Film Scores

[Marley Drama]

Quite possibly my favourite score of all time is Herrmann's Psycho. I'm a big fan of strings, and to have a complete film score written just for strings is incredible.

And yet it's taken ages for Jerry Goldsmith's Psycho II score to click with me.

I bought the expanded CD when it came out back in 2014, played it once and never really revisited it as I felt it was too different from Herrmann's original and I really wasn't sure about some of the boing-y electronic elements.

But this week saw me some film scores during car journeys, and Psycho II kept popping up. And what do you know... I think it's brilliant. Hearing it in isolation and not comparing it with anything it just really works. It's filled with atmosphere, but there's also a haunting fragility that drives it along and adds a great deal of poignance.

This one's going to be heavily played throughout October, I think:

 

[Marley Drama]

While I have the previous La-La Land release, I had to buy the expanded version of Friday The 13th.

I had a lovely surprise when it arrived as I'd completely forgotten that early orders were to be signed by Harry Manfredini. He's not only signed it... he's added a little musical motif that will be familiar to anyone who knows the most iconic part of the score:

The reversible cover is nice as well. I think I marginally prefer the "red sky" alternative version.​

 

[The First Noele]

I cant believe I didnt post this at the time

Gabriels Oboe from The Mission, this is my alarm clock in the morning in case I dont wake up and beautifully conduced by Ennio Morricone - RIP last year
some music just has the power to make you cry

 

[The First Noele]

Go to Youtube and watch Morricone conducting an orchestra, its wonderful but doesnt always allow me to post it here

 

[Marley Drama]

The day before yesterday I was motoring through little lanes in the countryside enjoying pretty views on a beautiful sunny day. As I frequently do when driving alone, I had my Film Score playlist shuffling when on came Miss Marple's Theme - Ron Grainer's title music for the delightfully daft Rutherford film series:

It was one of those rare serendipitous examples of the music and the moment fitting one another so perfectly that it deepened my love of this cheeky, exuberant little track.​

 

[Marley Drama]

Miss Marple's Theme - Ron Grainer's title music

Oh, of course I meant Ron Goodwin.

Some days I just don't know my Whos from my Marples.

 

[Marley Drama]

Slightly shamefully, I must confess I've never owned the soundtrack for E.T The Extra-Terrestrial.

I did, of course, have the 7" single back when the film was first released (probably my first example of owning any film score at all), and that got a lot of play. And some tracks from the soundtrack have appeared on compilations I've owned over the years, most notably Williams's album versions of Over The Moon and Flying. But I've never had the soundtrack beyond that.

This week that was remedied when my pre-ordered 40th Anniversary Edition arrived:

The 40th is simply a reissue of the 2-CD 35th Anniversary Edition, identical in every respect but of the text on the front now saying 40th instead of 35th (I even contemplated adding it to my iTunes library as the 35th).

It's remastered by Mike Matessino who's done wonderful work over the years, including some previous Williams releases. As far as it can tell this sounds as luscious as ever, but I'm putting off playing it in full until I've had microsuction to (hopefully) cure the tinnitus/deafness combo going on in my left ear.

I'm looking forward to giving both discs a proper outing very soon.

 

[Marley Drama]

Oh Lord. I think La-La Land are trying to bankrupt me with their final releases of the year. In the end I had to constrain myself to two releases on five discs. Thanks to international shipping and the worthless value of the pound (cheers Brexiteers)- these two alone cost me over £85 (and that's before I'm stung with import charges), but what the hell. You only live twice:

I own the old single disc editions of both soundtracks already, but they are both goodies.

Spider-Man is one of Elfman's best in my opinion, and a favourite superhero film score full stop. I didn't realise there was so much additional material and I can't wait to get stuck in.

Tomorrow Never Dies is a terrific Bond score but what really sold me on this reissue was that it contains TWO versions of k.d. lang's wonderful Surrender, including one with an alternative opening. I have no idea what it will be like, but I'm really hoping for a ballad intro à la Diamonds Are Forever.

 

[Marley Drama]

Gabiel Yared's score to The Talented Mr. Ripley is quite stunning with some diverse styles going on.

