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| There are 528 Reviews Done |
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John Barry - Dove, The
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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The main title would surely be considered a Barry classic had it accompanied a more famous film - breezy, free-flowing, a great evocation of a happy life out on the ocean waves. This is succeeded on the album by "Sail the Summer Winds", a lovely song performed by Lyn Paul (of The New Seekers) which certainly adds weight to any positive argument about Barry's songwriting prowess. "Hitch-Hike to Darwin" introduces another new theme, a sprightly piece for harmonica - again it's very, very happy music, which is not what some people like; but if this doesn't put a smile on your face, then nothing will!
It's not all so bright and breezy - there's a much-needed edge to some pieces, beginning with "Here There Be Dragons", a fine piece of typical Barry action music, constructed around small repeating phrases and featuring a James Bond-style xylophone as part of the ensemble. These darker moments are an important part of the album, in terms of providing some balance, but certainly don't dominate. We're quickly back to cheerful, tuneful music in "The Motorbike and the Dove" (with another new theme - when people ask where all the themes are in today's film music, them having seemingly become oddly unfashionable, it's worth remembering that many film scores didn't just have great main themes - they each had four or five great themes!) "Alone on the Wide, Wide Sea" is a very dark piece of suspense music which is gripping, in Barry's unmistakable style.
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Don Black John Barry, John Barry - Diamonds Are Forever
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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The title song is surely one of the best, most iconic Bond songs; certainly it features Don Black's cleverest, most inspired lyrics, a delightfully catchy Barry melody and a typically forceful Shirley Bassey vocal - indelible stuff. Then comes the original running order of the first Diamonds are Forever album (with additional music added to a couple of tracks), then comes the extra material. Presenting the CD in this way does the music no favours, with there being little or no dramatic flow - it's most unfortunate that there were legal reasons preventing the album's producers from putting the score in chronological order.
First, the music all Barry/Bond fans already know and love - the sly action of "Moon Buggy Ride"; the languid "Death at the Whyte House"; the suave "Bond Smells a Rat"; "007 and Counting", the distant cousin to You Only Live Twice's classic "Space March"; the gleefully jazzy and catchy "Q's Trick"; and the freshly-extended "To Hell with Blofeld", now three times as long as before, the score's action highlight, with its reprise of From Russia with Love's "007 Theme". Then we start all over again in "Gunbarrel and Manhunt", the delightful action piece that score's the film's opening. Much of the rest of the new music does resemble parts of what has already been released, but now the balance of action to source music is far more balanced in favour of the former, which can't be a bad thing. The highlight of the new material is "Slumber, Inc.", which seems to come out of nowhere (though its inclusion is obvious when you see the film); opening with a kind of cheesy organ solo it develops into a choral piece of epic, mammoth proportions and is actually strangely moving.
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2 of 2 found this review helpful |
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John Barry, Peter Buffett - Dances With Wolves
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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Sometimes Barry will base an entire score around just one theme, rarely deviating from presenting one variation of that theme after another, and it's an approach that can work wonders. For Dances with Wolves, however, he came up with at least a dozen distinct themes, and what makes the score so impressive is that each of them is quite brilliant. Barry famously said that just because Out of Africa is set there, it doesn't mean the score needed to be African in nature, and it's a lesson which many of his peers could have done with learning over the years: film music doesn't usually need to simply tell the viewer what they can already see, the best film music takes a step back and offers a deeper look at what the film and its characters are actually about. Dances with Wolves is a classic example: who would ever have thought that Barry's latter day romantic style would have been appropriate for a western - but it's so appropriate, it's as if he were born to score the film.
