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| There are 528 Reviews Done |
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Tan Dun - Hero
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| Itzhak Perlman and KODO Drummers of Japan |
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Tan Dun assembled an amazing group for this score: the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman, the KODO Drummers of Japan, the Ancient Rao Ensemble of the Changsha Museum, soprano You Yan, and guqin (lute) performer Liu Lu. Recorded in China, Japan, and New York.
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Trevor Jones - Cliffhanger
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| Cliffhanger Score Pushes All The Right Buttons |
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What ever happened to action scores like this? Trevor Jones' score to Cliffhanger has it all. It provides all the suspense and drama you need but never loses direction in action mode. With everything going on it still manages to be incredibly touching in parts (such as when Gabe comes back for the first time after the accident). On top of that it is all wrapped up in an absolutely glorious main theme weaved throughout the entire score. There is something truly magical about hearing the theme over the camera soaring above and through the cliffs. It is stunning imagery. I find myself humming that theme for days every time I hear it.
What more could you want?
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3 of 3 found this review helpful |
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Howard Ashman Alan Menken - Little Shop Of Horrors
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| Possibly a perfect musical |
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I submit to you that Little Shop of Horrors, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, is, quite possibly, a perfect musical. You may think this a strange way to describe a movie, adapted from an off-Broadway play, about “A boy, a girl, and a man-eating plant.” Some members of SST don’t feel musicals belong here, and that’s a fair point. But in terms of craft — music and lyrics combined to tell a story — this is truly an excellent work.
Many people know Menken from his work on Disney movies like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, for which he wrote both the songs and the score. Little Shop takes place in the 60s, and Menken uses period musical elements throughout his catchy score. For example, the female chorus (name Chiffon, Ronette and Crystal in an homage to Motown) narrates the story with a rock/gospel style, a device Menken would revisit with his songs for Disney’s Hercules. Ashman, Menken’s songwriting partner until his unfortunate death, was probably one of the best lyricists in the business. His lyrics seem effortless.
At this point, I could give you a rundown of the highlights of the album. Instead, I would like to look at one track in particular as an example of why this musical is so good. In “Feed Me/Get it,” the alien plant, Audrey II (voiced by Levi Stubbs), convinces a reluctant Seymour (performed by Rick Moranis) to bring him more of the human blood he requires, by murder if necessary. The song begins with Audrey II singing its signature line, “Feed me, Seymour. Feed me all night long,” accompanied by menacing bass guitar and drums. The music is by turns funky, smooth and urgent. The lyrics are clever, with rhymes that are intricate and scan, as the plant promises wealth, power, and sex. The price is simple. “You know what kind of eats / What kind of red-hot treats / What kind of sticky-licky sweets I crave!”
Then we have a bridge where Seymour laments the choice before him. “I have so many strong reservations,” he sings, his prosaic lyrics purposefully contrasted with the melodramatic music for comic effect. Having music and lyrics give the artists two dimensions to play with, something you don’t get with score alone. The plant keeps at him, pointing out that some people warrant a harsh fate. “If you wanna be profound / If you really gotta justify / Take a breath and look around. / A lot of folks deserve to die!”
Seymour disagrees, but after the spoken-word interlude, in which we hear the evil dentist, Scrivello (Steve Martin) verbally and physically abuse Audrey (Ellen Greene), Seymour’s crush, Seymour comes around to the plant’s way of thinking. This is a major turning point in the plot, which the music shows with a repeated, intensifying vamp that leads us into the song’s climax. Seymour and the plant reprise the plant’s earlier sentiment. A lesser lyricist might have just repeated the lyrics, but Ashman switches them up: “If you want a rationale, / It isn’t very hard to see…” The music is at its fullest here, with the female chorus in the background, and the dentist’s fate is sealed.
This is what the songs in a musical are supposed to do: tell us about the characters and their motivations while moving the plot along. There are other great songs on this soundtrack that do the same thing. They’re fun, and the cast is stellar. If you don’t like musicals, well, I don’t know what to tell you. But if you do like them, and want to hear what the great ones can do, listen to Little Shop of Horrors.
Request: There are too many good tracks to list. Almost all of them show the great skill with which this show was written. “Suddenly Seymour” is a powerful love song. I like the lyrics on “Grow for Me.” “Dentist!” is funny, though it may make you look twice at yours.
Avoid: “Suppertime.” This scene from the movie gave me nightmares, so maybe that’s why I don’t like it. “Don’t Feed the Plants” comes from the rejected final scene of the movie, in which Audrey II eats Seymour and Audrey and takes over the world.
