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| 8/30/11
- | I Am Number Four: (Trevor Rabin)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if your appreciation of Trevor Rabin's predictably familiar fantasy mode for Disney's
teenager-aimed films never ceases to send you back to a comfortably nostalgic revisit of the
composer's 1990's sound.
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Avoid it... |
if you require the flair and passion that Rabin's writing often exudes in this subset of dated
but adequate music, for I Am Number Four continues to function but is not as engaging or
cohesive as the composer's similar works of the late 2000's.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/27/11
- | The 2008 Ghent International Film Festival: Angelo
Badalamenti: (Compilations)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
on either the 2009 "For the Record" 2-CD set or the condensed Varese Sarabande single-CD
version of 2010 if you seek a competent selection of extremely faithful recordings of Angelo
Badalamenti's most memorable themes.
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Avoid it... |
on the Varese album if you desire Badalamenti's alluring collaborations with Dolores O'Riordan
or the morbid love theme from Blue Velvet, three worthy tracks heard only on the 2009 2-CD
set.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/25/11
- | Henri 4: (Henry Jackman/Hans Zimmer)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you seek five minutes of music that reprises "CheValiers de Sangreal" from The Da Vinci
Code and little more of substantive value.
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Avoid it... |
if you mistakenly believe that Hans Zimmer actually wrote most of this underachieving,
uncoordinated, and generic period score simply because his name is misleadingly listed first
on the album's packaging.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/23/11
- | The Pacific (TV): (Hans Zimmer/Geoff
Zanelli/Blake Neely)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you specifically noticed the score's two main themes in the context of the popular series,
because without the inherent meaning you will associate with them as a result, the remaining
music may underwhelm you in its surprisingly simplistic nature.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect to be as engaged with this soundtrack as you were with Michael Kamen's Band of
Brothers, because Hans Zimmer and his crew seem content with providing The Pacific with
inoffensive, respectful, and pretty sonic wallpaper of very basic, tonal constructs.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/21/11
- | La Ligne Droite: (Patrick Doyle)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you are partial towards the melodic grace of Patrick Doyle and cyclical rhythms of Philip
Glass, two trademark styles merged into this minimalistic but powerful score.
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Avoid it... |
if you have absolutely no tolerance for somewhat repetitious chamber scores, though the ten
performers who comprise most of this music accomplish the kind of narrative depth rarely heard
in scores with ten times the number of performers.
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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| 8/19/11
- | Cherry 2000: (Basil Poledouris)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you need a refreshing change of pace from the vast plethora of lesser-inspired scores in
the decades since Basil Poledouris' engaging and entertaining fusion of electronics and
orchestra for a strikingly unique parody Western.
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Avoid it... |
if the idea of hearing electric guitars and synthetic rhythms with your bold Western brass
themes makes you cringe, though both the 2004 and 2011 albums supplement this rowdy listening
experience with a different companion Poledouris score from the 1980's.
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| Rating: | ****
Read the entire review
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| 8/17/11
- | He's Just Not That Into You: (Cliff Eidelman)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
only if you seek brief flashes of the pleasant dramatic style that Cliff Eidelman wrote with
more frequency a decade prior.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect this score, Eidelman's only feature composition from 2007 to 2011, to express
its light orchestral tones with any engaging emotional weight until one standout cue at its
finale.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/15/11
- | The Blind Side: (Carter Burwell)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if you desire only the short and predictable but basically effective orchestral score for this
popular film and four of the two dozen songs heard in the context of the story on screen.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect a soundtrack album with a satisfying narrative, because the majority of the
source songs are missing and Carter Burwell's score meanders adequately through genres without
much cohesion.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/13/11
- | Scream/Scream 2: (Marco Beltrami)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
on the 1998 album if you want just a small (but surprisingly adequate) taste of the most
memorable cues from the first two scores in the Scream franchise.
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Avoid it... |
on any of the albums for these two scores if you expect the stock suspense and horror material
from Scream to compete favorably with its contemporaries or, more specifically, if you seek
any of the Danny Elfman or Hans Zimmer music heard in Scream 2.
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| Rating: | **
Read the entire review
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| 8/10/11
- | Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: (Rachel Portman)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
if there is no limit to your passion for Rachel Portman's predictably pretty string and
piano-defined style, one that this time tastefully incorporates Chinese specialty instruments
for additional flavor.
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Avoid it... |
if you require that passion from Portman to express resounding depth in its romanticism, a
characteristic of her 1990's music once again absent from another of her scores (outside of
some heightened but still restrained ensemble performances to open and close this album).
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/7/11
- | Breakdown: (Basil Poledouris/Various)
- All New Review |
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Buy it... |
on the comprehensive 3-CD set of 2011 only if you can swallow the bittersweet pill of knowing
how good Basil Poledouris' original version of this score was before being absolutely
butchered by a director with no musical sense.
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Avoid it... |
if you prefer not to be frustrated by the backstory of this unfortunate turn in Poledouris'
career, for the replacement score is so hideously passionless and desolate that it merits no
place in your collection.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/5/11
- | Bad Girls: (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you wish to hear Jerry Goldsmith's last venture into the Western genre, a pleasantly
inoffensive merging of his 1960's style for the frontier with his contemporary light
keyboarding for character dramas of the early 1990's.
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Avoid it... |
if the score's fluffy, tender heart doesn't allow its rousing, rhythmically rollicking brass
theme to maintain the level of grit and substance that you'd expect in this mostly non-comedic
setting.
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| Rating: | ***
Read the entire review
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| 8/2/11
- | Alice in Wonderland: (Danny Elfman)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you've eagerly awaited the day when Danny Elfman would completely recapture the addictively
alluring magic of his masterpieces for Tim Burton's early films.
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Avoid it... |
if you have no interest in hearing music that is to Elfman what Avatar is to James Horner,
because you'll be reminded constantly of at least half a dozen of Elfman's existing scores
(albeit his strongest works).
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| Rating: | *****
Read the entire review
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