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| 8/31/09
- | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: (John
Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you want the flavor of John Williams' music for Raiders of the Lost Ark but are deterred by
the composer's scherzo-formatted action material, in which case Temple of Doom is a superior
alternative.
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Avoid it... |
only if you're going to allow your dislike of the film to get in the way of a score that is
far more impressive on the 2008 remastered and expanded set than it was on all its previous
products.
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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| 8/30/09
- | 1941: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you're among the majority of the population to have heard your local marching band crucify
the famous title
march from 1941 and seek professional, extended performances of that sickeningly positive idea
over the
entire, largely mono-thematic score.
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Avoid it... |
if you don't believe that John Williams can do no wrong, because there is mental instability
to be gained from
extended exposure to this, the most obnoxious score from the best period of his career.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/29/09
- | Monsignor: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you desire every last, fleeting piece of John Williams majesty from the most memorable time
in his career, a score of individual melodramatic highlights without a cohesive personality.
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Avoid it... |
if you would be surprised to hear Williams collect a score's components in haste and apply
three completely unrelated themes to a terrible film that could have used a dose of the
composer's knack for capturing the true spirit of a tale.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/28/09
- | Empire of the Sun: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek a wide emotional range from John Williams, straining in its turbulent, sometimes
sparse suspense material but redemptive in its wondrous fantasy half (and famous theme).
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Avoid it... |
if you require a strong sense of continuity and flow in your soundtracks, because the film's
indecision about balancing the horrors of war and a boy's imagination translate directly into
a disjointed score.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/27/09
- | Jaws 2: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you have lost patience with the original Jaws score's famous themes and want to hear them
integrated into a strong set of fresh and surprisingly optimistic new ideas from John
Williams.
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Avoid it... |
if you live and die by the two-note rhythm representing the shark, because Williams does his
best to minimize its application to only the most necessary of circumstances in the sequel.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/26/09
- | Midway: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if even one of John Williams' less acclaimed and incohesive epic scores of the 1970's is worth
investigating based on its two enduring themes of concert fame.
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Avoid it... |
if you are in search of the original recording heard in the film, because the only CD album
available for Midway has long been a 1998 re-recording of 35 minutes of the score.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/25/09
- | Dracula: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you love the tragic and melodramatic portions of John Williams' scores from the early
1980's, for Dracula extends this heavy material to explosive proportions.
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Avoid it... |
if you prefer your Williams scores to abound with complex subtleties, a trait not as evident
in this score (in part due to atrocious sound quality of the recording in the film and on
album).
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/24/09
- | The River: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you have grown weary of John Williams' space operas and high adventure style of the 1980's
and seek a change of pace to one of the composer's most heartfelt and organic works of pure
Americana.
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Avoid it... |
if you have absolutely no tolerance for the moderate use of contemporary rhythms and
percussion in parts of the score, for The River is somewhat dated in these regards.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/23/09
- | The Witches of Eastwick: (John Williams)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you're tired of hearing John Williams' melodramatic and bombastic music and desire a
intelligently enthusiastic, whimsical score of faux romance and perky spirit.
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Avoid it... |
if you find Williams' musical sense of humor to be tedious, for The Witches of Eastwick is so
flighty in parts that it does tend to become obnoxious outside of context.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/20/09
- | The Wind and the Lion: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you have ever wondered what Jerry Goldsmith would have produced had he been active during
the time of Hollywood's greatest Golden Age epics, because The Wind and the Lion is a classic
carried over from that time.
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Avoid it... |
only if you demand the clearest of sound quality in your massive Jerry Goldsmith scores, in
which case a combination of Lionheart and The 13th Warrior touches upon most of the same
stylistic bases.
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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| 8/19/09
- | King Solomon's Mines: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you own and love Jerry Goldsmith's very similarly rendered score for Supergirl, though
while King Solomon's Mines shares the same lofty, enthusiastic spirit of adventure, it bubbles
along without the obnoxious electronics of the previous score.
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Avoid it... |
if you have little tolerance for scores that cannot decide whether to treat the subject matter
seriously or like a parody, for King Solomon's Mines could be too cheeky in its overly
positive tone for some listeners to appreciate its otherwise decent constructs.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/18/09
- | The Final Conflict: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you desire one of Jerry Goldsmith's most powerful career scores, explosive in its harmonic
resonance and dynamic in its melodramatic choral and symphonic blend.
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Avoid it... |
if you would be puzzled and disappointed by the lack of any direct connections between this
and the previous scores in the series, including the "Ave Satani" chants.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/17/09
- | Damien: Omen II: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you want to hear accelerated and enthusiastically robust variations on the famous "Ave
Satani" theme from The Omen, the consistent basis for almost all of the cues in this sequel
score.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear anything more than explosive regurgitations of that thematic identity
and its performance aspects, including anything remarkably unique introduced to represent this
second chapter's characters and settings.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/15/09
- | The Omen: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek the source of the majority of horror soundtrack cliches utilized by countless
composers after 1976, because The Omen is an extremely intelligent, groundbreaking, and brutal
work of art.
