Intrada Soundtrack Forum

10/4/08

There will be just one new release from us on Tuesday the 7th. (We'll post the details the evening before, as usual.) My MVH (Jeff, affectionately known around here as my "most valuable hamster") tells me the backlog from having two fast sellers last week (THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, GHOST WARRIOR) plus the arrival of multiple new club goodies from Varese Sarabande means the mailroom will be really... busy. (He had other words in there but I'll keep this G-rated.) Anyway, the lone Intrada release is a must-have in my opinion. It's got intensity to spare. Gotta love that cover, too! For bean counters, there are 3000 copies to go around.

Speaking of beans... I mean, Jeff... he'll be on vacation for a couple of weeks come the 13th. He's earned it. The rest of us will cover the slack but be warned... we'll be playing some catch-up while he's away since the final batch of BOYS FROM BRAZIL also arrive. We may even continue with our every-other-Tuesday release schedule while he's away but probably with just one (on the 21st) since the rest of us aren't as fast on our feet as Jeff. Okay, Roger's fast on his feet but he rarely wraps packages anyway. And George and Steve are pretty quick, too. It's me that'll be slowing things down. I admit it. Oh, well... I'll just hit Jeff with all the back-orders when he gets back!

10/16/08

I appreciate you folks hanging in there. We just got the final shipment of BOYS FROM BRAZIL back in stock. Along with SPECIES (and assorted other recent releases), we're pretty well swamped with back-orders to process. And with store manager Jeff on a well-deserved cruise for two weeks, us remaining hamsters have our work cut out for us. If you're waiting for a package, it'll be in your hands very soon.

I, of course, say this with complete confidence... and crossed fingers. But I'll run back to the mailroom now in any case and pop back over here when I can come up for air.

10/20/08

We'll have a pretty cool new release to offer on Tuesday. We'll make our customary posting right here this evening, around 5:15 pm our time. Orders will begin shipping tomorrow. It's a reasonably powerful score so there should be an audience. Check out the samples when we post the CD and see if it doesn't grab you just a little. There will be 3000 copies to spread around, too. Anyway, see you this evening.

10/29/08

My take on the latest James Bond music. If I'm steppin' on some toes, sorry.

Early James Bond music had character. We had a sound, we had great tunes. Everything felt just right.

Not this time. I speak without having yet seen QUANTUM OF SOLACE. But movie music is marketed as a stand-alone entity. It's okay to talk about it that way.

David Arnold gives QUANTUM OF SOLACE plenty of energy, plenty of color, plenty of flavor - but not much melody. The title song (written by Jack White, performed White & Alicia Keyes) is... well, it's just there. It surely didn't inspire Arnold in any case.

On the other hand, Arnold throws so many different ideas into his action music that it's hard to grab a hold of any one item. One idea just runs pell mell into another. It's like musical freefall. Cool stuff sometimes, but structurally sound... I don't know.

I think Bond music should fit the character like the suit he wears. It should be consistent. A strong theme should carry 007 from one locale to another. The film makers wouldn't dream of having Bond's suit change from one cut to the next. If he's going up a hill in a black car, he wouldn't suddenly be coming down the hill in a red one. You get the idea.

And maybe that's what bothers me here. Bond music should be like... well, like the other foreground elements of the movie. Right there, up front. It's not background music. It shouldn't be. When I watch early Bond movies the themes are part of everything. The tunes carry Bond up the hill and consistently bring him right back down again. Or whatever. But what we get with QUANTUM OF SOLACE is just what I think most background music's become today. There are thumps and whumps and it all does whatever the action on screen wants it to but it's in the background. It doesn't carry anything. It isn't a character anymore. Not at least with James Bond. And if there were ever true foreground movie scores, James Bond scores get to make the claim. (So do Leone-Morricone-Eastwood movie scores but that's another subject.)

Anyway, this new score has exciting moments to be sure. I wasn't thrilled about the album's overall architecture but maybe seeing the movie will explain this. That aside, it all starts out with a bang and ends with a whimper. Not what I want my Bond music to do. By the end, the score just peters out. Having a mediocre song play as a coda adds to my internal confusion.

James Bond has given us some historically important movie music over the past four decades. I can easily recall a lot of great tunes and pin them to great set pieces, various plots, you name it. But I'm not sure I'll remember the tunes in QUANTUM OF SOLACE four years from now, much less forty.

I'll just sum it up this way. Put YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE or ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE or GOLDFINGER or just take your pick up against QUANTUM OF SOLACE. It's sad to find that James Bond music has truly moved over the last forty years from the foreground to the background.

Shame on somebody!