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March/April 2022
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4/26/22
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Home (Lorne Balfe/Various)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you have any attraction to affably riotous children's adventure scores, for Home stands among the best achievements not only for Lorne Balfe
but in the genre as a whole.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the commercial album options to satisfy, some of the most memorable songs and passages in the score not included on the song or
score-only products.
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4/20/22
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Alan Menken)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you have yearned to hear Alan Menken and the modern Disney musical franchise take a serious turn together, for the liturgical music for The
Hunchback of Notre Dame is a sharp contrast to their previous collaborations.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have little tolerance for the more insufferable comedy numbers that inevitably break up the mood of Disney's otherwise dramatic stories.
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4/15/22
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The Revenant (Ryuichi Sakamoto/Various)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you enjoy needless suffering, this score accentuating the bleak despair on screen with equally dispiriting and dreary, atmospheric music.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the album release to provide the full breadth of licensed music for the film, the product instead concentrating on the
frightfully dull ambience helmed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.
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4/11/22
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Sleepy Hollow (Danny Elfman)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek Danny Elfman's most accomplished and violent horror score, complete with truly
haunting choral layers and a superbly recorded and
mixed series of mostly palatable orchestral romps.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect this return to the realm of gothic darkness by Elfman to exude the same
personality and spirit in the fantasy genre as the
composer's early classics.
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4/6/22
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Kong: Skull Island (Henry Jackman)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you appreciate serviceable and appropriately aggressive monster scores, Henry Jackman supplying King Kong and his human counterparts with
compelling themes of massive scope.
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| Avoid it... |
if challenging tonalities, half-hearted infusions of 1970s electronics, and a murky thematic narrative can combine with mediocre suspense
material to sully the score's accessible highlights.
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4/2/22
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Love Field (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you are reliably attracted to Jerry Goldsmith's easy-going, piano-rolling jazz and blues themes of distinctive character, conveyed here with
tasteful synthetics and a superbly vibrant mix.
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| Avoid it... |
on the original 1993 album if you desire a well-rounded presentation of Goldsmith's rejected work or Bill Payne's undemanding, solo piano
replacement blues, in which case the 2021 expansion is required.
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3/29/22
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Rambo: Last Blood (Brian Tyler)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
only if you desire extensions of Brian Tyler's original themes from Rambo, this underachieving sequel score referencing them frequently.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the legacy of Jerry Goldsmith to endure in this franchise, Tyler's applications of Goldsmith's themes disappointing and the new
action and suspense material substandard at best.
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3/25/22
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Dante's Peak (John Frizzell/James Newton Howard)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on the longer album presentation if you seek a well-rounded taste of the occasionally engaging but disappointingly generic material that James
Newton Howard and John Frizzell wrote for this equally mundane volcano thriller.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect either Howard's stoic thematic ideas or Frizzell's sometimes cheap action music to stand apart from their peers, because Dante's
Peak has few uniquely redeeming characteristics.
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3/20/22
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Terminator Genisys (Lorne Balfe)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you desire the most lyrical, dramatic, and symphonic score in the franchise of The Terminator, a surprisingly dynamic and yet faithful
treatment when at its best.
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| Avoid it... |
if you still long for a composer to finally do justice to Brad Fiedel's romantic franchise theme, Lorne Balfe missing a major opportunity to
ditch anonymous string ostinatos and develop the famous identity for this film.
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3/16/22
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Basic Instinct (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on especially the longer albums featuring this score if you are ready to hear truly unique erotic thriller music that perfectly balances the
inescapable sensuality and chilly dread of the film's shamelessly lurid plotline.
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| Avoid it... |
if even a clever exploration of the noir genre in Jerry Goldsmith's contemporary methodology cannot keep you from being disturbed by the
score's legendarily turbulent, challenging, and musically graphic sex and orgasm sequences.
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3/11/22
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Filmtracks announces its 2021 Awards and new Community Awards feature
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Filmtracks celebrates the best film music of 2021 with its annual nominees and winners in the categories of "Top Film Scores," "Top Composers," and "Top
Film Cues." The nominees for "Top Film Scores" in 2021 are:
Visit the 2021 Awards section to view the winners (and other categories). Also debuting this year is an official
page for the 2021 Filmtracks Community Awards. For more information about these awards or to view the
results from previous years, browse the Filmtracks Awards index page.
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3/6/22
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Finders of the Lost Yacht (Panu Aaltio)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you need music for good cheer, Panu Aaltio's outrageously fun and exuberant children's adventure spirit in this short but catchy whirlwind full of
swashbuckling zeal.
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| Avoid it... |
if you tire quickly of unyieldingly positive music from this genre, its tone sometimes diminished by synthetic sweetening to its moderate orchestral
presence.
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3/1/22
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Tale of the Sleeping Giants (Panu Aaltio)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you desire an ambitiously colossal expansion of Panu Aaltio's nature documentary sound, merging symphonic elegance this time with nontraditional
vocal and percussion techniques.
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| Avoid it... |
if you approach this genre with expectations of consistent melodic accessibility, for the very uniqueness that defines the sound of this score will
alienate those seeking familiar comfort.
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