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| There are 528 Reviews Done |
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Patrick Doyle - Much Ado About Nothing
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| One of Patrick Doyle's Best! |
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A personal remark at the beginning: The movie is one of my all-time-favourites and so is the music.
Patrick Doyle has composed a wonderful score that perfectly accompanies the witty Shakespeare-adaption of Kennegh Branagh and adds a lot to the liveliness of this comedy.
Track 1 introduces the main love theme, which sounds playful and charming. The purest version (sung by Patrick Doyle himself – as Twopop just told me) is Track 9, but you can hear it - in different orchestrations – through all the tracks concerning “the game of love”, especially the “gulling Benedict/Beatrice” tracks and it is repeated in form of a Chorus finale in Track 24.
The second main theme is heard best in Track 20, “Pardon Goddess of the night” – a chorale beautifully performed and truly enchanting. Track 15 starts with a fanfare-type version, but diversifies with the changing moods.
The “Overture” has both main themes in it – a wonderfully orchestrated fanfare and just thrilling! In my opinion one of Patrick Doyles best compositions.
Track 5 – the Masked ball” – is a lively dance tune – with renaissance reminiscences!
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3 of 3 found this review helpful |
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Bear McCreary - Battlestar Galactica: Season 3
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| More varied than Season 2, overall a better album |
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In my review for BSG Season 2, I complained that the album sounded homogenous. Season 3’s soundtrack album presents greater variety, and while it may not have any tracks to rival the standouts from Season 2, on the whole I like it more.
The first cut, “A Distant Sadness,” starts the album off with the Indian-inspired music which defines this season, and makes a good bookend together with the last two tracks on the album. It moves into ethnic female vocals wailing, and loses some points from me for that.
There’s plenty of the classic BSG sound on this album. “Admiral and Commander” is a quiet, calm statement of the Celtic-flavored Adama family theme. “Violence and Variations” is energetic strings, somewhat sinister in places. The taiko drums return in the butch “Fight Night” and “Storming New Caprica.” The latter track seems like an attempt to re-create the success of “Prelude to War” from Season 2, but with the addition of bagpipes. I don’t think it succeeds as well; it seems smoother, less martial. There’s plenty of mystical stuff in “Temple of Five” and “Mandala in the Clouds.”
Tracks like “The Dance,” which is a textbook Irish jig, and “Battlestar Sonatica” pretty much are what the track titles say they are. Fun, but not groundbreaking. Of more interest is “Dirty Hands,” which the composer describes as a “working man’s blues,” played with the instruments familiar to the BSG universe. On his blog, which every fan of the BSG scores should consider required reading, Bear describes how this piece of score was inspired by a piece Shirley Walker wrote for Batman: The Animated Series. Yay! Another standout is “Kat’s Sacrifice,” which may be my favorite track on the album. It underscores the loss of a supporting character with sadness and soaring grace. It reminds me of the score from the “Final Fight” in the last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but don’t let that scare you off.
Finally, a word about “All Along the Watchtower,” the hyped last track. It’s not my favorite song, and for some reason, the arrangement on the CD always sounds a little anemic to me, which it didn’t on the show. It is interesting, but I think I prefer the lead-in track, “Heeding the Call.”
Request: “Dirty Hands,” “Kat’s Sacrifice,” “Heeding the Call,” “Admiral and Commander.” “Adama Falls” has a nice statement of fan-favorite Roslin and Adama theme.
Avoid: “Wayward Soldier,” which is strings ostinato and taiko drums without adding anything new or interesting.
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6 of 6 found this review helpful |
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Miklos Rozsa - El Cid
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| Miklos Rosza - El Cid |
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Miklos Rosza is one of the great score music composers of the last century.
His Sore for “El Cid” is in my opinion his most passionate score for historical movies. Each Character has its own – very inspiring theme or motif. The Theme for Cid, Jimena and the Love theme are the centre of his musical organisation. And you can listen to them through the whole length of the movie without being bored, because he varies them expertly with different instrumental groups of the orchestra.
