> Well this was delightful. I was hoping you'd enjoy the score itself a
> little more since I did remember you liked it in context, but rambling
> indignation is a fun read too. Unfortunately I have to cut off the
> potential subsequent discussion by starting with your last paragraph:

> Yeah it's basically this lol.

> I would estimate that before his passing, Johannsson had a bigger fanbase
> than Martinez, but within our community the difference was negligible. I
> thought Sicario was a breath of fresh air, I loved Arrival (oh such sweet
> nostalgia for those fork battles (also nothing makes me feel older these
> days than to realize how long ago 2015 was)), and yeah a few people around
> here backed me up on those too, but that's most of the Johannsson love
> around here. Some of that's because his career was cut short but also a
> significant part of it is that the board's collective shift towards
> appreciating scores of that nature is a slow one. The people who are
> dismissive of your beloved Cliffy are mostly the same ones who can't stand
> the Johannsson scores I would rave about. Also, depending on which period
> you might consider Martinez's career peak, it probably came before that
> community shift really happened. And personally, I do like some of
> Martinez's work. In fact, isn't the last score I gave you on this list a
> Martinez??

I completely forgot during my big “why don’t you like Martinez you dink” rant, your last pick for me to listen to is a Martinez hahaha. What a dope I can be.

> Anyway, now that I've gone and poo-pooed all over your little rant by
> dismantling its premise, let me go actually engage with some of your
> thoughts.

> Please, I'm sure I took longer to write mine lol

Ehhhh I doubt it but I’ll say sure, makes me feel better haha

> Yes, I'd say Force Awakens was our first big fight, then Arrival, then
> something coming in the next Desplat chapter...Did we have a 2018 fight?
> Maybe Beale Street?

That sounds familiar, though by that point I think we were already mellowed and chatting outside of the Board so it never got quite as heated as Arrival again.

> This feels a little exaggerated, since it landed somewhere in the teens of
> my 2018 rankings, but also that's higher than other scores I got really
> impassioned about, so yeah I must have liked it a lot!

> My biggest hope was you'd love these bits and so I'm content.

I think that was the same when I made you listen to KPAX and k was like well I hope he at least likes the cheesy 00’s synth piano haha

> Gonna be honest, it's been a long while since I've heard this one so I
> can't remember exactly what you're referring to.

> Again, I like Martinez and I'm pretty neutral on Gustavo.

Phooey. Could’ve sworn you disliked both - though my argument was to a wider swatch of folks, cause I could’ve sworn Mandy, Sicario, and especially Arrival got a lot of love around here, whereas those other two guys get, at best, “I didn’t hate it”.

> I did my diligence and listened to all of these, and I loved the one from
> Only God Forgives. The kind of stuff from Martinez I love the most.

I wish more of that score was like that cue haha, but once you see the film, it all makes sense and works wonders.

> Pixar of composers is an extremely overblown description unless you're
> including IndieWire types as part of the ones heaping praise on him. But
> even then, Desplat is so obviously your Pixar of composers lol. Or, you
> know, Giacchino, who has written a bunch of Pixar scores.

….yeah good point, those two make more sense for my analogy.

> The big difference is that I listen to Johannsson's music

> Anyway, um...Joker is fine. The biggest thing about Johann is that
> something (and unfortunately I lack the vocabulary to express this) about
> each of his scores had a distinct sound to it. Despite the ambience or the
> droning, there was something that stuck with me that made it sound unique,
> and even though Hildur has been sort of positioned as his successor in
> that sound, her music doesn't engage me quite as well in that sense. (And
> yes, there's an irony there in how much of Johann's unique voice was
> Hildur's cello playing.) As for the others, I haven't heard Only God
> Forgives in full (changing that after the track you shared) or Dopesick.
> But gloomy grungy scores like Mandy are very much my jam regardless of
> composer; I was one of the few people that was high on Djawadi's
> Reminiscence a couple years ago. And the stuff in the 20ish minutes of
> Mandy that you liked are plenty and strong enough for me to carry the less
> interesting parts.

Fair enough.

> Ayyy I'll take it!

> Wait did you not already write about this one? Wait nvm that was the
> Morricone. Yeah you already sent me a couple thoughts on this one haha.

Haha yeah, but I gotta relisten to it anyway and I bet I’ll like it more on this next round.