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4 of 4 found this review helpful |
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Daft Punk - TRON: Legacy
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| What a sound! |
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Daft Punk is best known for its house and dance music, so I was quite curious to how the duo would fare in the soundtrack world. The verdict? The soundtrack is good, but they should stick to electronic music.
TRON: Legacy's soundtrack is half electronic music and half instrumental. Most tracks have both. The best tracks though, are the pure electronic ones with the low, cracking beat in them. Yes, I'm talking about "The Game Has Changed", and possibly "Fall". That's what Daft Punk is really good at.
Some tracks are more towards the instrumental side, though. It works sometimes, like in "Adagio for TRON", but instrumental music doesn't allow for as much repetition as electronic music. That's where Daft Punk makes the mistake, as can be heard in the second minute of "C.L.U.".
In general though, the soundtrack is really awesome. Very masculine. It has attracted many people to the movie, especially those of the target audience; including me.
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5 of 11 found this review helpful |
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John Powell, Jonsi - How To Train Your Dragon
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| One of the most AMAZING Soundtracks of the World |
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Yes, it's a amazing Soundtrack, one of the best from the birth of the cinema's music.
Songs as This is Berk, Dragon Training, Forbidden Friendship, New Tail, See you Tomorrow, TEST DRIVE, Romantic Flight, Dragon's Den, The Kull Ring, Ready the Ships, Battling the Green Death, Counter Attack, Where's Hiccup or Coming Back Around are amazing songs.
For this reason (all the album is great) is one of the most spectacular Soundtracks of all the times.
By Mario, from Barcelona, Catalunya (Spain)
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8 of 11 found this review helpful |
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Christopher Lennertz - Vampires Suck
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| Serious score for a joke movie |
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I was pretty excited about this album, having heard in reviews and in context how Christopher Lennertz scored the heck out of the parody film Meet the Spartans. Though that score never got a commercial release, this did, and I’m glad. At first glance, Vampires Suck looks like it should be a disposable score to a schlocky parody of the Twilight movies. And if that were all there was to this, I’d tell you to skip the album. But look a little deeper and you see that this score really represents one composer’s chance to re-score the Twilight movies, taking into account the disparate styles used in that series, specifically Carter Burwell’s jangly, electronics-tinged take on the first film and Alexander Desplat’s passionate somnambulism for the second. So if you’re a fan of Twilight, or the romantic supernatural in any of its forms, I recommend you take a listen. The plot Vampires Suck is mostly identical to its source material. So if you can decipher the clever code (i.e., Becca = Bella, Jack = James) then you can line this music up to Twilight with little effort.
This score is obviously influenced by the extant Twilight music, but it’s not a pastiche. The first chunk of the album, including tracks like “Meet the Sullens” and “Chemistry in Class,” most resembles Carter Burwell’s score, using guitar, voice, and some electronic sounds. “Attack on the Dock,” is far better than anything Desplat was able to produce for fight scenes, because in Lennertz’s score it actually sounds like something dangerous is happening on screen. “Sleepwalking” resembles Desplat’s music, but includes a quote of John Williams’s “Hedwig’s Theme” for reasons I don’t understand.
And though the movie is a parody, the score is for real. “Becca is Dead?” is surprisingly beautiful, and it shows you that this composer takes the emotion seriously. The main theme gets a lush string arrangement in “The Final Bite.”
Lennertz’s score has action, romance, and mystery. Whatever your opinion of Twilight, what’s gotta be wrong with that?
Request: “I’m A Killer” “Becca is Dead?” “The Final Bite”
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Phil Collins, Mark Mancina - Tarzan
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| The Ape-Man goes Adult Contemporary |
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Another bifurcated Disney soundtrack here, with the songs on one side and the score on the other. For Tarzan, the filmmakers decided to eschew their popular Broadway-musical-style score and singing animals. I seem to remember this was done to attract a more adult audience. So it’s not a surprise that the songs were written and performed by Mr. Lite FM himself, Phil Collins. Actually, the songs are pretty good, if you can get past the cliché-ridden lyrics. The first words we hear are, “Put your faith in what you most believe in.” Seriously? Tautologies aside, the opening number, “Two Worlds” sets the tone for the rest of the movie and the two reprises of the song: sentiment, exoticism, danger, family. “Son of Man” is my favorite because it’s the most fun. I always remember the shot of gorillas walking in rhythm to the last refrain. “Trashin’ the Camp” was written so that Rosie O’Donnell could get a number. It’s a combination of scat (vocal, not gorilla) and “found object” percussion that accompanies, well, trashin’ a camp. The Phil Collins version, later on the album, is a more straight-up song. Personally, I’ve never understood the appeal of “You’ll be in my Heart.” I find the melody mawkish and the triteness of the lyrics really grating.
