A fine list, and enjoyable read.
All the best.
> *****
> 1) Solo: A Star Wars Story
> 2) Mary Poppins Returns
> 3) God of War
> 4) Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
> 5) Max and Me
> ****1/2
> 6) Ready Player One
> 7) Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
> 8) Black Panther
> 9) Watership Down
> 10) 11-11: Memories Retold
> Runner-up is The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, with recently acquired “2018
> Scoreboard poll-eligible” 95 emerging late as a fellow contender.
> Composer of the year: Bear McCreary
> Specialty release of the year: Harry Potter – The John Williams Soundtrack
> Collection
> Other ****1/2 scores: The Cloverfield Paradox, Creed II,
> Incredibles 2, and Lost in Space Season 1
> The rest of the top 20: Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Banner Saga 3,
> First Man, and Miracle Season
> Other **** scores: BlacKkKlansman, The Girl in the Spider’s Web,
> Isle of Dogs, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Otros Mundos, The
> Predator, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Super Furball (Supermarsu)
> Random thoughts
> •Relative to all other years over my last decade of listening, 2018
> featured comparatively little airtime for “this year” scores; I got only
> to 38, versus an average over the prior 9 years of 63! SIXTY THREE! But I
> won’t use that to say 2018 was a weak year by any stretch…the year’s count
> of 15 “great” scores (16 if we’re counting late-released 2017 scores)
> represents the highest yearly count per my collection, and there were FIVE
> ***** entries, with one in my top 70 all time.
> Rather, I can attribute the low count to the confluence of a few factors:
> a) My classical music listening shot WAY up (seriously…see the end of this
> post)
> b) I continued to try to cut through my “to be heard” CD pile (some
> success…but then I keep adding to it…so not a huge net reduction)
> c) I became more hesitant to buy scores that were probably going to top
> out at *** or ***1/2 experiences, or even spend the time to explore them
> on a streaming service. There is something to be said for the
> quality-over-quantity approach; the worst score I heard in 2017 was either
> Revolt or The Invisible Guest (wastes of time and money both) while in
> 2018 the weakest score I heard was probably Command & Conquer:
> Rivals…and that one was still alright!
> d) There are 5-10 scores I could’ve listened to in full over the last
> month but didn’t end up evaluating because some combination of samples and
> board comments helped convince me they wouldn’t even be in contention for
> my top 20. So apologies to Welcome to Marwen, Out of the Shadows, Red
> Sparrow, Tides of Fate, Wild, Vice, and so on.
> •Composer of the year was a tough choice. Michael Giacchino, Roque Baños,
> and Ludwig Göransson also had very solid years.
> •It was surprising that The Banner Saga 3 didn’t register higher on my
> list. I love the sound that Wintory has produced for this universe (the
> first two scores have ****1/2 ratings, with the second being my current
> 2016 runner-up). But it didn’t evolve the concept in the same way that its
> predecessor did. Still, it’s a very good score.
> •Given that The Incredibles is a top-20 score of the aughts, Incredibles 2
> has to be one of the most disappointing great scores of all time.
> •The challenge with figuring out if The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is
> either the best or second-best score by Roque Baños is that it is just so
> freaking different from its sole competitor Evil Dead. Right now Evil Dead
> is slightly ahead.
> •Outlander Season 3 was not considered despite its 2018 album release. I
> know it was mentioned by a few folks last year based on their “as heard in
> show” thoughts. Also, Season 4’s fall debut muddies the qualification
> criteria further. I might have reconsidered this If I didn’t have so many
> scores rated ****1/2 or higher.
> •Most of the bonus tracks for Lost in Space were welcome
> •ALL of the additional FYC material for Mary Poppins Returns was welcome
> •With the ascent of Solo into my top 10 for the decade (#2 position), I
> realized that 90% of the entries there are franchises (Star Wars, HTTYD,
> TV seasons). The one outlier currently remains Space Battleship Yamato,
> and even that one utilized older themes. It’s not until #13 (Romeo &
> Juliet) that you get something 100% non-franchise.
> Profile of listens to other material, including 37 great older
> scores discovered this year:
> Score album acquisition breakdown (excluding 2018 works):
> •Pre-2017 score (not previously owned): 128
> •Compilation rerecording: 20
> •Expanded release (score previously owned): 14
> •2017 late purchases: 12
> •Additional recording: 9 (including TWO more Ben-Hur recordings)
> •Legit purchase of score I already had: 7
> •Compilation: 4
> •Film recording of score I already had album recording of: 4
> •Concert recording: 1
> ***** scores ranked
> 1) The Pride and the Passion (1957) – George Antheil
> 2) The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) – Max Steiner
> 3) Mysterious Island (1961) – Bernard Herrmann
> 4) Once Upon A Time In America (1984) – Ennio Morricone
> 5) Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – Older songs by Arthur Freed & Nacio
> Herb Brown; new songs by Betty Comden, Adolph Green & Roger Edens;
> music direction by Lennie Hayton; additional arrangements by Conrad
> Salinger & Alexander Courage
> ****1/2 (round up to 5) scores alphabetical
> •The African / L’Africain (1983) – Georges Delerue
> •Antony and Cleopatra (1972) – John Scott
> •From The Terrace (1960) – Elmer Bernstein
> •Kings Go Forth (1958) – Elmer Bernstein
> •Richard III (1955) – William Walton
> •Tai-Pan (1986) – Maurice Jarre
> •Things To Come (1936) – Arthur Bliss
> •The Vikings (1958) – Mario Nascimbene
> •Watership Down (1978) – Angela Morley, Malcolm Williamson & Mike Batt
> •Zulu Dawn (1979) – Elmer Bernstein
> ****1/2 (round down to 4) scores alphabetical
> •An Almost Perfect Affair (1979) – Georges Delerue
> •As You Like It (1936) – William Walton
> •The Bad Seed (1956) – Alex North
> •Battle of Britain (1969) – Ron Goodwin + William Walton’s ‘Battle in the
> Air’ (Walton’s rejected score overall gets ****)
> •Born on the Fourth of July (1989) – John Williams
> •Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) – Henry Mancini
> •Cheyenne Autumn (1964) – Alex North
> •Christopher Columbus (1949) – Arthur Bliss
> •Crimes Of The Heart (1986) – Georges Delerue
> •Crossed Swords (1977) – Maurice Jarre
> •The Final Countdown (1980) – John Scott
> •The First of the Few / Spitfire (1942) – William Walton
> •Hamlet (1964) – Dmitri Shostakovich
> •Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man (1962) – Franz Waxman
> •The Leopard / Il Gattopardo (1963) – Nino Rota
> •Lion of the Desert (1981) – Maurice Jarre
> •Mackenna’s Gold (1969) – Quincy Jones
> •Men of Two Worlds (1946) – Arthur Bliss
> •The Message / Mohammad, The Messenger of God (1976) – Maurice Jarre
> •Old Gringo (1989) – Lee Holdridge
> •The Right Stuff (1983) – Bill Conti
> •Woman Obsessed (1959) – Hugo Friedhofer
> Non-scores releases acquired
> •Classical: 94 (if we count the 38 from the massive Solti/CSO box based on
> their original individual albums)
> •Stage: 1
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