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November - December 2021
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12/31/21
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Lionheart (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek one of Jerry Goldsmith's most definitive action and romance scores, a hidden gem of immense
symphonic power that would inform many of the composer's best action works of the subsequent decade.
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| Avoid it... |
on either of the incomplete 1987 albums, for the score's quality easily supports the longer presentations on the
1994 compilation and superior 2021 set, both of which in high demand from Goldsmith collectors.
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12/26/21
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Dragonslayer (Alex North)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you specifically appreciate Alex North's large-scale action scores with avant-garde
tendencies that play more like classical symphonies rather than film scores
appropriate to a specific genre.
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| Avoid it... |
if your sword and sorcery scores need to have bold thematic statements, easily
recognizable progressions, distinct action pieces, and, like the film, a tone fitting
even the most basic parameters of genre expectations.
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12/21/21
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The Matrix (Don Davis)
Updated Review, With Additional Albums
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| Buy it... |
on the 2008 limited album if you desire a most balanced and palatable presentation of Don Davis' often difficult, postmodern
score, the 1999 album too short and the 2021 complete version only for true franchise enthusiasts.
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| Avoid it... |
if you demand the greater role of thematic tonality that develops in the two sequel scores by Davis, both featuring a more
interesting blend of challenging dissonance and quasi-religious drama.
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12/16/21
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X-Men (Michael Kamen)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you prefer your superhero scores to feature a synthetically menacing, ambient personality that is devoid of the usual heroic
themes and straightforward action material often heard in the genre.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the score's limited thematic development to sustain any of its album presentations, the lengthier 2021 product
extremely challenging to tolerate in its disheartening gloom.
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12/11/21
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Bumblebee (Dario Marianelli)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you desire an intelligent blend of symphonic, choral, and synthetic elements that brings thoughtful
thematic development to the franchise, Dario Marianelli's take on the concept surprisingly evocative and
balanced.
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| Avoid it... |
if you demand the continuance of prior themes in the franchise, this score rebooting the soundtracks with
more than a touch of Marianelli's V for Vendetta and other temp-track inspiration leading the way.
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12/6/21
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Rio Conchos (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on the 2013 or 2021 Intrada albums featuring Jerry Goldsmith's own re-recording of most of the score if
you seek an early glimpse at the composer's darker, folksy Western style in pristine digital sound.
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| Avoid it... |
on that re-recording if you are a Goldsmith purist interested instead in a superior presentation of the
original recording on several other products, regardless of how badly aged its sound may be.
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12/1/21
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Knowing (Marco Beltrami)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if fifteen to twenty minutes of grand, choral, and majestic fantasy material in this score's final
quarter is worth an abundance of prickly and unsettling atmosphere for the preceding scenes of suspense
and intrigue.
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| Avoid it... |
if, despite this score's functionality in all its quarters, you expect Marco Beltrami and his team to
explore the musical representation of this film's concepts from any particularly memorable new direction.
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11/26/21
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Shadow of the Vampire (Dan Jones)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on the initial album release with distracting sound effects if you seek a loyal souvenir from the film or
on the 2021 remastering if you prefer an emphasis placed on the dismally dreary music.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect your vampire scores to exude a convincing sense of romantically gothic tragedy, a trait
largely absent from this often inaudible work.
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11/20/21
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Drop Zone (Hans Zimmer/Various)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you have always loved Hans Zimmer's hyperactive action style in its most relentlessly abrasive form,
Drop Zone being among the pioneers in defining such barrages of synthetic force.
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| Avoid it... |
if the grating sound of Zimmer's earlier generation of synthetic samples and dry keyboarding in
accelerated rhythms, with no substantial breaks for accessible melodic interludes of lesser volume, is
little more than an invitation for a headache.
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11/15/21
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Along Came a Spider (Jerry
Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you are an absolutely devoted collector of Jerry Goldsmith's later works, for Along
Came a Spider offers an hour of anonymous suspense punctuated by one solid action cue.
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| Avoid it... |
if you seek any refreshing or unique alteration to Goldsmith's mundane, autopilot methodology
for this genre, his techniques here failing to yield any engaging narrative or style.
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11/11/21
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Patton (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, Separated From a Dual Review
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| Buy it... |
on the 2010 Intrada 2-CD set to experience a comprehensive treatment of Jerry Goldsmith's original two recordings of this memorable
but varied martial score.
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| Avoid it... |
on any of the presentations of Patton's original 1970 recordings if you demand resounding sound quality, in which case the
outstanding, vibrant re-recording conducted by Goldsmith in 1997 is a satisfyingly faithful alternative.
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11/6/21
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The Flight of the Phoenix (Frank DeVol)
New/Updated Review, Separated From a Dual Review
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| Buy it... |
on especially the expanded, dedicated 2021 album for one of Frank DeVol's more expansive, diverse, and rewarding scores.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have difficulty relating to works that allow their themes to go adrift as they attempt to address too many characters and
concepts.
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11/1/21
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Cold Mountain (Gabriel Yared)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you can appreciate restrained, solemn performances of traditional bluegrass tunes and a characteristically conservative,
introspective string and piano underscore from Gabriel Yared.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are expecting either fast paced, enthusiastic bluegrass performances or an impassioned, robust orchestral score for the
Civil War setting, the overall soundtrack disjointed and dissatisfying.
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