|
 |
| 12/30/09
- | Spirited Away: (Joe Hisaishi)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if the whimsically flowing optimism typical of Joe Hisaishi's most exuberant and pretty music
for Studio Ghibli reliably infuses sunshine into even the dreariest of your days.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you easily tire of incessantly bright music, both in melodies of throwback innocence and
sudden shifts in fluffy orchestral bombast that diminish a score's unconvincingly suspenseful
moments.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/27/09
- | The Truman Show: (Burkhart Dallwitz/Philip Glass)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if a collection of beautiful highlights from the original music by both Burkhart Dallwitz and
Philip Glass for this film await your rearrangement into a highly compelling, if not
simplistic new age style of listening experience.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you rightfully expect the director's choices of the application of this music to the film
to match the intellectual and thought-provoking nature of the plot itself, because The Truman
Show remains one of the most excruciating missed opportunities for dual scores in recent
cinema.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/23/09
- | Rocky III: (Bill Conti)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you are attracted to the popular "Eye of the Tiger" title song or if you seek to create as
complete a compilation of Bill Conti's sentimental symphonic music for the franchise as
possible.
| |
Avoid it... |
if the limited six minutes of pretty Conti material (for the high-impact, emotional scenes in
the film) on the inadequate album aren't worth a product that mostly regurgitates tracks from
previous Rocky albums.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/20/09
- | Rocky II: (Bill Conti)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek only one of the first three soundtrack albums in the Rocky franchise, for this one
summarizes all of the themes from the original classic while exploring the ideas that would be
reprised to constitute most of Rocky III.
| |
Avoid it... |
if nine minutes of gorgeous Bill Conti instrumentals (without 1970's pop or disco elements
participating) in two tracks on this album aren't worth a continuation of a badly dated
general sound for the concept.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/16/09
- | Rocky: (Bill Conti)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you want one of the most popular and inspirational scores ever written, an iconic work of
the 1970's used throughout the subsequent decades by many in the mainstream to motivate them
during workouts and sporting activities.
| |
Avoid it... |
if the unashamed major-key enthusiasm and stereotypical symphonic and pop blend of the title
theme for the film, obviously its heart and soul, has for you become both too outdated and
overexposed through the years.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/13/09
- | William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: (Nellee
Hooper/Craig Armstrong/Marius DeVries)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
on the "Volume 2" soundtrack album if you seek the most accurate representation of the
extremely disparate collection of highly melodramatic and stylish music you actually heard in
the film.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you demand the continuity of Moulin Rouge in this related format, for the similar
highlights of this practice run are likely not worth the flawed album presentation for anyone
other than fanatic enthusiasts of the film.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/10/09
- | The Silence of the Lambs: (Howard Shore)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you want to spend an hour looking over your shoulder, because few scores are as
consistently unnerving as Howard Shore's morbidly dramatic The Silence of the Lambs.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you expect this score to accomplish much more than establish a suspenseful mood, for its
structures really aren't that complicated when studied apart from the oppressive attitude of
their performance.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/7/09
- | Donnie Darko: (Michael Andrews)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you're a generally well-adjusted and happy person who has wondered what it would be like to
lose all hope in life, in which case this drab electronic score on your stereo's repeat
function will send you in the right direction.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you're already being treated for hallucinations or depression with a variety of pills and
therapies, in which case scores like this one will smother whatever sparks of life that still
fire in your brain.
| |
| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/4/09
- | Psycho (1998): (Herrmann/Elfman/Bartek)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you seek the most authentic re-recording of Bernard Herrmann's classic score available, one
that best matches the tempos and ambience of the original.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you prefer embellishments in interpretation when hearing fresh performances of older works,
including a substantial beefing up of the ensemble's force and the addition of reverb, neither
of which exists here.
| |
| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
|
|
|
| 12/1/09
- | Bram Stoker's Dracula: (Wojciech Kilar)
- All New Review |
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if blatantly morbid melodrama of the highest order, complete with excessively pounding
percussive rhythms, brooding bass strings, and bloated choral chanting, is the quickest path
to the darker corners of your heart.
| |
Avoid it... |
if the grandest gothic tone and style of the mythical vampire genre doesn't impress you unless
all of its components are assembled in a tightly cohesive whole.
| |
| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
|
|