Just as all of the film is told through the eyes of Lieutenant John Dunbar, so is all of the score. Every note of the music is emphasising Dunbar's own state of mind, from his wonder at the landscape to his horror at violence and his delight when romance arrives for him. The main theme which everyone knows is "The John Dunbar Theme", heard on countless compilation albums and at countless concerts; it's really a very simple piece, but features one of Barry's effortless melodic hooks and is virtually impossible to dislike. It receives several variations over the course of the album, including a heartbreakingly beautiful (and desperately sad) arrangement in "Journey to the Buffalo Killing Ground". Its most uptempo arrangement - and also the closest the score comes to sounding like a classic western in the Bernstein mould - is "The Buffalo Hunt", presented in two versions here, both Barry's original (preferred) one and the rearrangement heard in the film.
Of the other themes, the most delightful is the journey music of "Journey to Fort Sedgewick" (greatly expanded on this album compared with previous releases), perfectly capturing the spectacular beauty of the landscape. There is also the playful beauty of "Two Socks The Wolf", a particularly thin and light piece centered around a lovely flute solo; the long-lined romance of the love theme; thrilling, heroic action theme of "Rescue of Dances with Wolves"; and raw, powerful no-holds-barred action of "Pawnee Attack".
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2 of 2 found this review helpful |
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John Barry - Chase, The
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| A review by James Southall found on movie-wave.net |
| By: |
Angel
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| Date: |
4 Jul 2010 |
| Rating: |
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The main title music is strident and powerful, a fast-paced piece which injects real drive and energy into the movie. "The Chase is On" is one of the highlight cues, opening with a distinctly Morricone-like trumpet solo before throwing in harmonica and banjo (predating some of Barry's music in Midnight Cowboy and Monte Walsh, in some ways). However, where Barry really shines is in his unexpected, subtle, anguished music for the movie's more emotional scenes, particularly in the two outstanding cues "What Did I Do Wrong?" and the exceptional "Stop Talking Foolish - Stop Talking Anything". There is a hint of action music from time to time (such as in the dark-as-night "The Beating"), but in general, the rest of the music is quite jazzy, sometimes more strident ("Saturday Night Philosopher"), sometimes lighter and smoother ("Look Around").
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Howard Shore - Lord Of The Rings, The: The Return Of The King (The Complete Recordings)
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| One Soundtrack to Rule Them All |
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Reviewing any of the Lord of the Rings albums is a daunting task. They are so immensely popular, and there is a lot to write about. No piece of text can possibly capture the pure beauty of these soundtracks, but let this be a futile attempt. It will be lengthy.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (The Complete Recordings) is a deluxe set of 4 audio CD's with nearly four hours of music (the other two soundtracks of the Lord of the Rings had only three discs) and a bonus DVD with high-definition 48kH 5.1 surround-sound audio. It includes nearly all the music that was recorded for the movie. Most of the trilogy is played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which went to extreme lengths for performing this extraordinary composition. The third of the movies won three awards for its soundtrack: The Academy Award for Best Original Score, the Academy Award for Best Original Song (Into the West) and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack. These are considered the best of Howard Shore's compositions and made him very, very famous. The Lord of the Rings is seen by many as the best soundtrack of the new millennium, and it rivals with Star Wars here on SST.
Most of the Lord of the Rings is operatic and tense music. It is very emotional (except The Green Dragon perhaps) and really enhances the experience of the movie. Many of the true Lord of the Rings zealots out there, like myself, will recognize some of the scenes while listening to the score, and be touched again by the drama of Tolkien's work. The emotion of the story is echoed in the music itself very well. It has a story of its own. I will highlight some of the tracks as examples of this.
Roots and Beginnings, the first track, starts immediately with the magical theme of the Lord of the Rings by which you can picture a black screen with the title glowing up. It is only a glimpse though, because the Hobbits go fishing with a happy flute melody in the background and some other innocent woodwinds. Then, when the ring is found, after two minutes, you can hear the Ring's famous theme in a violin. The track then gets more rough as Smeagol and Deagol fight over it.
