[Closed] Now Playing - Part XIV

Harry gregson williams is good creating soundscapes.

Try with the first minutes of "journey to the how".

funny, you talk about Elioth Goldenthal, because i think if Williams wanted to do some dissonant stuff in "indy 4" or "war of the worlds" is not so mind Blowing or interesting like Goldenthal could composer.

NP:First Knigh (Goldsmith )

After a lot of months without having a Goldsmith mood ( my second favourite all time composer) no I'm back in bussines.

I cry when I listen this kind of romantic stuff by goldsmith...I need Goldsmith here again!.

"Risk but not reaward" what a 52 seconds pieces!!!!!

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull John Williams

Not Williams' greatest score by any standard, but it is very enjoyable. I'm expecting I'll enjoy the album more after I've seen the film.

Next up, Powell's Horton. I love that score!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

The long anticipated Crystal Skull... At this moment there's not a single cue that I'm fond of. Jungle Chase is pretty good though. Not that the music is bad, I was just hoping for more thematic, adventurous music. The suspense is boring me.

Nah... basically the same thing.

Anyway, after listening to highlights from ALL four Indiana Jones scores I've moved onto a little playlist featuring some random tunes from films that I just so happened to catch on TV during the past few days.

"The Ultimate War and Remembering Neverland"
from HOOK (John Williams) <-- Absolutely love this score.

"Going Home"
from THE DEVIL'S OWN (James Horner) <-- Love the theme.

"Fawkes the Phoenix - The Chamber of Secrets - Spiders - Dueling the Basilisk"
from HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS (John Williams) <-- Brilliant theme and action material

"The Whomping Willow And The Snowball Fight - Quidditch, Third Year - Mischief Managed"
from HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (John Williams) <-- Extraordinary effort that reminds me of his work in the 70's and 80's with a doze of modern Williams hear and there.

-Erik-

I've yet to comprehend all these statements of Prince Caspian being a retread of the first score. Apart from the direct rips (temp tracks are "fine" (barely) but leave them off the album), it has a completely different feel from the first score.

Pretty much agree. The new theme/motif for Caspian is generic and most of the new material is flat as well. There are some nice moments, but overall it's a definite let down.

YOU ARE EVIL!!!

-Erik-

How can it be that I FINALLY find a Harry Gregson-Williams score I really like when I usually find myself totally unmoved by his stuff - and everyone else who usually likes him, doesn't like it! I must admit I haven't heard the first score for a long, long time but I don't remember it being as good as this one.

I suppose I should actually listen to it all the way through before trying to pass opinion on it!

NP: Extreme Measures - Danny Elfman

If someone told me this was the score from an episode of Lost, I would believe them. Uses identical techniques, very similar orchestration, extremely similar music. And yet everyone hated it when it came out, and everyone ejaculates in their pants at the mere mention of Lost.

Back to the first score, I have now read my review to remind myself of what I thought about it, and I remember that what I thought was the same as I thought about Silvestri's Beowulf... this isn't awful, but if honestly this story only inspires you to write this, I wish you'd let someone else score films because you're never going to be a great film composer. There must be dozens of film composers out there who would sell their mothers on Ebay if they could get to score films like these, and would do such a better job of it.

That's one horrible mental image.

NP: WarGames - Arthur B. Rubenstein

The early synth cues/vocals are just horrible, but once I got past these there's some really interesting stuff. Nothing grand - sounds more like sneaking-about music - but there's some nice use of small ensembles.

I'm assuming that once the drama intensifies things will get a bit grander?

Just finishing off WarGames at the moment (playing "Winner None" (original version) - a musical sequence I remember from the movie) and it's not as bad as I first feared it would be. As I mentioned, the synth stuff is something I won't be returning to any time soon. But the way the score builds through a series of tense & atmospheric cues to the final dramatic sequences is the main stand out feature of this score for me.

I found that the music itself is competently handled, and I particularly like how Rubenstein uses the small-sounding orchestra.

Although on my first (quick) listen I couldn't find any cues that merited transferring to my mp3 player, I'll definitely be revisiting the cues again and transferring a few action-oriented cues over.