The score was written by Mark Mancina. It uses the usual tricks for scoring action that takes place in a jungle, like exotic woodwinds and steady drums. “A Wondrous Place” is what it sounds like, putting the breathless mystery of the jungle into music. “One Family” largely uses the melody from “You’ll be in my Heart.” The most interesting score track, in my opinion, is “The Gorillas,” which includes the music from the action finale.
Request: “Two Worlds” “Two Worlds Finale” “The Gorillas.”
Avoid: I’ve made my feelings about “You’ll be in my Heart” clear; yours may well vary. The version from the film is far more understated than the radio version Phil recorded solo.
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1 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Paul Williams, Muppet Brass Buskers, Miles Goodman (...) - Muppet Christmas Carol, The
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| Muppets and A Christmas Carol, together at last! |
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In 1992 (was it really almost 20 years ago?) the Muppets released their version of A Christmas Carol, complete with songs by Paul Williams, the author of “Rainbow Connection” and other Muppet favorites. The soundtrack album has all the tunes from the film, and a few that didn’t quite make the final cut.
This album gets requested a lot around the holidays (and the rest of the year as well) so you may have your favorite songs already identified. Frankly, I think the songs could have been so much better, which I think is a shame for a Muppet movie. “Bless us All” bores me, and while “Chairman of the Board” is kinda funny if you understand the character of Sam the Eagle, it’s not memorable. “Scrooge” and “Marley and Marley” are decent character songs. “One More Sleep Till Christmas” is okay if you can accept Steve Whitmire taking over for Jim Henson as the voice of Kermit. I prefer the “Christmas Scat” duet version of the song. “Room in Your Heart” didn’t make it into the movie, but that one I do like, especially for fans of Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker.
The score for this film was written by Miles Goodman and, as is usual with this type of film and soundtrack, is often overlooked. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but worth a listen. The overture is a pleasant instrumental collection of the songs from the film, plus some traditional carols. “Christmas Past” begins with feathery harps, S.O.P. for flashbacks and fantasy sequences. “Christmas Future” starts feathery but gets serious fast, with low strings and horns providing a suitably ominous sound. Once the nightmare is over, “Christmas Morning” gives us a bouncy instrumental treatment of Scrooge’s finale number, “With a Thankful Heart.” My favorite among the non-vocal tracks is “Good King Wenceslas.” It’s a traditional brass quartet arrangement of a traditional Christmas tune, and the kind of thing without which I feel the holiday is incomplete.
Request: “Room in Your Heart” “Christmas Scat” “Good King Wenceslas”
Avoid: “When Love is Gone,” especially the single version at the end of the album. The song is cliché, and the second version isn’t even sung by the characters.
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David Newman, Van Dyke Parks - Brave Little Toaster, The
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| Another "darkish" animated film score |
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AdamR
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| Date: |
5 Feb 2011 |
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Thomas Newman's score for the independent film "Brave Little Toaster" is another of what I call a "darkish" film score--one where the orchestra is used as if it takes the film seriously, and not as something only children will watch. Film scores like these utilize choirs, solo instruments, and produce darker themes usually with brass, and low-end strings such as cellos. This score fits in that category with Goldsmith's, Secret of NIMH or Morley's, Watership Down where the score helps drive the film, and is not simply used as background noise or creating sound effects for the fun on the screen.
As an album, Newman breaks up cues into tiny pieces, and thus, any sort of cohesive theme is not present for the score. We do hear a theme as the appliances travel to the city, heard prominently in "Into the City". Some songs spatter the film and they're not that bad. "City of Lights" looks toward a happy reunion with people you love, "B-Movie" revisits horror films, "Cutting Edge" an electronic song looking at the improvements technology has made on mankind (albeit about 1987), and "Worthless" as a upbeat ballad of nearing the end of one's life as they no longer are able to do everything they once could. The songs help the film along, and unlike a lot of animated flicks, the characters don't necessarily break into song "just because".
Overall, its not a bad album, but the lack of longer cues, and a strong theme might turn some soundtrack listeners away if they like thematic material in their film scores.
-Adam R.
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3 of 3 found this review helpful |
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