Intrada Soundtrack Forum

_________________
http://www.mjefilms.com

_________________

_________________
"If music doesn`t sing, or dance, or have an interesting harmonic concept, then it shouldn`t be there at all. A film score should burn with its own fire, not merely glow in the dark like a pretty charcoal." – John Barry, 1972

I would say 2006 finally turned out to be above average as far as current scores go. I'm still eagerly awaiting The Good German by Thomas Newman and Alexandre Desplat's The Painted Veil. Two superior scores from master composers. Early buzz on these two scores is quite enthusiastic.

Lots of movies. Pleny of albums. Score albums, compilations, inspired from albums, downloadable stuff, yo name it... But in the end, fewer genuinely affecting scores. Composers are not to blame. Maybe it's just the movies themselves. Who knows?

I'm no big Hans Zimmer fan but I must admit his score for the much reviled Da Vinci Code made for an eminently listenable album. Powerful, quite complex when dig deeper into into it. Wow! So was James Horner's All the King's Men. Familiar territory for the composer, to be sure, but this was quite a powerful score. Apocalypto proved he's still willing to experiment, come up with a fresh approach.

James Newton Howard also delivred the goods with his magical Lady in the Water. For a moment I thought he was channeling Jerry Goldsmith's spirit. I have yet to see the movie it was composed for in the first place. But without the visuals, the music worked wonders for me while reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials last summer.

Patrick Doyle contributed two fine scores, one for Richard E. Grant's autobiographical Wah-Wah (technically, a 2005 entry) and the other being the epic Eragon.
early fall brought us two very classy scores: Mark Isham's The Black Dahlia followed by Alexandre Desplat's sensitive The Queen.

Europe gave us Alberto Iglesias' beautiful score for Pedro Almodovar's Volver. And at 78, Ennio Morricone's La Sconosciuta proved the Maestro is still on the top of his game.

IMHO some of the bigger blockbster scores leave me strangely wanting. Superman Returns by John Ottman had a big orchestra and even bigger orchestrations but although it was really nice here and there, in the final analysis it doesn't hold a candle to John William's grand original. Ditto X men - the Last Stand by John Powell. But maybe it's just my personal musical taste at this stage in my life. Maybe the big super hero music has been done to death by now. Time for a change, maybe?

Anyway, here's to a wonderful next year. May it bring many great sounds behind the silver screen.

Cheers!

_________________
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Wow, lots of things from 2006 for me... only I didn't pay for all of them, a good chunk were sent to me.

La Sconosciuta ***** (year's best)
Tideland *****
Superman Returns ****
X-Men: The Last Stand ****1/2
The Black Dahlia *****
The Da Vinci Code *****
Firewall ****
Wah-Wah ****
The Queen ****
Nanny McPhee ****
Eragon ****1/2
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ***1/2
Ice Age: The Meltdown ***1/2
Happy Feet ****
United 93 ****
Una Story Italiana ****
All the King's Men *****
Apocalypto ***
The Nativity Story ****
The Departed ****1/2
The Promise ****1/2
Lady in the Water ****1/2
Poseidon **
M:I:III ****1/2
Charlotte's Web ****
V for Vendetta ****
The Return ***1/2
Gino Bartali L'Intramontabile ****
Casino Royale ****
Pan's Labyrinth ****1/2
The Illusionist ****
Night at the Museum ***
The Wild ***
Blood Diamond ***1/2
Freedomland **1/2
The Omen ****
Underworld: Evolution ****
Running Scared ***
The World's Fastest Indian ****
Stay Alive **12
When a Stranger Calls *1/2
We Are Marshall ***1/2
Annapolis ***1/2
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift **1/2
Flags of our Fathers ***1/2
Little Miss Sunshine ***
Idlewild **1/2
Cars ***
Monster House ***
The Sentinel ***
Inside Man ***
Over the Hedge ***
The Pink Panther ***
Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School ***

And... I think that's it. Could be missing a couple.

