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There are 528 Reviews Done |
Shirley Walker, Danny Elfman, Lolita Ritmanis (...) - Batman: The Animated Series
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Finally! |
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I’m a little torn here. On the one hand, I am thrilled that this music got a release. Shirley Walker and her team wrote some wonderful themes for this awesome show, and until this album, you could only hear some of them on the ST for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. On the other hand, this is a TV show album, which means the cues are short and here at SST you can only hear one at a time. Mayhap it would have been better to rip them as long suites, but there are legal reasons that didn’t happen and honestly, it may not have helped that much. If you want really satisfying arrangements of Walker’s music, you may want to stick with Phantasm. But this is still a good album, and here are some reasons why.
You will not want for awesome Batman themes here. Danny Elfman’s theme is represented in the “Main Title,” complete with thunderclap! The theme is played again in the “End Titles.” Even better is the “Alternate Main Title,” which displays Walker’s Batman theme — my favorite. It is this theme that dominates the album; almost any track will play it at least once. (They mesh, briefly, in Track 15 on Disc 1.)
The whole album gives us the wonderfully old-fashioned, swashbuckling signature sound for the series. Here are some highlights, by episode:
“Christmas with the Joker” is pretty much what you’d expect. The tracks alternate crazy Christmas music with more serious action. Good holiday stuff here.
“Two-Face” I have to recommend for Walker’s eerie, eight-note Two-Face theme. There’s some good emotional writing, too.
“Joker’s Favor” contains not just the Joker’s theme, but a bouncy, sad/funny theme for Charlie, the poor schlimazel who winds up the Joker’s victim in the episode and eventually turns the tables. It’s a lot of fun.
“Perchance to Dream” was a favorite episode of mine, and the music has elements of sinister fantasy that remind me of The Twilight Zone in places. Recommended, especially Track 27, which contains the climactic battle.
“Birds of a Feather” featured the Penguin, and I recommend the score here for its operatic style. No vocals, I promise.
Request: In addition to the stuff mentioned above, try “Gotham City Overture.” I don’t normally like long tracks, but almost every theme from the show is represented here. My only qualm is that it doesn’t end so much as peter out.
Avoid: The music for “The Last Laugh” is all weird strings and accordion. It doesn't fit with the rest of the album, and just rubs me the wrong way.
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4 of 4 found this review helpful |
Christopher Drake, Kevin Manthei, Robert J. Kral - Batman: Gotham Knight
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3 composers give it some variety |
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This is the soundtrack for a collection of 6 related animated shorts, done in the style of Japanese anime and released in the summer of 2008, to coincide with the release of The Dark Knight. Three composers created the music, each taking two segments. The soundtrack does have something of a uniform sound in that many of the score elements take their inspiration from recent Batman music and action scores. But each composer contributed something different.
The possible exception is Robert Kral. His two segments, “Field Test” and “Deadshot” (Tracks 9-11 and 22-25, respectively), sound most like generic action score, and each other. It’s not bad; it’s just not very interesting. Track 11 has a Batman theme that sounds most like a knockoff of recent Bat-themes. It’s mostly tense action music, and I can’t really pick out any of these tracks as special. “Gordon/Batman/The Train” is probably the best. “Parents Killed” has some nice piano.
Christopher Drake scored “Have I Got a Story for You” (1-6) and “In Darkness Dwells” (12-16). The first segment, indeed the first track, has some of the most interesting music on this album. After some predictable horn blaring, the music settles into the story: kids swapping tales about Batman. The score is energetic but not non-stop action, which is a relief. “In Darkness Dwells” is more about sweeping Gothic horror, suiting the nature of the story. Track 16 has the most “Batman” sound to it, I think, with a brassy main theme.
Kevin Manthei managed to produce my most and least favorite music on the album, which I suppose is an accomplishment. In the latter category we have “Crossfire” (7-8). I cannot recommend enough that you skip this uninteresting, electronic noise. It’s edgy, I guess, but not great independent listening. Track 7 is especially tedious. However, Manthei also wrote the score for “Working Through Pain” (17-21) which is my favorite segment of the film and the soundtrack. In this story, Bruce Wayne travels to India to learn about pain. The music is soft, ethnically inspired and very pretty. The first and last tracks of this segment, which frame the story, are melancholy without overdoing it, which I like.
Request: The “End Credits Suite” will give you a taste of each segment. In the film, each transition lined up with the credits for that particular short, which I thought was cool. Anything from “Working Through Pain” would be pleasant to hear, if not the dynamic Batman music you may be looking for.
Avoid: “Crossfire” and “Inferno,” because they are that boring out of context.
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2 of 2 found this review helpful |
Paul Haslinger - Underworld: Rise Of The Lycans
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Disappointing |
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I liked this movie when I saw it in theaters, but I wasn’t really paying attention to the score. I wish I had been, because then I wouldn’t have been looking forward to its release and said release would not have disappointed me so much. What’s on this soundtrack is electronic, ambient sounds. The first is not necessarily bad, the second makes me nervous, and the three together are barely music. Every time I’ve requested from this album, I’ve been hoping that something musical would happen, something that would remind me of the movie. Nothing ever does. For example, “Sonja and Lucian’s Love Theme” is really none of those things.
So I suggest that you skip this album, with the possible exception of Track 9. I love the cover, though.
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Joby Talbot - Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, The
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The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy == 42 |
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This is a good movie and an even better book, but the sound track is so, so.
