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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you enjoy solid orchestral feel-good scores that are pleasant and undemanding in their Americana simplicity. Avoid it... if John Debney's heartland style of acoustic guitars and solos for violin and piano might sound just slightly too much like a temp-track job for your veteran ears. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The important part of Debney's work for Dreamer, however, is that despite his ability to gladly provide the same score that dozens have written before, he does so with a highly emotional performance and superior recording quality. For fans, we may listen to the score and debate which six or seven scores its pretty, orchestral themes of the heartland are inspired by, and yet to the average parent and his/her eight-year-old, Debney has done a fantastic job. Dreamer really is a pleasant, enjoyable score to relax to on a sunny day, with flowing performances by soloists that provide just enough country atmosphere without irritating those of us who don't care much for that environment. The traditional orchestra is accompanied by acoustic guitars, dulcimer, mandola, and the more prominent solos by Joshua Bell on violin and Michael Lang on piano. There is definitely some James Horner sensibility to be heard with these solos, but Debney achieves that extra level of child-like exuberance through the rhythmically propulsive sections in which the full strings ramble over the acoustic guitars. The themes are a bit anonymous, but their harmony is never in question, and once again Debney's talents at mutating temp scores such as Legends of the Fall and (especially) Black Beauty into a convincingly fresh idea must be commended. The only disappointment regarding the score for Dreamer is that the talents of Bell and Lang aren't utilized with enough emphasis (outside of obvious uses, such as the violin solos in the opening cue) to give these Debney themes an identity that would stand out after the film is over. This seems to be a characteristic inherent in horse racing film scores (from The Black Stallion to Seabiscuit in the modern age), and one thing Dreamer also reminds us of is just how funny, unique, and remarkable Mark Isham's score for Racing Stripes was earlier in the year. On album, Dreamer is a lengthy exercise in undemanding and pleasant listening, with the expected flourishes of hope and sustained action of the finale. Several alternate mixes (including one that proves that the violin solos in the opening cue were severely underplayed in the film) are concluded with one unfortunate pop song as a hidden track. Overall, Debney's work is a winner in its genre. ****
* hidden track
The insert includes a list of performers and a short quote from John Debney about Joshua Bell. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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