Live Free or Die Hard
Marco Beltrami
" Beltrami continues to revive the sounds of the past "Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release
Everybody assumed Die Hard with a Vengeance was the last movie that John McClane would get entangled in, but Len Wiseman resurrected the franchise in 2007, delivering you a Die Hard experience the world was just asking for. I had my doubts, especially after the brilliant Die Hard with a Vengeance movie, but Wiseman gave us enough thrills and spectacular action scenes to demand another refill from Willis (Die Hard 5 is coming in 2013). Now with Michael Kamen's passing in 2003, the world lost the composer that gave us the Die Hard sound. And considering Marco Beltrami did a reasonable decent job on Terminator 3, Wiseman used him as well on Die Hard 4 (especially considering both worked together on Underworld: Evolution before that).
Now, Varèse immediately reminds you that Beltrami wants to keep the memory of Kamen intact, especially when we open with "Out of Bullets" (indulging us immediately with Kamen's motif of the Die Hard movies). And this will occasionally happen in "Leaving the Apartment", "It's a Fire Sale", "Farrell to D.C.", "The Power Plant", "Landing" and "Cold Cuts" (probably the best Kamen tribute of all). And at the end of all that, you even receive a soft hopeful finale in "Aftermath".
For the rest, it's all Beltrami and it's all action. His typical rhythmic action moves, his expected fanfares, his percussive replies, it's all here fast and relentless. "Shootout", "Copter Chase", "Illegal Broadcast", "Hurry Up", "Cold Cuts", "Yippee Ki Yay" (the first 2 minutes are some of the best of the album) and "The F-35" will definitely give the action specialist a run for its money. It's above all noticeable that the more you near the end of the score, the more the action starts to progress.
Live Free or Die Hard is a decent action score, but hardly one I'll want to revisit a lot. It isn't music that makes a large impression, and mostly it's based on stuff we heard of the composer before. The Kamen influence is nice from a fan's point of view, but really not that important. And for the rest, we receive exquisite action material from a technical point of view, but hardly memorable as well. Once again is this a score that should have been trimmed to 30 to 35 minutes, making it at least do able if one needs to revisit it. Now you have 60 minutes of standard action music that's top notch in quality, but very similar as well.
Tracklisting
1. Out of Bullets (1.08)
2. Shootout (3.41)
3. Leaving the apartment (2.08)
4. Dead hackers (1.31)
5. Traffic Jam (4.13)
6. It's a Fire sale (2.57)
7. The Break-In (2.28)
8. Farrell to D.C. (4.36)
9. Copter Chase (4.41)
10. Blackout (2.03)
11. Illegal Broadcast (3.48)
12. Hurry up! (1.23)
13. The Power plant (2.01)
14. Landing (2.28)
15. Cold Cuts (2.00)
16. Yippee Ki Yay (4.43)
17. Break a Neck (2.47)
18. Farrell is in (4.22)
19. The F-35 (4.13)
20. Aftermath (3.12)
21. Live free or Die Hard (2.56)
Total Length: 63.19
Now, Varèse immediately reminds you that Beltrami wants to keep the memory of Kamen intact, especially when we open with "Out of Bullets" (indulging us immediately with Kamen's motif of the Die Hard movies). And this will occasionally happen in "Leaving the Apartment", "It's a Fire Sale", "Farrell to D.C.", "The Power Plant", "Landing" and "Cold Cuts" (probably the best Kamen tribute of all). And at the end of all that, you even receive a soft hopeful finale in "Aftermath".
For the rest, it's all Beltrami and it's all action. His typical rhythmic action moves, his expected fanfares, his percussive replies, it's all here fast and relentless. "Shootout", "Copter Chase", "Illegal Broadcast", "Hurry Up", "Cold Cuts", "Yippee Ki Yay" (the first 2 minutes are some of the best of the album) and "The F-35" will definitely give the action specialist a run for its money. It's above all noticeable that the more you near the end of the score, the more the action starts to progress.
Live Free or Die Hard is a decent action score, but hardly one I'll want to revisit a lot. It isn't music that makes a large impression, and mostly it's based on stuff we heard of the composer before. The Kamen influence is nice from a fan's point of view, but really not that important. And for the rest, we receive exquisite action material from a technical point of view, but hardly memorable as well. Once again is this a score that should have been trimmed to 30 to 35 minutes, making it at least do able if one needs to revisit it. Now you have 60 minutes of standard action music that's top notch in quality, but very similar as well.
Tracklisting
1. Out of Bullets (1.08)
2. Shootout (3.41)
3. Leaving the apartment (2.08)
4. Dead hackers (1.31)
5. Traffic Jam (4.13)
6. It's a Fire sale (2.57)
7. The Break-In (2.28)
8. Farrell to D.C. (4.36)
9. Copter Chase (4.41)
10. Blackout (2.03)
11. Illegal Broadcast (3.48)
12. Hurry up! (1.23)
13. The Power plant (2.01)
14. Landing (2.28)
15. Cold Cuts (2.00)
16. Yippee Ki Yay (4.43)
17. Break a Neck (2.47)
18. Farrell is in (4.22)
19. The F-35 (4.13)
20. Aftermath (3.12)
21. Live free or Die Hard (2.56)
Total Length: 63.19