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NP: Battlestar Galactica (1978) + Daybreak (2009)

The Lords of Kobol smiled on Stu Phillips and Bear Mccreary when they wrote the opening and closing musical chapters for this Saga of a Star World. I'd really had liked to see Mccreary score Villeneuve's DUNE. Hans Zimmer in Interstellar mode should be interesting all the same.

Volker

It's ridiculous. Silvestri used to be such a good album arranger, but in the last few years he has really gone overboard with the length of his soundtracks. The COSMOS stuff, READY PLAYER ONE, the Marvels etc.

PROJECT X - James Horner

My first listen to this score ever. I’m really glad Intrada rereleased it. It’s fun to here the genesis of some of his other scores here (MIGHTY JOE YOUNG clearly got its sound from this one, and even THE ROCKETEER has some of its origins here, I think). He also taps into some of the same wonder that you get in COCOON. It’s crazy to me that “Flying” wasn’t on the original score album.

I'm older than you, young one. Never heard of that film, much less the score.

Listened to this twice yesterday and think it’s excellent. But I won’t usually have that long so need a compressed playlist ASAP (primarily because I want to listen to it again tonight but will only have an hour or so). Some wonderful highlights in there.

Here's one James if you still need it: https://open.spotify.com/user/king...ju … pUNXjOIWWw

Got it down to 1 hr 8 min, tried not to just take out action cues and kept a good mix I think, but there's probably a few that you could still cut.

It's a great album.

Raksin is woefully underrepresented on disc. I'd love a soundtrack of THE REDEEMER.

I was super excited when we got The Force Awakens, and spent many months listening to it... but I've since fallen out of love with it. It's great on paper, but much like the films, there's no magic, no fantasy. It's hollow. If I'm in the mood for a John Williams action score, it isn't bad. If I'm in the mood for Star Wars, it doesn't cut it.

The Last Jedi has even less heart/magic/call-it-what-you-will than The Force Awakens. Although it's still a John Williams score and retains a minimum level of quality we would expect, it's easily the worst Star Wars score (and that includes many of the non-John Williams Star Wars scores). Williams is a professional and will write decent music no matter the film, but clearly the shitshow that was The Last Jedi had absolutely no emotional impact on him, and it shows. I rarely revisit The Last Jedi, and even The Force Awakens is getting far less 'spins' these days.

It's always exciting to hear new Williams, but my expectations for what will probably be the last Star Wars score from him aren't exactly astronomical. The fact that other composers write more interesting scores is a testament to the fact that these new Star Wars films are shit.

tl;dr Disney sucks.

The Force Awakens still remains one if the best scores of the century. There’s so much magic, fantasy, excitement and drama. The themes are brilliant especially Rey’s, which is one of the saga’s best.

-Erik-

My opinion's pretty close to Erik's. I love it.

NP: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Suite - John Williams

Symphonic suite based upon "the Disney themed land". It's ok.

NP: TOLKIEN - THOMAS NEWMAN

I’m liking this. A lot.

Oooh! I didn't knew. Newman is so off the radar to me, even though he's one of my favourite composers. He is rarely scoring high profile stuff.

I've known about this for a while. Listening to it now; it's pretty good. Better than I had expected -- much better than SAVING MR. BANKS, which I expected this to sound like.

It's like a more serious Saving Mr. Banks. A good mix of slow and rhythmic ideas, as per usual, but with a far more somber tone overall. The use of choir - the London Voices - is really quite lovely (and a rare touch for Newman) and it works beautifully with the rest of his typical palette. Some cues are frustratingly short but, hey, it's Newman.