A nice surprise this week was discovering there's a new 25th Anniversary Expanded Edition.

I immediately ordered direct from the label themselves and within hours have had a tracking email letting me know it's ready to ship. The manufacturer is in France but it appears to be coming from Germany. I kind of wish it was the other way round as I'm a little nervous about the remastering. Most French-produced CDs in my collection seem to be louder and harsher than their equivalents from other countries. But this is a different genre to those (which are mostly pop) and a label I don't believe I've heard before, so I'm keeping an open mind.

The track list is very impressive. It's wonderful these have surfaced all these years later.

 

[Richard Channing]

 

[Marley Drama]

Oh Lord. I think La-La Land are trying to bankrupt me with their final releases of the year. In the end I had to constrain myself to two releases on five discs.

Spider-Man is one of Elfman's best in my opinion, and a favourite superhero film score full stop. I didn't realise there was so much additional material and I can't wait to get stuck in.

Two years on and here we go again.

The three-disc expanded set for the first film proved well-worth the investment and has been heavily-played by me. I also regularly enjoy tracks from the single-disc version of the 2004 sequel's score. I knew I wanted to take the plunge with this expanded edition immediately.

It's exciting, also, that Christopher Young and John Debney's music will be included in this set. I must confess in all these years I hadn't realised it wasn't all Elfman.

The third film was scored entirely by Christopher Young and has never been officially released, so here's hoping this paves the way for an expanded Spider-Man 3 album in a year or two (and while they're at it, let's have Young's Urban Legend and Debney's I Know What You Did Last Summer).


I didn't go mad with albums. To make it worth the postage charges I just added Friday The 13th Part 2: The Ultimate Cut to pair with the original (( don't intend to buy any more in this series as I've never felt the desire to watch any of the films beyond the second, and I'm sure it'll be more of the same).


Another big release from the label this November isJurassic Park III. I was tempted for a moment or two but I decided against it as I missed out on the first sequel's album and I think it would annoy me to have the first and third on the shelf without the second. Plus it's not John Williams, and I find Don Davis rather hit and miss.

Ooh - this looks interesting.

 

[Marley Drama]

Thanks to a Black Friday sale at Varèse, my film score CDs have been given a little boost in the last few days:

I already own the original 1992 CD of Silvestri's Death Becomes Here score, but felt it easily warranted double-dipping to upgrade to The Deluxe Edition. It turns out I'll have to keep the original for completion, since the DE includes some extended tracks (including Streep's rendition of Me) without throwing in the original album versions.

A little curiosity here: I've only watched two of the five films featured here (and I didn't think Hangman was particularly good, even though I liked the score).

Dracula 2000 and Mimic are films that I was aware of back in the day but simply didn't appeal. They still don't, but I knew I'd get some enjoyment from the albums since it's Scream-era Marco Beltrami. Hearing some of the albums has actually made me curious about the films themselves. D2K in particular is very nicely done, with a recurring haunting motif of a female voice (Mamak Khadem) doing that exotic ethereal yodelly thing (like Márta Sebestyén in Yared's The English Patient, Fairuz in the background to Madonna's Erotica, or the theme to Central Park West).

The soundtrack to Mimic has been on my radar for a long time partly because it's very Scream-esque, but mostly due to parts of it being (controversially) used in Halloween H20. A bit of digging round revealed the track in question was Race to The Subway and, upon a listen, yes - it does conjure up H20 images:

Along Came A Spider has a very intriguing sound to it (it's also a film I'd actually very much like to watch. I don't know how I haven't manage to see it yet). I find Jerry Goldsmith to be a very unpredictable composer due to his versatility and willingness to experiment and take risks, so one never quite knows what to expect. But a Deluxe Goldsmith score at an excellent price is always going to be worth a shot. From the parts I've heard, it strikes a great balance between traditional orchestral and electronic, and I'm sure many tracks will be getting plenty of plays.

At the end of Spider is a short outtake reel (barely 2 minutes), including a couple of short tracks played in full (I've separated them out). In between, it includes some repartee from Jerry himself, which suggests a warm, fun atmosphere during recording. To give an idea, the track opens with Jerry making a little comment that would probably get him cancelled today:

Women can never make up their minds.