For the purpose of keeping this review shorter we'll skip ahead to Flight from Edoras (track 11). Here is where Sauron shows to the good guys his intention of attacking Minas Tirith through the Palantír and Pippin has to join Gandalf on Shadowfax to Gondor. The beauty is where Merry runs up the tower to see Pippin ride away. It lives up, with high strings, to capture his great pains at seperating from his best buddy.
The first disc ends with the often-favorited track "The Lighting of the Beacons" (track 15). Hope is truly kindled with two special moments in this track. Of course, where this track is so famous for, is the actual lighting of the Beacons of Minas Tirith. During the impressive mountain views in the movie, Shore gets precious time to turn the viewer's attention to the music and uses this extremely well. This is possibly the highest musical moment of the entire trilogy. Fast, high strings and strong brass make this part of the soundtrack so memorable. A great building up to the final exploding of Gondor's theme, where still those high strings act as a secondary melody. But it doesn't end there, because towards the end comes a piece of powerful low percussion that makes one think of the Last March of the Ents in the second volume.
On the second disc rests "Allegiance to Denethor" (track 3), portraying the scene where Faramir asks his father if he would have wanted him to have died in stead of his brother. This sad and highly emotional scene is reflected by the soundtrack. A humble panflute is the perfect choice. This piece aims right for the heart. The panflute is heard in the next track as well, but in a less emotional way.
The third disc (a disc of many battle scenes) contains "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields" (track 4), my favorite of this soundtrack. It has an intense buildup during which King Theoden holds his speech ("Deaaath!!!"), which is eventually unleashed in the most beautiful theme, the violin theme of Rohan, as the Rohirrim cascade down upon the legions of orcs on the Pelennor Fields in all their glory.
Then the Mouth of Sauron (track 15), much later in the story, is where that ugly creature with the large grinning mouth shows Frodo's posessions to Aragorn and co. The beauty of this track is the mix of dark, evil pieces, and the bright glimpses of hope where Sir James Galway the flutist plays a bright melody while Frodo finds his energy to climb up the volcano, while Sam remembers the green Shire and Frodo doesn't (7:14), while Samwise the Brave carries his friend entirely in stead of just the Ring.
The fourth disc has the music of the extremely long (justified of course) ending scenes of the Lord of the Rings. The Ring has been destroyed and the world is at peace. A highlight in the track "The Fellowship Reunited" (track 4) is where Aragorn sees Arwen and that unforgettable shot of happy tears where Elrond watches his daughter approach her love, imprinted so well in Howard's composition.
"Elanor" (track 6), named after one of Sam's sons, is played during the ending of the movie. Sir James Galway again plays his flute to transfer that happy, complete feeling to the viewers when "The End" is written on the screen. After that, the next two tracks play during the credits roll of which the final one exclusively on the extended edition of the movie with the fan club names rolling down endlessly.
I had to cut a lot of highlights in my notes to make this review digestible still, like "Andúril, Flame of the West", "The Grace of Undómiel", "The Houses of Healing" and "For Frodo". All in all, the Lord of the Rings soundtrack trilogy is rich and infinitely listenable. Literally, for days on end have I listened to it. The soundtrack is good still long after the movie itself has become repetitive from watching it so often. Request it as often as you can; people will love you for it and your ears will delight in it.
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15 of 15 found this review helpful |
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Two Steps From Hell - Invincible (2010)
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| A Rare Gem |
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Two Steps From Hell is a company that sells licenses for trailer music. They have done the music for trailers of movies like 2012, Angels & Demons, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Dark Knight as well as Up, Twilight and Sweeny Todd. Normally they don't sell their music. This is, as far as I understood, not an album for a movie or game but a collection of their most popular works, and we're really lucky that it has become available to the public!
I just had to get it (only $8 on Amazon!). Epic orchestral music lovers, gather around. These are the greatest of the greatest in their genre. The sound quality has been enhanced digitally; I don't recommend listening to this album with bass boost filters.
