2018 should not be five years ago. It still feels like last year, or a couple years ago! Pandemic time, I suppose. And if I remember correctly, it was this year that "Replaced by Lorne Balfe" became an in-joke in the film music fan community.

> -----------------------

> 12 Strong (2018) - *

One of those scores that has "works in the film" as the absolutely only thing going for it. Boring and unambitious, and likely not Balfe's fault. I feel like it was one of the biggest wastes of time I've ever had with an album. (What *was* Balfe's fault was the jaw-shatteringly long album. This score would be a chore at 45 minutes, and at an hour it's torture.)

> Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018) - *˝

I want to say that you were too harsh on this one, but remembering that Djawadi worked within the RC sound five years prior to deliver a top-20 score for me, I can't help but agree. I get that it was a last-minute rush job, but it's just painfully anonymous and cliched (and again, an overlong album).

> Genius Season 2: Picasso (2018) - ***˝

Don't think I heard this, but sounds fun!

> Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) - ****

This may be the hardest I've disagreed with you so far. It's not that I think it's awful, but it has two things that sour it for me, both of which you touched on. The first was Kraemer's ejection, which was just such a blow. His ability's been written about for years, and he just can't find work. His biggest break was Rogue Nation, and he's forced out. Obviously a composer's not entitled to projects or collaborations, but this was a senseless move (unless he and McQuarrie had a falling-out). For the record, though, Balfe shouldn't get shit for the situation, as he (almost certainly) had no hand in Kraemer's ejection. You get the job offer, that's that. And he handled the internet shitshow better than some of his peers have...

The other thing is the music itself. Yes, Balfe wrote more intelligently than you might expect, but it's nothing Kraemer couldn't have done. As Clemmensen said in his review, Rogue Nation's music was already an impressive meeting-in-the-middle of Zimmer muscularity and the classic sound. So why the change-up? For me, McQuarrie's choice was complete nonsense. Balfe wrote the music he was asked to write, and rebelling against a director's vision is a great way to get canned. I guess I'm more lamenting the whole sitch.

Okay, all that said, it's not like I hate the score. In fact, it might be one of the best uses of TDK's sound in recent memory; my gripe is that sound intruding into the M:I universe. He uses Schifrin's themes more than I would have expected, and he has a lot of fun percussion, as you noted. Several passages also shine, like Ethan's run across London. The album situation didn't help though, as the standard one was two hours, and the extended even longer. That's way too long for a score like this, irrespective of its strengths.

And that's a lot of words for me saying I would only drop it one star, or a star and a half

> Everyone’s got a guilty pleasure score. This
> one’s mine.

I'm glad you do! Maybe I'll return to it down the road and go "oh wait, I was a fool." It's happened before!

> Not everyone liked the music of Fallout as much as I did. And when
> viewed in aggregate Lorne’s film scores from this year, each with their
> own modern flavor, seemed to affirm Tom Holkenborg’s comments from the
> prior year. Maybe this was really the new reality of what filmmakers
> wanted. But then there were examples to the contrary from the same year,
> including one by a man who “can put more energy in a piece of music
> than a roomful of EDM fuckers.”

This is the truth. Balfe has it within his wheelhouse to do something akin to what Kraemer did, that he did not indicates that it was the higher-ups' decision. Not everyone was making that call, but enough did that the atmosphere from then felt dire!

> -----------------------

> Next time: That score.

I'm wracking my brains, and I am just drawing a blank on what this could be! Consider me in suspense!

(Love your writing! Truly a treat with every installment)