[Closed] Now Playing XLVII

I sampled this album on some website, and I absolutely DUG what I heard. I've never been a big Carpenter buff, but always fancied his minimalistic themes. And in this 'fresh' and updated remix sound (that also pays respect to the original compositions), he's probably never been more relevant to me.

Yes, and very good it is too. ( I have Downton Abbey The Essential Collection )

As for the show, I watched the first series and got part way through the second before I gave up on this unrealistic silliness. It's basically a classily produced soap opera.

I have the same album as Timmer. Nice TV scoring! I found the first few episodes mildly promissing but quickly lost interest.

Volker

I thought the only Varese release of this was a rerecording in which case this is the complete score, though I believe it only adds a few more minutes. Minus the Racmaninoff piece the score doesn't run much over 35 minutes.

( the original score was released on MCA )

Downton Abbey falls deep into the Guilty Pleasure category. It's a soap, but indeed a fine production with easy-to-love-or-hate actors and a great setting to fall in love with.

If you like the music, try out its sibling, Grantchester, also by Lunn, which has a slightly darker approch at times, but fits in perfectly (I don't have the album, but loved what I heard while watching the series).

Now to Jupiter Ascending...

This one will need a lot more spins, for many different reasons.

I have always had my difficulties warming up to a new Giacchino score. Usually, I like moments. Certain tracks. A motif here, a theme there, but I always have a hard time to deeply fall in love with anything he does. Lost certainly has its tear-jerkers, Star Trek has a nice but in the end rather simple theme that got on my nerves fast because I couldn't get it out of my head. Super 8 must be the one score with those two themes I really connected with, and I still love them immensely.

While I loved the movie, I never gave John Carter more than one listen. Giacchino's action stuff just doesn't do anything for me, and I wasn't able to grab into any themes the score might have to offer. I just didn't get them, and here there was a movie so in need of a fantastic, rousing score. With good themes. Lots of.

Now, we have Jupiter Ascending, and I had to give up during the first listen. I didn't get it. It just rolled over me and did nothing for me, BUT this time I noticed that it needs time - and definitely the movie it has been written for. I gave it another try, this time a complete run, and I'm beginning to... well, not exactly warming up to it, but it doesn't feel so cold anymore.

How best to describe it...? Yes, it's all there. Big, loud orchestra. Choirs to make galaxies shudder. Heart-pumping action, eerie sounds. And yes, of course I noticed those... themes, if you want to call them that. But it doesn't grab me. It has nothing to offer that speaks out to my emotions in a way I can connect with. Yes, I hear those emotion-heavy tracks, but they feel empty to me. And that's what I get with most of his stuff. It all sounds big and rousing and pompous and such, but in the end, it just feels empty to me, but there is this tiny, little hook I hold on to this time, a feeling of warmth I'm not sure where it's coming from, but as I said, this one needs a movie. Since I'm gonna watch this over the weekend on a very big screen, I hope I come back humming something. Please?

I really enjoy DOWNTON ABBEY - the music and the TV show. Sure the plot is ridiculous (the show is basically one excruciating tragedy after another), and the characters aren't always consistent, but I really enjoy it nevertheless. The production values are great, and the dialogue is really excellent, especially as written for Maggie Smith's character. She's hilarious. I don't think there's a show currently running that I like more than DOWNTON, actually. And the music is just excellent.

Ralph, I think a great many people are going to disagree with your take on JUPITER ASCENDING, but I'm right there with you. I haven't finished my first whole listen to it yet, but I haven't been engaged by it. I wasn't a big fan of John Carter. There's just something his music when it's in this style that I don't connect with. Maybe repeated listens, and Anthony's playlist, will change my mind.

On the melodic side I feel Giacchino's music is a bit simplistic. But he makes up for it with many other qualities that he brings to to table. I needed quite a time to warm up to his music but he has won me over since he did STAR TREK.
JUPITER I believe is bound to join the ranks of great symphonic science fiction scores.

Volker

*sigh of relief*

But what popular object am I going to lambast now?

Star Trek Michael Giacchino

As impressive as Jupiter Ascending is, nothing quite matches 'Enterprising Young Men', or indeed the end titles suite.

The most frustrating aspect of Giacchino's music to me are the often simplistic harmonies that he uses, especially when accompanying one of his love themes. They just come across as trite to me. His action music is usually what I find the most engaging in his albums.

I agree with this. Their styles are massively different from one another and Giacchino is definitely more old-school, but he and Brian Tyler both have the same problem - they're capable of whipping up an excellent frenzy from the orchestra, but for some reason their themes always strike me as a bit too simplistic to keep up with the density of their writing. It's a lot more evident with Tyler, but Giacchino's no stranger to it either.

You speak the truth. The end titles suite is IMO one of the greatest such pieces of the new century by any composer.

giacchino can write really good themes and he is much better in that than brian tyler. giacchinos Medal Of Honor scores prove that. dont know why his themes for movies dont have the same great quality. although i really love his Super 8 theme and the Labour Of Love theme form Star Trek. these are maybe simple, but very melodic and intense.

I've often said that what I miss in Giacchino's scores is some kind of acoustic reflection from the recording room; his stuff often sounds as dry as the Sahara, and I really hate that, especially when you want to capture the vastness of space. It sounds as if they recorded the stuff in my wardrobe. It took away all the fun I could have had with Star Trek. His LOST stuff works for me because it's the small screen, where I somehow don't find the "drought" too annoying.

Labor of Love compared to those two lovely Super 8 themes is a completely different animal. Labor of Love - like the whole scene - never ever got me. I'm a massive Kirk fan (talking TOS here), but still the whole scene left me cold, and I'd bet everything that it's the score. It's too frakking small, both reagrding to orchestrations and recording. It sounds as if they recorded it in the very shuttle. Super 8, on the other hand, feels far better on every level. A lot more powerful and hitting all the right spots. Still too dry, but it just clicks.

Now off to give Jupiter its third spin...

Edit: Damn it, now I know what that tiny little thing is that feels different about Jupiter: It's not dry. At all! At least the symphony isn't. Looking forward to the rest, and I hope it doesn't change.

This score is by far the best thing to come out of that film.