Invincible features twenty-two tracks of fast-paced epic trailer music. Most tracks are relatively short (they had to fit the trailers), but they offer a wide variety within the genre. Recurring motifs across multiple tracks are hard to find, but they do exist (compare Undying Love with To Glory for example). With the great strings, deep drum rythms and large mixed choir, this album worked its way to my favorites easily.
To highlight some tracks is a lot to ask! I would highlight all of them eventually. One very special track though, and I'm sure a lot of you have already found that, is Heart of Courage. That track just gives me goose bumps. Also rather interesting is Hypnotica; it makes me think of Hans Zimmer or Klaus Badelt somehow.
I would ask you to enjoy this album, but I don't think you can prevent enjoying Invincible.
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15 of 15 found this review helpful |
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Christopher Drake - Wonder Woman
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| A score that suits its heroine |
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This is the score for Wonder Woman, an animated, direct-to-video film from 2009. For some reason, it took more than a year for this score to be released, but I’m glad to say it was worth the wait. The score was written by Christopher Drake, a veteran of these DC Comics projects. Though he was originally asked for a campier sound, according to the liner notes, Drake decided to score Wonder Woman as if it were “a 200 million dollar summer blockbuster!” As such, the music is suitably epic, with the sound of a full orchestra and voices, and it finally gives the character of Wonder Woman her own musical identity. In a world where Batman and Superman have gathered multiple themes to themselves, it’s about time.
The opening track, “The Battle/Origins” represents the first nine minutes of the movie and is best the album has to offer. As the Amazons battle the evil forces of the god Ares, the score tells the story. There’s excitement, and sadness, and the introduction of the theme for Hippolyta, which truly befits a warrior queen. The end of the track is about hope and new beginnings, and it closes with the first statement of Diana’s (Wonder Woman’s) theme as the heroine is magically born. The rest of the album has some great action music as well. “Dog Fight” is an example, as is the “DC Battle” near the end. There are some clichés familiar to fans of summer action music: the ethnic female vocal wail, the use of drums for a sparring scene. But I think Drake uses these tropes well, given the context of the story.
What I find amazing is that this score was written, arranged, and produced by Drake completely on a computer, due to budget and time restrictions. Sure, there are some places where the samples are showing, like the horns on “Let the Games Begin,” but in the action music, the illusion is incredible.
It’s also fitting that Wonder Woman finally gets a musical theme. This is a first if you don’t count the theme song to the 1980s Linda Carter series. The theme is first heard at the end of the first track and develops throughout the album, receiving its full heroic treatment in “A New Nemesis” (a short but really exciting track) and “End Titles.” The theme is four notes long, done this way on purpose by Drake, so you can sing Wonder Woman’s name to her theme.
This is some really good score from a somewhat neglected corner of the soundtrack world, and I encourage you to give it a spin.
Request: “The Battle/Origins,” “DC Battle,” “Ares’ End,” “A New Nemesis,” “Wonder Woman End Titles.”
Avoid: “The Computer Room.” The disadvantage of a complete score is that even the score for scenes where nothing happens are on the album. “She Misses Him” is unremarkable.
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1 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Tokyo Symphony Orchestra - Orchestral Game Concert 4
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| Composers |
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Composed By:
Kouhei Tanaka, Shinobu Amayake, Koji Kondo, Kenji Yamamoto & Minako Hamano, Kyohei Tsutsumi, Kouichi Sugiyama, Yoko Kanno, Tsuneta Kato, Yasujiro Nakajima, Naoki Kodaka, and Nobuo Uematsu.
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Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra - Orchestral Game Concert 3
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| Composers |
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Composed By:
Hajime Hirasawa, Yuka Tsujiyoko, Koji Kondo, Minako Hamano, Kozue Ishikawa, Keiichi Suzuki, Koichi Sugiyama, Seikou Sato, Tsutomu Shimizu, Hiroki Kikuta, Yoko Kanno, Kouhei Tanaka, Naoki Kodaka, and Nariaki Saigusa.
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