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Avoid it... |
if you try not to be challenged by your film music experiences on album, especially in such an
oppressive and mean-spirited manner as this.
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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| 8/14/09
- | Islands in the Stream: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you appreciated Jerry Goldsmith's introspective score in the context of the film,
where the music reflects the subtleties of the ocean and the story's lead character.
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Avoid it... |
if you want this highly personal, touching score to exude much outward warmth, for it is
content in its own introverted sphere of lonely ambience at low volumes.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/13/09
- | Masada (TV): (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you value Jerry Goldsmith's few but memorable forays into the realm of massive historical
epics, this one perhaps as impressive in its scale as any in his career despite existing for a
television mini-series.
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Avoid it... |
if you are deterred by the melodrama inherent in expansive biblical scores or Goldsmith's
robust military marches.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/12/09
- | MacArthur: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you seek a slightly superior alternative to Jerry Goldsmith's Inchon, with a
predictably prideful military march and effective secondary theme of contemplation
highlighting a conservative score.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect any of the elements in MacArthur to match the appeal of Goldsmith's more famous
work for Patton.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/11/09
- | Psycho II: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you trust Jerry Goldsmith to follow Bernard Herrmann with a respectfully different,
conservative, atmospheric score that takes no chances.
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Avoid it... |
if you find Goldsmith's textural work for dissonant synthesizer effects and restrained
orchestra to be underwhelming, especially when packaged on a very short, out of print album.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/10/09
- | Coma: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you specifically seek five minutes of a generic contemporary love theme from Jerry
Goldsmith, or if you wish to study an intelligently unpleasant score.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect any of the suspense cues to shake the dissonant monotony of an unconventional,
challenging atmosphere that defines the vast majority of this edgy score.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/9/09
- | Breakheart Pass: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if ten minutes of an outstanding Jerry Goldsmith Western theme is worth the cost of an
otherwise surprisingly generic suspense score.
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Avoid it... |
if you have never been able to appreciate Goldsmith's similarly prominent Western themes in
his many other efforts in the genre, because Breakheart Pass really has nothing else of
interest.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/8/09
- | The Great Train Robbery: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you appreciate Jerry Goldsmith music at is most exuberant and boisterously enthusiastic,
comedic in its airy atmosphere and light waltz rhythms.
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Avoid it... |
if you find Goldsmith's overly-positive comedy music to be remotely trite, because The Great
Train Robbery reminds significantly of the composer's campy fluff from the 1960's.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/7/09
- | Caboblanco: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you are an established enthusiast of Jerry Goldsmith's Latin tones, for the five or so
minutes of compelling ethnic material related to this score's primary theme stands apart from
the rest of the work.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect a significant amount of original contribution to this soundtrack by Goldsmith,
because all of the film's romantic material is adapted from (or outright states) existing
songs from the story's era.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/6/09
- | Night Crossing: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek a redemptive combination of Jerry Goldsmith's swirling fantasy atmosphere, brutal
military themes, and complicated layers of orchestral lines in a very engaging and dynamic
package.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect an abundance of any of the three major themes from Night Crossing, two of which
very strong in their addressing of the hopes and fears of those making the daring escape on
screen.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/5/09
- | Supergirl: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you don't mind your superhero scores flying into the realm of ultra-positive, campy and
lofty optimism, especially if they're performed with a massive scope of symphonic power.
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Avoid it... |
if you detest adventure and fantasy scores that can't seem to decide if they're going to
address their subject matter seriously or in parody fashion, because while Jerry Goldsmith was
apparently attempting to give Supergirl a credible identity, his fluffy tone betrays that
purpose.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/4/09
- | First Blood: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek an action score that builds and maintains more character than most in existence,
conveying the melancholy sorrow of John Rambo with surprising warmth in the score's melodic
highlights.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear the same consistently explosive tone of action in First Blood that made
the subsequent two scores in the franchise (also by Jerry Goldsmith) so memorable.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/3/09
- | Explorers: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you desire a whimsical, optimistic twist on Jerry Goldsmith's usual action style, with a
handful of exhilarating statements of redemptive fantasy themes.
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Avoid it... |
if you require a significant amount of meat to accompany your Goldsmith constructs for this
genre, for the composer keeps the environment in Explorers airy and undemanding.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/2/09
- | Alien Nation: (Jerry Goldsmith/Curt Sobel)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you either seek every incarnation of the classic theme from The Russia House or were among
the minority to appreciate Jerry Goldsmith's equally synthetic futuristic detective score for
Runaway.
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Avoid it... |
if you find Goldsmith's solo electronic scores of the 1980's to be badly dated and have no
interest in hearing a rough, demo-like version of The Russia House's beautiful theme.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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