|
 |
| 9/30/08
- | Thirteen Days: (Trevor Jones)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you are prepared to appreciate an ambitious score that balances the nobility of
leadership with the turbulence of fear in an orchestrally difficult, but impressive
package.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect nothing less than an overwhelmingly memorable theme to come from your
large-scale Trevor Jones scores.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/28/08
- | Simpatico: (Stewart Copeland)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you are an avid collector of Stewart Copeland's more immensely percussive and depressingly
atmospheric works.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect a score that either impresses you with its instrumental creativity or maintains
a satisfyingly consistent mood in its disturbing demeanor.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/26/08
- | Mission: Impossible 2: (Hans Zimmer)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek twelve truly inspired minutes of beautiful acoustic guitar and vocalized
highlights, courtesy of Heitor Pereira and Lisa Gerrard.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you suffer from psoriasis or eczema, for Hans Zimmer's insultingly simplistic action music
for synthesizers and electric guitars could make your lymph nodes swell up and cause a nasty
skin rash.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/24/08
- | Lover's Prayer: (Joel McNeely)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you're tired of typical period scores and seek an extremely intelligent entry that uses
devious instrumental layering to elevate itself over the rest of the genre.
| |
Avoid it... |
if any hint of classical influence in your scores reduces the "coolness" factor too far to
compensate for an otherwise elegant maturation of Joel McNeely's John Williams-like
sensibilities.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/23/08
- | Liberty Heights: (Andrea Morricone)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you have always enjoyed the melodic romanticism of Ennio Morricone's light, dramatic works
and wish to hear the first American score by his son, Andrea.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear any of the unconventional elements of the father's style in his son's
early work, for Liberty Heights is as pleasant and relaxing as it gets.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/21/08
- | The Legend of Bagger Vance: (Rachel Portman)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek the ultimate maturation of Rachel Portman's elegant and graceful romantic writing,
highlighted by the quantity of themes, the scope of instrumentation, and the intangible sense
of mystical spirit.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you've never understood what all the fuss is about regarding Portman's transparent and
simplistic style for the dramatic genre.
| |
| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/20/08
- | Kimberly: (Basil Poledouris)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you've always had a soft spot for the Jerry Goldsmith scores for Joe Dante films and seek
the best that Basil Poledouris had to offer during the later years of his career (when dumb
comedy assignments were common).
| |
Avoid it... |
if you can't face a stripped down, sparsely orchestrated version of Poledouris' soaring spirit
for Wind surrounded by cute, contemporary pop rhythms.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/18/08
- | How the Grinch Stole Christmas: (James Horner)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
on the expanded promotional or bootlegged album only if you do not own the commercial product
and consider yourself a die-hard Horner collector.
| |
Avoid it... |
on the commercial album if only the twenty minutes of true highlights from the score on that
product can't compensate for the rest of the album's irritating contents.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/15/08
- | Gladiator: (Hans Zimmer and Co.)
- Massively Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek fifteen to twenty minutes of beautifully ethereal music performed by
Lisa Gerrard for the film's scenes involving the afterlife.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you find Hans Zimmer's battle and fanfare music to be too electronically
grating on the nerves or too obviously plagiarized to enjoy in any context.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/12/08
- | Under Fire: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Expanded Review, with Additional New Album |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek one of Jerry Goldsmith's top five career scores, a beautiful and
engaging combination of seemingly incongruous ethnic sounds handled with both
care and crafty intelligence.
| |
Avoid it... |
only if you're among the few deranged individuals on the planet who continue to
protest the use of pan pipes (or customized PVC pipes from a local store, in this
case) to incorrectly represent the culture of Nicaragua.
| |
| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/11/08
- | Twilight Zone: (Various)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a definitive collection of original music from the "Twilight Zone"
television series on a finely crafted 4-CD set.
| |
Avoid it... |
if neither the series nor its archival sound in parts are of any interest to
you, or if you seek the set specifically for the unspectacular Jerry Goldsmith
selections.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/10/08
- | The Towering Inferno and Other Disaster
Classics: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek thirty minutes of outstanding re-recorded performances of The Towering
Inferno, Independence Day, Twister, and The Swarm.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you're placing high hopes on the suite from Titanic or are discouraged by the
lesser quality of the three original recordings thrown into the middle of the
compilation.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/9/08
- | Themes from The Phantom Menace and Other
Film Hits: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a taste of many of Varese Sarabande's major 1999 albums without being
forced to purchase each original score in its entirety.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you prefer Varese's mid-90's compilations that were comprised of re-recordings
almost in their entirety.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/8/08
- | Music from the Cinema: Volume 1:
(Nicola Piovani)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you fondly recall the Oscar-winning score to Life is Beautiful and seek a decent
sampler of Nicola Piovani works from the previous decade.
| |
Avoid it... |
if Piovani's distinctly Italian style of intimate, rhythmic romanticism is predictably
irritating to your more melodramatically-inclined sensibilities.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/7/08
- | Miklós Rózsa at M-G-M:
(Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you are either a collector of Miklós Rózsa's scores and/or seek one of the
most spectacular compilations of original recordings ever presented to the soundtrack
community.
| |
Avoid it... |
only if you have absolutely no interest whatsoever in the scores of Hollywood's Golden Age.
| |
| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/6/08
- | Watch the Skies: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you are a fan of John Beal, Alien-related music, or seek Elliot Goldenthal's Roswell title
piece as the hidden gem of the album.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you already own most of this album's major orchestral performances on other products that
had already released the same cover versions.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/5/08
- | The Snow Files: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you've heard only snippets of Mark Snow's diverse, non-X-Files related talents through the
years and seek a very competent and enjoyable presentation of his better efforts of the
1990's.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you strictly prefer the original performances of Snow's more ambient, atmospheric styles.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/4/08
- | Evergreen: Music from the Films of Barbra
Streisand: (Compilation) - Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek the cheery, romantic atmosphere inherent in the orchestral variations
on the themes from Barbra Streisand's films.
| |
Avoid it... |
if nothing less than hearing Streisand's voice on her own material will do.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/3/08
- | Dr. Strangelove: Music from the Films of
Stanley Kubrick: (Compilation) - Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
only if you are a devoted follower of Stanley Kubrick's films and can fondly
remember most of the included selections on this album in each respective film.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you are a film score collector who regularly purchases Silva Screen's re-recorded
compilations based on the consistency of quality in their selection of music.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/2/08
- | John Barry: Zulu: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you're tired of hearing John Barry collections with the same tired themes and seek a
truly intellectual collection of the composer's more obscure works performed very
accurately in vibrant stereo.
| |
Avoid it... |
if those tired themes are the only reason you enjoy Barry's work, for his older and
relatively unknown efforts like the ones on this set fail to muster the same dramatic interest.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 9/1/08
- | Close Encounters: The Essential John Williams
Collection: (Compilation)
- Expanded Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek a competent and well-performed 2-CD collection of crisply re-recorded themes
spanning John Williams' outstanding career.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you own several other Silva Screen compilations that contain a significant portion of the
contents also included on this set.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
