film, especially the main titles sequence, which really sets the mood. It's often bigger then you'd expect for this type of movie (which is a bit Shore's style anyway). Lots of brass bursts and deep and low strings. The album is also shorter then the duration of some of Zimmer's recent tracks, which is a contradictory connection.

I think you're reinforcing for yourself that Zimmer is actually very good sometimes after having endured his appalling MAN OF STEEL score

Bingo!

-Erik-