Back at ya later

This year I bought :

ICE AGE 2 : just right after seeing the picture, music is a real pleasure to listen to.
THE WILD : blind buy, you can't go wrong with Silvestri, and I didn't.
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III : just after seeing the picture. Incredible use of the music in a picture, a real surprise from Giacchino.
THE SHAGGY DOG : blind buy, since I'm a die hard collector of Alan Menken's CDs.
X-MEN III : right after seeing the picture, big bombastic thematic adventure score !
THE NEW WORLD : blind buy, so beautiful, easily one of the best CD of the year
MONSTER HOUSE : blind buy, didn't know the composer or the movie, but I was in a trying mood I guess. And I don't regret at all ! A great creepy, fantastic adventure score like I like them. I enjoyed it even much more after finally seeing the picture.
THE ANT BULLY : John Debney, animation, adventure, you just can't be wrong. I'm really fond of those easy adventure scores, temp track rules, but I can't help, I just like those.
ALL THE KING'S MEN : blind buy. Horner is a complete maestro.
FLYBOYS : extracts teased me, a very very great surprise from Trevor Rabin, an excellent beautiful and rousing score !
APOCALYPTO : didn't listen to it yet, but guess what, I can't go wrong ! LOL
FREEDOMLAND : I won this, I will play it very soon. I'm not a very curious JNH listener, but It doesn't cost anything...
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM : Silvestri at his best. Blind buy, and NO REGRET, as always. Best score of the year so far !

It's been a while since I hadn't bought so much CDs from films of the year, but 2006 seemed to me like a pretty good year for scores on CD ! I was happy to discover some obviously talented new comers and to keep following good old top composers like Silvestri & Horner, and I was very surprised to see some others come up with very strong CDs (John Powell & Trevor Rabin)

I can understand why the Rabin score would be a surprise, but how on earth was M:I 3 surprising? Were you unaware of Giacchino's talent beforehand?

Yavar

I had almost all of videogames and movie scores from Giacchino before seeing MI3, but I was very impressed by the new style of this particular score : all the tracks have an incredible building tension, an unusual and strong writing and each minute is a very enjoyable suspensful listen without any memorable theme (except for the reorchestrated original Shiffrin theme). I was used to his more thematic orchestral adventure efforts, and not to this thrilling suspensful avant-garde writing style...

Okay, with all those "2006" threads, I have gone through my order book and listed everything.

Out of 139 scores ordered this year, 19 were from movies released in 2006; that's 13.37.
(Actually, Pan's Labyrinth will make it an even 20, but I have not received it yet, and I ordered it based on samples and reviews)
Here's the list:
The New World
The Shaggy Dog
The Wild
V For Vendetta
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Bambi II
Superman Returns
Battlestar Galactica– Season 2
The Promise
Pirates of the Caribbean 2– Dead Man’s Chest
Lady in the Water
Abominable
The Da Vinci Code
Lost– Season 2
Serenada Schizophrana
Freedomland
The Nativity Story
Charlotte’s Web
You might rightfully argue the two TV shows actually aired (mostly) in 2005, which would make it 11=12.23%.

Now the important thing: was I satisfied with these? any regrets?

The Shaggy Dog and The Wild didn't get as much playtime as I thought, but that's mostly because I still have to make songless copies, which are so much easier to play; they were enjoyable scores.
Bambi II was only a disappointment in terms of quantity.
The Nativity Story was somewhat disappointing because I was expecting something "more beautiful", more awe-inspiring; it's good, but quiter and more "traditional" than I expected; not exactly a disappointment, thus.
V For Vendetta sounded fine in the movie; however, whether on its own or in the movie, I believe it ought to have featured a clear, strong theme for "V"; something dark and brooding, capable of both melancholy and powerful renditions; as is, I find the score ironically more in the vein of the government and society "V" is fighting, ie, rather faceless; it's not bad, but I don't remember a thing from it.
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown was rather disappointing. Okay, good enough (and I have seen neither film), but I much prefer Robots, by a very long shot; I passed on Happy Feet.

My favorite ones (with a star for my absolute favorite ones):
The New World *
X-Men 3: The Last Stand
Bambi II *
Superman Returns
Battlestar Galactica– Season 2 *
The Promise
Pirates of the Caribbean 2– Dead Man’s Chest
Lady in the Water *
Abominable
The Da Vinci Code *
Lost– Season 2
Serenada Schizophrana *
Freedomland
Charlotte’s Web *

That's a pretty good satisfaction ratio, I guess.
Still, I am sure I did get more new scores in past years.

There are a few others I might later, though, such as All the President's Men, Monster House, The Illusionist and Blood Diamond.

MI: III and Lost Vol 2 are the only two CDs I've bought this year as far as new material goes.


In fact the last 5 years, outside of John Williams, I have bought very few new releases.