Also his scores for action music like “Fight of Calahorra” or the “Coronation March” are especially fascinating. Even if the orchestra plays full force, it never gets blustering (wrong word?). The “El Cid-march” and the “Fight for Valencia” is orchestral music at its best.
My very personal opinion is that the music sounds like coming from a period long gone, but that makes her so distinctively beautiful. She sounds so emphatic spanish and late romanic in abundance, but never too foreign.
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5 of 5 found this review helpful |
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Geoff Zanelli - Outlander
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| Epic bombast score for a fun sci-fi like movie |
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Geoff Zanelli delivers a great score to this sci-fi movie set back in 709 AD in the far north Norse occupied territory. The movie delivered an original idea, and the music scored for it delivers a great mix of action cues and a emotive theme to go with the Norse people and Kainan. Slight irritation, the tracks on the CD are not in order of the film, i will never understand why producers do this.
The most notable theme, associated with the Norse people and eventually with Kainan, can be found in the tracks; Setting the Trap, the beginnging of Gunnar's Raid, Gods Be With You, the end of Kainan's Capture, Herot Town, Now You Look Like a Viking, and Kainan Becomes King...
Setting the Trap is a strong bombast song, obviously since it is associated with the people's building a way to capture the monster brought to their country by Kainan. The main theme, is repeated throughout the track, building till the end. Gunnar's Raid moves into a loud action track, heavy with drums and strings, typical to related the strong emotion and action found during the scene.
The Moorwen Genocide is a slow emotive track with a female vocal found throughout it in the background. It is a sad, moving song dominated by a solo keyboard and synth accompaniment. Tell Me About Your Dragon is a montage type song, slow to start then builds to a big ending, Kainan telling the story or the Moorwen to the King. It starts with slow strings and drums then builds to full orchestra and choral vocals to give it an epic sounding ending. The drums are very dominate throughout this track, again leading to the epic feel of it.
Gods Be With You brings back the female vocal and the main theme done by trumpets and strings. It starts out soft and slow then builds as the theme repeats and moves into the action cues of the previous tracks, big and bombast again. Crash Landing is different altogether. It is first associated with Kainan, the Outlander, so it sounds different than all the other tracks. Dominated by synth and discordance to start then moves into the strings and simple theme associated with Kainan for the film.
Kainan's Capture starts out slow and soft then builds as the hunt for Kainan progresses. The vocals return along with the strong strings and the pressing feelings of the track. The Norse theme comes back also in this track near the end, in all its epic glory. Interrogating Kainan is a more emotive track, slow and meticulous in its execution, gaining speed and life near the end. Herot Town 709 AD is another emotive track, covering the town Kainan comes to after he crashes. The Main Norse theme is played throughout the track with various instruments. Now You Look Like a Viking plays the main theme again, slowly building up to it at the end of the track, can never get enough of the epic sound of this theme, in my opinion.
It Was a Bear, It Was Not a Bear, Into the Moorwen Lair and Killing the Beat are all strong action cues, more set for mood music, killing and hunting than replaying any of the previous themes. Strong emotive tracks as the events of each play out, with sudden loud bombast moments and quiet filling the rest of the tracks. Kainan Becomes King ends the score and leaves the listener with the great main theme, which i love greatly about this score. Its a strong memorable theme that sticks with the listener.
I love the action cues in this score, and as noted above the main Norse theme. it is a great over all score and Zanelli delivers a great compliment to the fun action movie.
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5 of 5 found this review helpful |
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Armand Amar - Home
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| Moving Documentary Accompanied by Masterful Music |
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I am not sure what attracts french composer Armand Amar to documentaries about nature, but in this latest score by Amar, Home, Amar again pulls musical talents from all over the world. He uses the different region's unique styles and composes a very moving score that cannot help but stir the listener. The documentary is free to watch on YouTube, which i highly recommend, and uses visually stunning images of our planet coupled along with a narrative about its origins, about our origins on the planet and what we have done to upset the balance.
