> 1. How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
> 2. Godzilla: King of the Monsters
> 3. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
> 4. Shazam!
> 5. Lost in Space Season 2
> 6. Our Planet
> 7. Little Women
> 8. Spider-Man: Far From Home
> 9. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
> 10. Cliffs of Freedom
> Composer of the year: Bear McCreary
I regret not re-listening to Our Planet nor hearing Lost in Space at all before posting my list. Ah well.
> 1-3 get *****. 4-10 get ****½. The runner-up is Dream Factory /
> Traumfabrik. Outlander S4 and Rim of the World contended, but the closing
> duo of ‘Milou’s Dream’ and the eponymous suite sealed the deal.
> The rest of my top 20: Aladdin, Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel,
> CyberWork and the American Dream, Masquerade Hotel, Swoon, Untamed Romania
> Other ****: Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Good Omens, A Hidden
> Life, His Dark Materials Season 1, The Professor and the Madman
> ***½ (round up to 4) works: Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Dumbo, Game of
> Thrones Season 8, Knives Out, Minuscule: Mandibles From Far Away, Sordo /
> The (Silent) War, Zwingli
> ***½ (round down to 3) works: Child’s Play, Erica, The Mandalorian Season
> 1, The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot
> ***: Charlie's Angels, Children of the Sea, Greedfall, It Chapter Two, Ni
> No Kuni: The Movie, The Secret Life of Pets 2
> Random thoughts:
> 2019 was a middle-of-the-pack year relative to the rest of the decade. It
> was superior to 2016 or 2011 but nowhere near 2018 or 2014, though the
> year’s top 3 scores are all in my top 150 all time. I rated 43 scores from
> works released in 2019 (including four that I didn’t get to until this
> month), which was a bit higher than last year’s count.
> I liked enough of the music from The Mandalorian, though portions were
> certainly PANTS. The weaker The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance got one
> listen on Spotify which wasn’t enough for a rating (probably ***, though
> I’m not interested in a 2+ hour repeat).
Agreed. A 45 minute album of both of those scores would be great. But I'd rather get a colonoscopy than listen through 7 EP albums of Mandalorian again.
> Favorite track: ‘Shazam!’ from Shazam!, closely followed by ‘Portals’ from
> Avengers: Endgame
> Composer of the year was an easy decision. I gave at least ***½ to all 6
> McCreary scores I heard, though I skipped the unenthusiastically received
> albums for Eli and See and, like most of America, I didn’t know the
> first/only season of Proven Innocent aired.
> 2019 specialty releases:
> Favorite specialty album released in 2019 is a tricky one to pick. There
> was no slam dunk.
> - All LLL boxes are well-produced, but not every featured score is
> terrific (e.g., all the Apes sequel scores).
> - Superman, Lonesome Dove, A Man Called Peter, and Masters of the Universe
> lack much in the way of “net new” material.
> - The “film versions” of the scores for King Rat, Monsignor, and
> especially The Thin Red Line are not better listening experiences.
> - Air Force One was fun to get in complete form but still registers as a
> mid-tier 90’s Goldsmith action score.
> My individual album pick is a tie between Intrada’s releases of Apollo 13
> and An American Tail. Both are for excellent scores, feature significant
> new material, and contain great liner notes. My runner-up pick is the
> superb restoration work done on The Bride of Frankenstein by La-La Land.
Apollo 13 is SO FREAKIN GOOD.
> My box set vote goes to Kritzerland’s Henry King at Fox. RIP Nick Redman.
> Older stuff:
> I would be remiss if I didn’t cite the many composers whose film outputs I
> was largely or entirely unfamiliar with before this year: Richard
> Addinsell, John Addison, William Alwyn, Daniele Amfitheatrof, Jeff
> Alexander, Malcolm Arnold, Georges Auric, Arthur Benjamin, Richard Rodney
> Bennett, Lord Berners, Stanley Black, Roy Budd, Mark Chait, Francis
> Chagrin, Andrew Cottee, Benjamin Frankel, Dave Grusin, Christopher
> Gunning, Neal Hefti, Kenyon Hopkins, Gottfried Huppertz, Constant Lambert,
> Leighton Lucas, Nathaniel Mechaly, Philipp Noll, Riz Ortolani, Clifton
> Parker, André Previn, Alan Rawsthorne, Nelson Riddle, Gerard Schurmann,
> the Sherman Brothers (and, by extension, Irwin Kostal), David Shire,
> Mischa Spoliansky, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Most of these discoveries
> were due to the Chandos Movies series. FSM’s MGM Soundtrack Treasury was
> also impactful.
Which were the Shire and Addison scores that got you?
> New listens to older scores/compilations (214 entries) was a bit higher
> than my 2018 listening (199 entries). No new classical albums were played
> last year (vs. 95 in 2018), though I did get to plenty of Chicago
> classical music concerts. Better luck in 2020, classical music albums!
> The top 10 older scores I discovered last year are ranked below while the
> rest are subsequently ordered alphabetically within rating tiers. Anything
> I found via Chandos is in bold text...and yes, dear reader, there is a lot
> of bold text below.