The only thing saving it is "So long & thanks for all the fish"
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0 of 1 found this review helpful |
Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - Dark Knight, The
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If you liked the previous score, here’s more of it |
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In my review for the score for Batman Begins, I described it as containing three elements: emotional strings, action thumping, and sound effects. This score does more of the same, and while it develops some of the themes from the previous outing nicely, it also plays up some of the things I have come to hate about Zimmer’s recent scores: the emphasis on electronics and the long tracks, arranged in suites rather than sounding more like they did in the film. At least they’ve abandoned the Latin track titles, which were in aid of nothing.
A prime example is the opening cut, “Why So Serious?” This track is pure sound effects. For the Joker, Zimmer created a sound that is basically a two-tone whine. It’s nail-bitingly effective in the movie. On the album, it’s noise. And it goes on for 9 minutes. This theme is better served in other tracks, where it appears, creates good tension, then gets out of the way.
On the action front, the minor-third ostinato and electronic thumping are still there to be had. The best of this music from this album would be “Like a Dog Chasing Cars,” where the music actually manages to sound hopeful and muscular at the same time.
For all my griping, I absolutely love “Harvey Two-Face.” The best parts of the track come toward the end. First we have a glorious, full-bodied reprise of the Bruce and Rachel theme, heard in “Corynorhinus” on Batman Begins, which quickly seques us into majestic horns. The emphasis on horns, playing in a major key at that, is so rare it makes you sit up and take notice. It’s wonderful, and it doesn’t appear in the film. Go figure.
No doubt many people are going to disagree with my review. I know context is important to me when it comes to scores, and I’m one of the few Batgeeks out there that didn’t love this movie, so perhaps I forfeit some street cred for that. I think there are some brilliant moments in this score, but aside from those, it’s more of the same.
Request: “Harvey Two-Face” and “Like a Dog Chasing Cars” constitute, in my opinion, the only 11 minutes of this score anyone needs.
Avoid: “Why So Serious?”
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8 of 9 found this review helpful |
Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - Batman Begins
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Hardly perfect, but it’s grown on me |
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When I first saw this movie, I really didn’t like it. It’s grown on me since, so I guess it makes sense that it took me a long time to warm up to this score. I still find it a little pretentious, and the suite arrangements and stunt track titles don’t really help. I know, they’re genera of bats, they spell Batman, got it. I renamed them for my own convenience. To my ears, the score has three modes: emotional strings, action thumping, and sound effects. Listening to the score I can hear the three rotate, but not with enough variation or development to keep it interesting. These tropes would continue to dominate in the sequel score, but there at least there is some development.
“Vestpertillio (Opening Credits)” starts us off with sound effects, the whoosh of bat wings, and the minor-third ostinato that the composers seem to like. A better version is “Barbastella (Into the Cave),” which also features some ethereal strings and voice. The emotional strings come in with “Eptesicus (Loss and Training),” and I like the hopeful movement in the chords. The emotional stuff hits its high point with the penultimate track, “Corynorhinus (Bruce and Rachel),” which is a favorite of mine. It should have closed the album, instead of the drippy “Lasiurus (Guardian).”
If you want action, you can find it in “Myotis (League of Shadows).” You’ll have to wait for it through some nice low strings. If you’re impatient, do what everyone does and request “Molossus (Tumbler Chase).”
There’s one track that’s very different: “Nycteris (Lucius Fox).” It’s a string/electronic piece that I like for its movement. It's not action; it's not sentimental. It sounds to me like an intricate modern dance. It’s a good theme for the brainier aspects of Batman: the gadgets, the detective work.
Request: “Nycteris” “Barbastella” “Corynorhinus”
Avoid: “Artibeus (Hallucinations),” because it’s almost pure sound effects, very screechy, and unpleasant listening. “Lasiurus” is long and dull.
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3 of 3 found this review helpful |
Garry Schyman - Bioshock
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Not what I expected from a game score |
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Most of the game scores I’ve heard are either electronic music of varying quality, or bombastic symphonic noise. This score, or at least, the tracks released, is different, because it is performed almost entirely by a small ensemble of strings. In that way, it sounds more like the score to an old horror movie. I think this may have been done to keep in flavor with the game’s setting, which is an underwater city in 1959, in which things have gone very, very, wrong. The score sounds more intimate, more emotional, than your usual game fare. Though as with other game scores, all of the tracks are rather short.
The “Bioshock Main Theme” is a perfect example. The strings here are slow and mournful, and the track is really very lovely. The themes from this track are repeated in #10, “Empty Houses.” The second track, “Welcome to Rapture,” has a Philip Glass quality to its urgent strings. “Cohen’s Masterpiece” is a solo piano piece. It doesn’t end satisfactorily, probably because, in the game, the pianist is brutally murdered mid-play. I rather wish some of these tracks were a little longer, so that there would be more room to develop the musical ideas.
There are some more horror and action tracks, but nothing jarring. “All Spliced Up” is the boss battle, so the score keeps pace with the face-kicking. “Dr. Steinman” is more horror, akin to the Psycho score.
Personally, I’d skip “The Docks,” which is mostly atmospheric sounds of boats in (you guessed it) a dock, with a jig played on accordion somewhere far away. I kinda like the string solo in “Welcome to my Gardens,” but it’s a pretty short track.
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4 of 5 found this review helpful |
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