The first track, Home part 1, starts the documentary, quiet at first then quickly moves into wonderful female vocals, his native voices that he often uses. Whales also has the lone female voice, almost as if she was the voice of the whales, beautiful in its simple elegance. Epi is another vocal track and uses the mongolian style of vocals, rough guttural sounding, used to showcase that location during the documentary. The last track, Cum Dederit is the last vocal track and is an actual song composed by Amar.
The other three Home tracks are slow moving string pieces that lend to the introduction historical narrative given at this point of the film. The four tracks build on each other, reaching the segment's peak at the end of track 4. O is taken from a previous Amar score, Les Loups but is a slight variation from what is found in that score.
Life, a guitar dominated track, which feeds emotion into this point of the score, where life began, building up as more instruments add in, creating a more complex fabric as life grows. Take the Earth, has South American sounds, the guitar with the slow drums and native flute. Toll of Toil in another string dominated track, similar to Life, slow to begin and gradually builds over the track length.
Black Gold, my favorite of the score, uses wonderful taiko drums throughout the track. String accompany to add more depth, giving a hurried rush feeling, to go with the dire situation occurring during this point in the film. Chemical Food is altogether different, slow piano begins the track, with a solo violin coming in to accompany and background synth adding to the slow sad feeling of the track. Feed Lots, sounds almost silly in this tuba dominated and circus sounding track, quick but fun on the surface, only the strings give away the deep sadness felt behind.
Overproduction, isnt very significant, its a slow emotive string piece that builds as it goes, gets quicker and more rushed feeling, again leading to the feelings of this part of the film. Murderous Catch has the clarinet as the main instrument, another slow sorrowful song. Piano and strings accompany, adding more mood to the track. Dubai is another taiko dominated track, solo drum to start then more join in.
The Dead Seas, more emotive scoring, wind instrument solo with strings to accompany. So much emotion is given by these instruments, it would be impossible not to feel your heart being pulled. Faster and Faster, the other upbeat track, quick with brass coming in to play, but still having the strings int he background. Life 2 goes back to the guitar feel as played before in the previous Life track. I love how Amar uses guitars to convey his emotion, some of my favorite music by him.
Wasteland is played out by a solo trumpet with strings in the background again, the feelings and emotions are poured out through the trumpets slow mournful sound. Rake the Forest uses a native Australian didgeridoo as background music, with strings coming in and out in this slow, minimalistic styled track. The Desert goes back to the clarinet solo style, slow and emotive, as with everything else, a simple but moving track. Fire, the last track, is very Asian sounding, the taiko drums come back, along with bells as if in a Buddhist monastery. Simple, but effective in its emotion.
I guess i wrote a lot about this score, what can i say, I love this Amar score. I think it is a documentary well worth watching and Amar's music does a wonderful job, as always, in creating emotion and feeling using musical styles from all over the world. This score is well worth a listen, one of his greater scores i think.
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8 of 8 found this review helpful |
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Elliot Goldenthal - Batman & Robin
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| Pure brassy Goldenthal |
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Included on the song soundtrack album, this is the only score released from Batman & Robin, and that's probably for the best. The track is exactly as described, an overture based on Goldenthal's Batman theme. It's not one of my favorites. While I enjoy the brassy, timpani-laden Goldenthal sound in other scores, like Titus or Interview with the Vampire, all it does on this track is remind me how brassy and obnoxious the movie was. It’s not a bad track, just a little harsh on the ears, but if you want a decent sample of Goldenthal Batman, this will do just fine.
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1 of 1 found this review helpful |
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Joe Hisaishi - Princess Mononoke
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| Princess Mononoke - Movie Soundtrack |
| By: |
AdamR
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| Date: |
4 Aug 2009 |
| Rating: |
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For some fans, Joe Hisaishi's soundtrack to Princess Mononoke is considered his magnum opus. It contains every major piece of music you can ask for in soundtracks - solemn cues, action cues, character themes, and an odd track here or there to set the mood on the screen ("Kodamas"). The soundtrack is offered as a high-definition audio cd (HDCD) and improves the quality over the standard Redbook files, which often will distort on bass notes or lines in the strings.