> *****
> 1. The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) - Alfred Newman
> 2. Mary Poppins (1964) – songs by The Sherman Brothers; score & song
> arrangements by Irwin Kostal
> 3. Raise the Titanic (1980) - John Barry
> 4. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) - Malcolm Arnold
> 5. Return to Oz (1985) - David Shire
> 6. Scott of the Antarctic (1948) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
> 7. Metropolis (1927) - Gottfried Huppertz
Raise the Titanic is SO GOOD.
> ****½
> 8. Dark City (1998) - Trevor Jones
> 9. Hobson’s Choice (1954) - Malcolm Arnold
> 10. Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) - Alfred Newman
> Runner-up: Lawman (1971) - Jerry Fielding
> ****1/2 (round up to 5) scores
> Bitter Springs (1950) – Ralph Vaughan Williams & Ernest Irving
> The Bride Wore Black (1968) – Bernard Herrmann
> A Bridge Too Far (1977) – John Addison
> The Fallen Idol (1948) – William Alwyn
> The Flemish Farm (1943) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
> 49th Parallel (1941) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
> Godzilla (1954) - Akira Ifukube
> The History of Mr. Polly (1949) – William Alwyn
> The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) - Malcolm Arnold
> Lady Caroline Lamb (1972) – Richard Rodney Bennett
> Lifeforce (1985) - Henry Mancini
> The Loves of Joanna Godden (1947) – Ralph Vaughan Williams
> Odd Man Out (1947) – William Alwyn
> Shogun (1980) - Maurice Jarre
> Wee Geordie (1955) - William Alwyn
> ****1/2 (round down to 4) scores
> Advise and Consent (1962) - Jerry Fielding
> Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991) - Robert Folk
> Boy on a Dolphin (1957) - Hugo Friedhofer
> Burma Victory (1945) – Alan Rawsthorne
> The Captive Heart (1946) - Alan Rawsthorne
> A Christmas Carol / Scrooge (1951) - Richard Addinsell
> Cold Lazarus (1996) - Christopher Gunning
> David Copperfield (1969) - Malcolm Arnold
> The England of Elizabeth (1957) - Ralph Vaughan Williams
> Far From The Madding Crowd (1967) - Richard Rodney Bennett
> The French Revolution: Years of Hope (1989) - Georges Delerue
> The French Revolution: Years of Rage (1989) - Georges Delerue
> Greyfriars Bobby (1961) - Francis Chagrin
> The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - Maurice Jarre
> Masters of the Universe (1987) - Bill Conti
> Merchant Seamen (1940) – Constant Lambert
> 95 (2017) - Panu Aaltio
> Oliver Twist (1948) – Arnold Bax
> The Orville Season 1 (2017) - Bruce Broughton, Joel McNeely, John Debney
> & Andrew Cottee
> Suicide Squadron / Dangerous Moonlight (1941) - Richard Addinsell
> Breakdown of acquisitions by type:
> - New (pre-2018): 133
> - Compilation rerecording: 29 - mostly Chandos, plus Nonesuch’s Music From
> The Films Of François Truffaut and Kritzerland’s Unchained
> Melodies/Holiday Set
> - Legitimate purchase of score I previously had: 16 - Air Force One, The
> Big Country, Innerspace, The Last Starfighter, Legend (US rejected/Europe
> cut), Lonesome Dove, Monsignor, The Polar Express, Predator, Princess
> Mononoke, Spirited Away, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
> Country, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Superman: The Movie, and 3:10
> to Yuma (2007)
> - Film recording of score I already had LP recording or rerecording of: 9
> - Body Heat, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Bride of Frankenstein, Charade,
> Conan the Barbarian (1982), King Rat, Lost Horizon (1937), Two for the
> Road, and The Valley of Gwangi
> - Expansion of previously owned score: 7 - An American Tail, Apollo 13,
> Cinema Paradiso, Minority Report, Schindler's List, The Thin Red Line, and
> The World Is Not Enough.
> - Compilation: 7 - LLL's Potter, Apes, and Quinn Martin v1 sets;
> Kritzerland’s Henry King at Fox; FSM’s United Artists & MGM v1 Western
> sets; and...shudders...the VS Film Music Festival Krakow 2016
> pre-show CD...NEVER BUY THIS, PEOPLE
> - 2018 score acquired in 2019: 7 - BlacKkKlansman, First Man, Mary Poppins
> Returns, Otros Mundos, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Watership Down in
> January; Bumblebee later
> - Additional recording: 3 - Tadlow’s Obsession, Tribute’s Fahrenheit 451,
> and the Symphonic Suite for Arion
> - LP recording of score I already had film recording of: 1 - FSM’s I Spy
> Vol. 2
> - Concert: 1 - Maurice Jarre at the Royal Festival Hall
> - Non-score album by film composer: 1 - Hisaishi’s Minima_Rhythm 2
Fun read bud, thanks!
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*NM*
