|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
March/April 2025
|
4/29/25
|
Pure Luck (Jonathan Sheffer/Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
to pad your Danny Elfman collection if you find good cheer in his vintage music for lightweight movies like Summer School and
Article 99.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you hope to hear the score branch off from Elfman's typical style because of his marginal involvement, Jonathan Sheffer
remaining extremely faithful to his sound of the era.
|
|
4/26/25
|
A Girl Named Sooner (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review, Separated from Dual Review
|
| Buy it... |
if there is no limit to your adoration for Jerry Goldsmith's sensitive character themes, this television score featuring a pair of
his lovely identities for a small ensemble.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you cannot overcome highly dissatisfying sound quality that sometimes causes distracting distortion to the soundscape in fuller
cues.
|
|
4/23/25
|
Islands in the Stream (Jerry Goldsmith)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
only if you appreciated Jerry Goldsmith's introspective score in the context of the film, where the music reflects the subtleties
of the ocean and the story's lead character.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you want this highly personal, touching score to exude much outward warmth, for it is content in its own introverted sphere of
lonely ambience at low volumes.
|
|
4/20/25
|
Babe (1975) (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
only for the notable finale cue of sentimental remembrance from the full ensemble, the bulk of Babe understated in its pleasant but
underwhelming acoustic guitar, harp, and string presence.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect Jerry Goldsmith to provide a film about a historic female athlete with anything remotely resembling the inspiration
of his later, famous sports drama scores.
|
|
4/16/25
|
Son of God (Hans Zimmer/Lorne Balfe/Various)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if your faith compelled to view and enjoy this film, in which case its souvenir soundtrack with re-used Hans Zimmer derivatives and
movie quotes might inspire you.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you prefer to use your brain.
|
|
4/13/25
|
9 (Deborah Lurie/Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for its ten-minute payoff of compelling action and fantasy at the end, including hints of Danny Elfman magic in the dramatic finale
cue.
|
| Avoid it... |
if an effective but workmanlike, anonymous thematic core in typical orchestral style doesn't hold your interest for a concept as
unique as this one.
|
|
4/9/25
|
Logan's Run (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for Jerry Goldsmith's masterful interplay between the score's two themes, the romantic payoff at the end a hearty conclusion to an
otherwise challenging work.
|
| Avoid it... |
if the composer's synthetic explorations of atonality during the 1970's drive you insane, for the completely electronic passages in
the score are wildly intrusive.
|
|
4/6/25
|
Out of Africa (John Barry)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if broad John Barry romanticism of consistently dramatic tonality melts your heart, in which case Out of Africa is among three or
four scores of absolute certainty for your collection.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect this score to sound anywhere near as decent in its original recording quality as some of Barry's equivalent works or
if you desire a plentitude of thunderously melodramatic performances in the ranks of Dances With Wolves.
|
|
4/4/25
|
High Velocity (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
if you consistently appreciate Jerry Goldsmith's suspenseful action mode of the 1970's and wish to hear that sound infused with
Latin specialty instrumentation.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect any of the melodies or performance techniques of this score to reach out with distinction, the terribly archival
quality of the recording hampering the soundscape considerably.
|
|
4/1/25
|
Woman in Gold (Martin Phipps/Hans Zimmer)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for a competent, conservative drama score that adequately shares a chamber feeling between understated themes supplied by Martin
Phipps and Hans Zimmer.
|
| Avoid it... |
if inspiration is your expectation, Phipps' work elevating optimism and determination for the protagonist in only a few cues and
Zimmer's portion stewing in the gloomier flashback sequences.
|
|
3/29/25
|
Restless (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for an extremely conservative, lightly touched Danny Elfman drama with almost none of the composer's trademark quirkiness.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you, like Gus Van Sant, ponder why Elfman never provides the director's stories with overtly orchestral and deeply emotional
scores, this one never really hitting the heart.
|
|
3/26/25
|
The Cassandra Crossing (Jerry
Goldsmith)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
on the 2008 Prometheus album only if you are an established enthusiast of Jerry Goldsmith's
brutally raw, propulsive action and pretty character themes of the late 1970's.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect any truly satisfying presentation of this merely average score to exist, its film
recording relegated to muted mono sound and its stereo album sometimes significantly different in
tone.
|
|
3/24/25
|
Twisters (Benjamin Wallfisch)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| Buy it... |
if you can appreciate a competently exciting adaptation of the film's country song environment for an engaging and occasionally
clever but ultimately anonymous orchestral romp.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect to hear anything from Mark Mancina's 1996 score, Benjamin Wallfisch taking an arguably overthought approach to
creating a complex sound for the sequel that is lacking a truly punchy thematic presence.
|
|
3/21/25
|
Damnation Alley (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
on the 2017 Intrada Records product only if you wish to hear Jerry Goldsmith provide marginally interesting post-apocalyptic chase
music with a full ensemble and early synthetics.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you expect the quality of Goldsmith's output to merit the collectible albums on which it has appeared, the composer clearly not
greatly inspired by the wretched film.
|
|
3/18/25
|
The Son (Hans Zimmer)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
only if you seek to complete your collection of drab, unexpressive, and emotionless Hans Zimmer dramas of minimal scope.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you're badly constipated, because nothing in this music will help inspire that stubborn turd to get moving.
|
|
3/15/25
|
The Woman in the Window (Danny Elfman)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for the opening and closing renditions of the main theme of vaguely warm but still challenging accessibility, the remainder of the
score sufficiently mundane and workmanlike in the suspense genre.
|
| Avoid it... |
unless you are prepared for a lesser incarnation of The Girl on the Train and a host of other Danny Elfman scores of moody
minimalism.
|
|
3/13/25
|
The Matrix (Don Davis)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
|
| 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 and 2024 albums too short and the 2021 complete version only for true franchise enthusiasts.
|
| 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.
|
|
3/10/25
|
The Salamander (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
for the impressive 2013 re-recording to hear the only available album of Jerry Goldsmith's compelling 1981 score and suites from
two similar works from the same period.
|
| Avoid it... |
if the aggressive brutality of Goldsmith's thriller mode of the late 1970's has never appealed to your tastes, this score very true
to the composer's methodology at the time.
|
|
3/7/25
|
The Lonely Guy (Jerry Goldsmith)
All New Review
|
| Buy it... |
only if you seek to complete your collection of 1980's Jerry Goldsmith film scores, the comedy tones here far less mature than in
the composer's genre works just a few years later.
|
| Avoid it... |
if you have little tolerance for Goldsmith's lighter and upbeat synthetic mannerisms of the 1980's, their presence largely
dominating the otherwise pretty orchestral presence.
|
|
3/3/25
|
Filmtracks announces its 2024 Awards
|
Filmtracks celebrates the best film music of 2024 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 2024 are:
Visit the 2024 Awards section to view the winners (and other categories). Also available is an
official page for the 2024 Filmtracks Community Awards. For more information about
these awards or to view the results from previous years, browse the Filmtracks Awards index.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
