|
 |
| 10/31/12
- |
Awakenings (Randy Newman)
- All New Review |
| |
| |
Buy it... |
if you wish to place yourself in a catatonic state, in which case this innocuously inoffensive
and pretty score on repeat for a week might do the job.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you appreciate Randy Newman's feather-light touch when hearing his sensitive character
themes but you also require interludes of deeper weight or much variation in tone throughout
such scores.
|
|
|
| 10/22/12
- |
King Kong Lives (John Scott)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
| |
| |
Buy it... |
on any album if you desire some of John Scott's best career adventure material, but especially
on the 1997 bootleg if you seek a sampling of this superior music from several of his notable
scores.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you have no interest in engaging and massive orchestral action music, or if you're stuck on
John Barry's score for the 1976 predecessor in the franchise and can't live without its
themes.
|
|
|
| 10/18/12
- |
Black Rain (Hans Zimmer)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
| |
| |
Buy it... |
if you're curious to know where the action truly started for Hans Zimmer, Black Rain being the
composer's first entry into a genre that eventually evolved directly out of the sound heard in
this score.
| |
Avoid it... |
on any album if you have no interest in hearing Zimmer's intuitively smart but not
particularly well refined merging of Eastern solo instruments with his comfortably familiar
rock-influenced tones.
|
|
|
|
| |
Buy it... |
if you desire one of Richard Robbins' few truly engaging and cohesive scores for a movie from
Merchant Ivory Productions, this one generating more interest in its motifs and
instrumentation than most of its peers.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you demand a competent recording and mixing of your film music, this score absolutely
butchered on its album presentation to such a degree that the bass region is completely
mangled and distorted beyond recognition.
|
|
|
| 10/9/12
- |
Three Newly Expanded Reviews Debut |
| |
Recently revised versions of the following reviews are now available:
|
|
• Ransom (James Horner)
• The Pelican Brief (James Horner)
• Unlawful Entry (James Horner)
|
|
|
| 10/5/12
- |
Howards End (Richard Robbins)
- All New Review |
| |
| |
Buy it... |
only if you specifically seek the traditional piano pieces heard prominently in the film, a
stark contrast from Richard Robbins' tepid score for this tale of Edwardian entanglements.
| |
Avoid it... |
if you have no wish to doze off unwillingly, an inevitable consequence of Robbins' extremely
restrained orchestral score that meanders aimlessly without any warmth, personality, or sense
of cohesion.
|
|
|
| 10/1/12
- |
The War (Thomas Newman)
- All New Review |
| |
| |
Buy it... |
if you love the soulful vocal contributions to Thomas Newman's symphonic lyricism in Fried
Green Tomatoes and desire a somber, more beautiful variation of that sound in the highlights
of this score.
| |
Avoid it... |
if Newman's experimental side often alienates you, because his use of striking specialty
elements in the bass region for the dirty setting of America's Deep South here will be
challenging to digest.
|
|