Two main character themes are present in the soundtrack - Ashitaka's theme ("The Legend of Ashitaka", "The Young Man from the East", and "The Legend of Ashitaka Theme (End Credits)") and also the theme for Princess Mononoke ("Princess Mononoke Theme Song" in instrumental and vocal versions). Additionally, the main antagonist, Lady Eboshi is given her own theme music as we are shown on screen the deeper side of Lady Eboshi and what her goals are in the ironworks. These are the main themes of the album, and the most recognized cues of the album.
Hisaishi builds action music around the demon gods from the forest who are doing what they can to stop human development in wild areas ("The Demon God" and the "Demon Power") using rapid drum and percussion rhythms to imitate running, rushing, and attacks. The soft side of the score is centered around the Requiem themes (there are three different variations of this) as Ashitaka decides what side and stance he will take in the dilemma of the mountains.
Finally, perhaps the most popular cue on the album, is Hisaishi's masterful work on the piano, blending themes for Ashitaka and for Princess Mononoke in "Ashitaka and San". Simple, and basic, it represents the feelings both individuals came to once they realized that humans and the gods can live together.
For anyone interested in Hisaishi, this is an amazing place to start with him, and branch out into other works such as Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, or My Neighbor Totoro.
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7 of 7 found this review helpful |
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Se-Hyeon Im - Dae Jang-Geum
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| Great opera, good music. |
| By: |
ld80061
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| Date: |
3 Aug 2009 |
| Rating: |
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The original Korean soap opera is about the first woman doctor in South Korea, during the era of the Korean Kingdom. It is quite famous in East Asia, and definitely worth viewing in its own right.
The music is quite good, and sometimes deeply moving. Oh Na Ra I is the theme song, a fine chant by youthful voices. (You can look up the meaning of the Ancient Korean words sometime - quite bittersweet & romantic.) Ap Na is a lovely piano tune, and worth a careful listen - so is Dan Ga (which has more of an upbeat walking beat, compared to Ap Na's romantic, slow, thoughtful stroll).
Da Som uses strings to accentuate the emotion of the piece, while Hamangyeon uses Korean vocals, Korean woodwinds and western strings to a good effect. Chang Ryong is a cheerful and active bit of music, but Duk Goo is definitely the 'happy child' of the soundtrack, with their cheerful use of Korean percussion.
Ha Mang Yun (Instrumental) should be compared with Ha Mang Yun (Vocal) to hear how good singing - even in a language you don't know - can add to the feel of a tune.
My final favourite is Oh Na Ra II. It's quite a bit slower and more thoughtful than Oh Na Ra I, but still quite enjoyable.
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4 of 4 found this review helpful |
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John Powell Harry Gregson-Williams - Chicken Run
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| Chicken Run - A Unique Album |
| By: |
AdamR
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| Date: |
24 Jul 2009 |
| Rating: |
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Chicken Run is a very unique album when you consider composer John Powell (in one of his first scoring roles) uses kazoos in some of the upbeat numbers of the album such as "Main Titles" and "Flight Training" to provide a fun atmosphere as the chickens try to escape the egg farm.
Powell uses a main "escape theme" multiple times in this album, and you can hear softer sides of the theme with flutes as main character Ginger decides and plots how to escape. Rooster Rocky is presented with a jazz-infused background of music as he teaches the chickens how to fly in "Flight Training" and later in "Cocktails and Flighty Thoughts". The main number people remember from the film, largely because it has vocals is "Flip, Flop, and Fly" performed by Ellis Hall. The upbeat, big-band number with dancing chickens and Christmas lights is hard to forget once you've seen and heard it once.
Many people rate this album highly for it uniqueness and how themes were presented for...well, chickens. Powell certainly kept the feel of a British farm within his score and gave listeners of scores something different to hear than the usual animated film score.
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7 of 7 found this review helpful |
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