> Continuing the Goldsmith Collection Expansion Chronicles with some odds
> and ends.
> First up: The Detective and Von Ryan’s Express. Both were
> reissued by La-La Land as part of the label’s Black Friday batch, but
> since I already had satisfactory versions of their companion scores
> (The Flim-Flam Man for the former and The Blue Max for the
> latter) I tracked down a reasonably-priced used copy of the 2013 Intrada
> release that paired both scores.
> Like a number of other thrillers Goldsmith scored in that era, The
> Detective boasts a truly knockout jazz-influenced main theme (this time
> with some Elmer Bernstein-like swagger) that the composer was able to
> twist in a number of different ways. However, as the score’s fairly brief
> (yes, I recognize some tracks are missing), it does end up feeling a bit
> monothematic, and there are a number of weird effects (that rippling synth
> sound, for example) that aren’t always easy to listen to. Surprisingly, we
> hear the genesis of the goofy main titles piece from Escape from the
> Planet of the Apes in this score’s ‘Beach Scene’. In short, if you
> like Goldsmith’s other crime/spy music from the era (e.g., The
> Prize, Warning Shot, the Flint series), you’ll probably
> like this one.
> Von Ryan’s Express features a decent march theme, though in ‘Fire Sale’ it
> roughly approximates what it would’ve sounded like if Goldsmith wrote
> Patton or MacArthur while drunk on Italian wine. The jagged
> opening with its nervy percussion sounds like proto-POTA music. The
> bouncing tones and abrasive brass in the Rome tracks are close cousins of
> Goldsmith’s stomping Western action music and The Blue Max. In fact, you
> hear a lot of the tense, martial style resurrected on a more massive scale
> in the subsequent year’s score. Effective and occasionally quite
> entertaining, but there’s an “oh, that’s it?” feeling when the score ends.
> *** for both. If you’re gonna buy the recent LLL Goldsmith at Fox albums,
> do it for the other two featured scores.
> Next: The Challenge. One does get reminded of a lot of other,
> better Goldsmith scores written around this time. I’ve read reviews saying
> this is like a Rambo score with some of the evocative majesty from
> Poltergeist, and those are fairly spot-on as the main theme’s
> interludes are definitely close cousins of the supernatural film’s music.
> If anything, it’s perhaps a bit TOO dependent on its main theme, with
> numerous stretches coming off as a bit too sedate/familiar.
> But even if Goldsmith’s action sequences aren’t his most memorable, they
> still manage to enthral, with some tracks channeling the booming intensity
> of his percussive 1970s works (the ascending timpani motif brings to mind
> Damnation Alley). Plus, the sonic palette fascinates; Goldsmith was
> a master of tailoring the entirety of a score around East/West fusions, an
> aspect brought out by the terrific recording.
> ***½. Please note that this rating is not impacted by the nipple visible
> on one of the pages of La-La Land’s liner notes.
> Last, but certainly not least: Total Recall. I had the Varèse
> Deluxe edition. In 2020 I threw down for the 30th Anniversary Edition by
> Quartet after missing out on the label’s 2015 release of the same content.
> There’s not much “new” to the Quartet album relative to the Varèse one;
> the primary musical upgrade is probably having the finale piece without
> the brief source music extra at the end.
> But my god...WHAT AN ALBUM COVER.
> *****
I'm deeply disappointed I've only heard one of these. Plus, a nipple!!!
Good read bud, gotta check these out.
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* Would the impact be for the better or the worse?