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May/June 2024
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6/28/24
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Cutthroat Island (John Debney)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you define your swashbuckling pirate music by the parameters of Hollywood's Golden Age and seek the one truly impressive
translation of that sound to a masterful digital-era recording.
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| Avoid it... |
if loquacious bombast of relentless and dramatic orchestral and choral intensity, consistent in its massive scope over the course
of two hours, is simply too much ruckus to tolerate no matter the score's status as a modern classic.
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6/23/24
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Papillon (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you admire Jerry Goldsmith's unique knack for heartfelt lyricism, his main theme for this score a mesmerizing waltz that
dominates the relatively short musical narrative.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the composer's bevy of secondary, darker motifs for the story's setting and oppression to extend any of the same
allure, much of the work's underbelly comparatively understated and challenging.
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6/19/24
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MacArthur (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you seek a slightly superior alternative to Jerry Goldsmith's Inchon, with a predictably prideful military march and
effective secondary theme of contemplation highlighting a conservative score.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect any of the elements in MacArthur to match the lasting appeal of Goldsmith's more famous work for Patton.
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6/14/24
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Young Sherlock Holmes (Bruce Broughton)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on either the 2014 or 2019 album if you seek a dynamic blend of Victorian character themes and challenging writing for conflict at
the height of Bruce Broughton's ascendance in the mid-1980's.
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| Avoid it... |
if the striking atonality of the suspense and killing cues is too disparate from the pretty and innocent themes for the
protagonists, this score maintaining a split personality from start to finish.
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6/10/24
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Incognito (John Ottman)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek one of the most rhythmically and instrumentally creative scores of the digital era, a devious highlight of John
Ottman's composing career.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are easily overwhelmed by culturally clashing and wildly percussive scores that dazzle you with their fiendishly executed
diversity of sound.
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6/5/24
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Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (Andrew Lockington)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if leftover fantasy and adventure material from Andrew Lockington's masterpiece, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, can alone
support a similar but ultimately lesser exploration of the same style.
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| Avoid it... |
if you've never been able to warm up to Lockington's sometimes elusive thematic structures, the narrative extremely well developed
here but suppressed at times by a distracting contemporary edge.
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6/1/24
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Serenity (David Newman)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you are an enthusiast of either this film or the television series that preceded it, because the score's experimental tones
are uniquely individual and defy most genre conventions.
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| Avoid it... |
even if you seek David Newman music that strays from his considerable talents in writing for ridiculous comedies, because Serenity
is a challenging and inaccessible exploration of dissonant exoticism.
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5/27/24
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Das Boot (Klaus Doldinger)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you admire the hybrid synthesizer scores of the 1980's, Das Boot representing a controversial but highly unique blend of
electronic and symphonic tones for a classic World War II submarine thriller.
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| Avoid it... |
if you lack tolerance for experimental music that is overly obvious in its tone, the score's main theme an undeniable cultural
favorite in Germany but one that sometimes overplays its hand in context.
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5/23/24
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Pleasantville (Randy Newman)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you appreciate Randy Newman's more serious, dramatic efforts of the 1990's, even if they're spiked with a few of his trademark
jazz and comedy cues.
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| Avoid it... |
on the original 1998 album if you value the careful narrative Newman developed for the score, the 2023 expansion loyally conveying
that musical awakening.
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5/17/24
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Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you must intellectually appreciate one of the most awkwardly inappropriate parody scores in the history of cinema, Jerry
Goldsmith's acclaimed avant-garde music an intrusive misfire of planetary proportions.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have no interest in hearing dissonant orchestral shock effects and unintentionally humorous ape noises while watching
gorillas on horseback herd primitive humans, though such music can be useful if you are seeking a divorce.
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5/13/24
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Scream VI (Brian Tyler/Sven Faulconer)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you are satisfied that this music could be worse, Brian Tyler's base style providing competent orchestral consistency with a
handful of tonal highlights.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are annoyed that this music could be better, the new main theme derivative of another Tyler score, Marco Beltrami's ideas
banished, and the album brutally long.
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5/8/24
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Steamboy (Steve Jablonsky)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you desire one of Steve Jablonsky's best and earliest career achievements, proof that he can write compelling orchestral
children's music with heartfelt themes.
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| Avoid it... |
if you easily tire of hearing a composer emulate the work of another, this score's melodic passages borrowing much from James
Horner classics.
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5/3/24
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Avatar: The Way of Water (Simon Franglen)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
without hesitation if you have any love for James Horner's music, Simon Franglen surpassing all expectations in composing an
astonishingly brilliant love letter to Horner that is arguably superior to its predecessor.
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| Avoid it... |
on the shorter soundtrack album unless you demand the end credits song, for several vital cues from the outstanding score are
missing from this presentation.
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