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July/August 2024
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8/29/24
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Dad (James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek inoffensively pretty music in the upper tier of James Horner's personal and subtle human drama scores.
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| Avoid it... |
if even the most charming and melodic of Horner's more restrained efforts cannot sustain your interest compared to his otherwise
robust orchestral inclinations.
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8/24/24
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Brazil (Michael Kamen)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you smile at the wickedness of satirical comedy at its finest, Michael Kamen turning a classic tune into a fantastic tool of
dystopic parody for one his best career achievements.
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| Avoid it... |
on all of its albums if you expect any sane presentation of the film's music, Brazil long deserving far better treatment to truly
reveal the brilliance of Kamen's adaptations.
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8/20/24
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The Lost World: Jurassic Park (John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you can dismiss this score's positioning in a franchise and therefore appreciate John Williams' most violently brutal,
percussively rhythmic score of the digital age, one led by several monstrously propulsive cues of rambling, exotic power.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect this sequel score to make satisfyingly intelligent use of the classic themes and secondary motifs from Jurassic Park,
an unnecessary executive choice that makes this score an impressive but disappointing shadow of its predecessor.
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8/15/24
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Escape From L.A. (Shirley Walker/John Carpenter)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you are prepared to experience inventively wacky and bizarre music for this genre, Shirley Walker steering this franchise to a
wildly distinctive but inconsistent conclusion.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect this sequel score to expand upon the themes and style of its predecessor, the all-new themes unfocused and the
synthetic tone overtaken by awkwardly immense orchestral action in the third act.
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8/11/24
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Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Jongnic Bontemps)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you are a "glass half full" kind of person, for Jongnic Bontemps' mainstream debut offers significant thematic complexity to the
franchise even if it is obscured by a questionable rendering.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the booming personality of Steve Jablonsky's music for this franchise to persist, this adequate entry staking similar
but less refined ground.
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8/6/24
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Escape From New York (John Carpenter/Alan Howarth)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
on the 2-CD set released by Alan Howarth in 2018 to appreciate both the film and album mixes of his initial collaboration with John
Carpenter.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the style of the synthetics and limited acoustic instruments to compensate for the muddy and disorganized development
of the score's structures.
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8/2/24
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How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (John Powell)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you demand a satisfying conclusion to an incredible trilogy of music, the third entry a highly engaging and accessible
experience with a clear narrative.
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| Avoid it... |
if you become frustrated when franchises replace existing themes with new ones where not entirely necessary, John Powell
diminishing some old favorites here without really needing to do so.
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7/28/24
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Birth (Alexandre Desplat)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you can immerse yourself in a distressing but intelligent atmosphere of vaguely romantic mystery with an effectively creepy
narrative.
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| Avoid it... |
if you have no tolerance for Alexandre Desplat's prickly rhythmic inclinations or annoying electronic bass pulses, both integral
parts of this gloomy score.
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7/24/24
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
(Lorne Balfe)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you seek a more organic-sounding and refined version of Lorne Balfe's approach to Mission:
Impossible - Fallout, the Lalo Schifrin references continuing to win the day.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect Balfe's own, muddy themes and artistic choice to record with five different
ensembles to leave any lasting impression on you.
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7/19/24
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Girl With a Pearl Earring (Alexandre
Desplat)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you wish to hear Alexandre Desplat's impressive debut in the mainstream, Girl With a Pearl
Earring remaining one of the composer's more accessible and elegantly lyrical dramatic scores.
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| Avoid it... |
if you prefer the composer's more complex and challenging orchestrations and rhythmic discord,
traits largely suppressed for this delicately attractive work.
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7/15/24
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
(James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
on Intrada Records' 2009 or 2024 releases of James Horner's competent replacement score if you
desire the adequately whimsical, often unconventional choral and symphonic blend heard in the
film.
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| Avoid it... |
on those albums if you seek the better primary theme for the boys in the film, in which case
Georges Delerue's otherwise darker rejected score will more effectively appeal to your
romantic sensibilities, especially as heard on the composer's 1989 re-recording of 12 minutes
from this work.
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7/10/24
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Beverly Hills Cop 2 (Harold Faltermeyer)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you have a soft spot for the Harold Faltermeyer's score for Beverly Hills Cop and desire a faithful continuation of that same
sound.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect any significant evolution in the composer's stylistic personality for the franchise, though two new themes of
increasing coolness are introduced to lend more credible action tones.
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7/6/24
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Beverly Hills Cop (Harold Faltermeyer)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you recognize how challenging it can be to record contemporary, synthetic comedy music that is cool rather than cringeworthy,
Harold Faltermeyer accomplishing that feat with pure 1980's exuberance.
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| Avoid it... |
if you cannot tolerate film scores that repeat their constructs ad nauseam without significant alteration to their base performance
inflection.
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7/2/24
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Team America: World Police (Harry Gregson-Williams/Marc Shaiman)
All New Review
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| Buy it... |
if you have the devious sense of humor to understand the motivations behind Marc Shaiman and Trey Parker's outrageously racist and
sexist songs of parody intent.
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| Avoid it... |
if you expect the commercial album for this soundtrack to do justice to the recorded original score material from Shaiman and Harry
Gregson-Williams.
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