|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
July/August 2023
|
8/28/23
|
Conan the Destroyer (Basil Poledouris)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you're extremely devoted to Basil Poledouris' music for Conan the Barbarian and are willing to overlook comparatively poor
performance execution and recording quality for a continuation of the same sound.
|
| Avoid it... |
in its original form and instead seek the 2011 re-recording of the complete score if you hold Conan the Barbarian with such high
regard that you can't tolerate hearing inadequate players mangle parts of its lesser sequel.
|
|
8/23/23
|
Before I Wake (The Newton Brothers/Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for fourteen minutes of impressively dramatic Danny Elfman tonalities, his material positively influencing some of
the music provided by The Newton Brothers as well.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you have no interest in hearing a watered-down version of John Debney's Dragonfly joined by an abundance of stock
horror stingers and generic suspense outside of the lyrical fantasy portions.
|
|
8/18/23
|
Tomorrow Never Dies (David Arnold)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you seek arguably the best score in the history of the James Bond franchise, with a superior mix of jazzy 1960's
throwback nostalgia and hard-nosed, techno-thrilling style.
|
| Avoid it... |
on all albums prior to the outstanding 2022 set if you demand a fair and comprehensive presentation of music from
the film.
|
|
8/13/23
|
The Circle (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you want to be gaslighted into believing that retro synthetics are the brainwashing tool of tomorrow's
surveillance state, Danny Elfman approaching the techno-thriller from a very unconventional viewpoint.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you know that the best suspense scores involving future technology are driven by characters, a concept which, for
some reason, Elfman completely ignored in his development of themes and style for this work.
|
|
8/9/23
|
The Funhouse (John Beal)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you tire of conventional, modern horror techniques and seek a propulsive, symphonic, and dynamic score in the
genre that resurrects classic Hollywood orchestration.
|
| Avoid it... |
if anything remotely resembling waltz-inspired carnival music unsettles you beyond your tolerance for unpleasant
suspense music.
|
|
8/4/23
|
Tulip Fever (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if any dose of drama from Sommersby and Black Beauty in your Danny Elfman scores is good enough for your nostalgic
heart.
|
| Avoid it... |
if muddy thematic enunciation and stagnant instrumental depth are too definitive as detriments to this surprisingly
passionless work.
|
|
7/31/23
|
Spider-Man (Danny Elfman)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you seek an engaging Danny Elfman superhero score that merges the troubled and lonely tones of Darkman with the
flashy, modern energy, and instrumentation of Men in Black.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you require the score to exude the magnificent stature of Batman, something that Spider-Man's more fragmented
stylistic approach does not allow for.
|
|
7/26/23
|
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you value Danny Elfman's penchant for quirky humor over convincing heart, a tendency that earns him some praise
for creativity in this score but will leave many listeners cold.
|
| Avoid it... |
if your tolerance for recycling of ideas from prior scores is minimal, Elfman revisiting more material here than
necessary and failing to provide the film with much narrative evolution.
|
|
7/22/23
|
Aladdin (Alan Menken)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
on the original 1992 CD pressing if you seek to hear Aladdin as it was meant to be, an
entertaining and humorous collection of songs with strong melodic adaptations in the
accompanying underscore.
|
| Avoid it... |
on any album other than the 2022 "Legacy Collection" if you seek Alan Menken's full score
alongside the film's songs in the best sound quality available.
|
|
7/17/23
|
White Noise (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for fifteen minutes of engagingly tonal Elfman drama of a tortured, retro variety, the
highlights of this score raising fond memories of the composer's early tragedies.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect the score to make much sense, its infusion of 1980's electronica not always
meaningfully impactful and the thematic narrative extremely elusive.
|
|
7/13/23
|
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
on one of the expanded, score-only albums if you can satisfy yourself with annoyingly haphazard parody zeal
supplanted by fifteen minutes of melodically gorgeous James Horner material at the climax.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the original, irritating commercial album unless you demand movie quotes and the obligatory pop songs along with
an abbreviated, mediocre presentation of Horner's score.
|
|
7/8/23
|
The Little Prince (Hans Zimmer/Richard Harvey)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for ten to fifteen minutes of lovely, largely singular highlights in an otherwise insubstantial and dainty fantasy score.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you're looking for Hans Zimmer's fingerprints on this soundtrack, its somewhat meandering tone and disjointed structures more
often resembling the bevy of composers that actually wrote the bulk of the score.
|
|
7/4/23
|
Scream (Marco Beltrami)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
on the ridiculed 1998 album if you seek just a small but surprisingly adequate taste of the most memorable Marco Beltrami cues from
the first two scores in the Scream franchise.
|
| Avoid it... |
on the longer products if you expect the stock suspense and horror material from Scream to compete favorably with its
contemporaries or, for that matter, its own sequels.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
