Tag Archives: scores

Soundtrack: Skyfall

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Guest Post By: Brendan

Thomas Newman is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Sam Mendes – I noticed his American Beauty score featured heavily in the recent documentary Inventing David Geffen. My favorite of their collaborations is Road to Perdition, a gorgeous and delicate piano-driven suite. Newman’s composition for Mendes’ latest film, Skyfall, is a different beast – a heavily synthesized score which features few delicate moments.

The tragic character of “Severine” provides a brief respite in a score which otherwise pummells you into submission. It is a glorious, 78-second string arrangement, conjuring memories of my favorite Bond music – John Barry’s instrumental “We Have All The Time In The World.”

Skyfall is otherwise a surprisingly forgettable score, though I did enjoy the “Shanghai Drive” theme, its reprisal in the album’s concluding track, “Adrenaline,” and the percussive energy of “Silhouette.” Monty Norman’s original theme is incorporated particularly well in “Breadcrumbs.”

Adele’s “Skyfall” was oddly not included in the US release of the film’s soundtrack.

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Soundtrack: Water for Elephants

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I have not seen the new film, Water for Elephants, which is based on Sara Gruen’s novel. However, I have greatly enjoyed listening to the movie’s soundtrack. The original score by composer James Newton Howard is a lovely collection of instrumentals both serene and dramatic. The rest of the album features Depression-era jazz and blues, the centerpiece of which is Bessie Smith’s guttural rendering of “I Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl.”

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John Barry

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Occasional Muruch writer Brendan was pulled out of the shadows again by the death of composer John Barry. I (Vic) would count Barry’s beautiful theme from Somewhere In Time as one of my all-time favorite instrumentals. Brendan’s thoughts on Barry’s work follow…

One of my favorite composers of film music died this week. Career retrospectives are easy to find, so I’ve decided to post a chronology of my favorite John Barry music.

The James Bond theme is perhaps one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever composed and I heard it many times in reruns of Bond movies on Irish television growing up. I also remember a Guinness TV commercial from the mid-nineties, which used “All the Time in the World” to great effect.

The first time I really noticed Barry’s music, perhaps sadly, was in The Specialist. His score for the film was sublime, and the track “Did You Call Me?” made it onto my 1999 mixtape, pretentiously titled Life: A Soundtrack.

Barry’s jazz-infused score for Playing By Heart: enhanced the emotional resonance of that underrated movie – the track “Remembering Chet” being a standout.

Then, at the dawning of the new millennium, I discovered Somewhere In Time. It was that rare trifecta in which book, movie adaptation and soundtrack all excel expectation. Barry’s score washed over me and has become one of my favorite albums. On a related note, the Jim Bajor CD of the same name, featuring a piano version of the movie theme, is also highly recommended.

In recent years, I’ve rediscovered some of Barry’s other work – his groundbreaking Midnight Cowboy soundtrack, his wonderful score for Dances With Wolves, and just this weekend, we watched Born Free for the first time.

His last score was for the 2001 film, Enigma.

John Barry died on January 30th, 2011 at aged 77.

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Soundtrack: Inception

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Muruch husband and wife duo Brendan and Vic were among those enamoured with the new Leonard DiCaprio film Inception. Director Christoper Nolan’s trippy intellectual dreamscape successfully combines the sci-fi plots and astounding effects of movies like The Matrix with a noirish mystery and settings seemingly ripped from the work of M.C. Escher. Being the movie soundtrack and Hans Zimmer expert of the house, Brendan took on the review of Zimmer’s score for the Inception soundtrack. You can read his thoughts on the album below…

I’ve enjoyed the music of Hans Zimmer since 1993’s True Romance, one of my earliest soundtrack purchases. On cassette! Remember cassettes? My admiration for that particular score was dampened when I heard the remarkably similar music from an earlier film, Badlands. But Zimmer has done some wonderful work in the past two decades, including Gladiator, The Lion King, The Rock, and The Dark Knight. One of my favorite compliations in recent years has been The Wings of a Film – a concert performance from 2000 featuring Zimmer’s music as performed by the VRO Flemish Radio Orchestra. Highlights from that album include excerpts from The Thin Red Line and Gladiator, the latter featuring Lisa Gerard’s haunting vocals.

On to Zimmer’s latest release, Inception. I listened to it walking through the streets of my town as the sky darkened and the wind grew and thunder crashed. The Inception score was a perfect soundscape – when I heard a snatch of a particular song central to the movie, I felt a strong urge to wake up.

Inception is moody and brooding, somewhat similar to Zimmer’s work on other recent Christopher Nolan collaborations, but intensified by the guitar playing of former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr.

The final track, “Time,” is representative of this score – an emotional triumph that builds and builds until you feel the love and loss of the character it represents, then fades with a bittersweet solo piano.

Inception is a heady mix of electronics, orchestra and guitar, and surely will be a forerunner for best score when Oscar season arrives.

I was not granted permission to share an mp3, but you can listen to an interview with Hans Zimmer at WV Public Radio and hear samples from the album at the links below…

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Inception

Hem: Twelfth Night

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Hem’s new album Twelfth Night was just released today. I was excited to hear the new material since their previous album Funnel Cloud was #2 on my 2006 Top Albums List. But Hem fans expecting another pretty, folk-country song collection may be surprised by the band’s new original score for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night. The band livens up the genteel Medieval folk sound of The Bard’s era with a unique blend of Celtic, folk, and soft pop. Actress Anne Hathaway and singer Audra McDonald are among the album’s guest vocalists.

The more spirited reels, such as the traditional “Black Thorn Stick” and “The Rose in the Heather,” spin elements of Irish and Scottish music. And “The Funeral,” written by Hem’s own Dan Messe, is pure Celtic dirge.

Anne Hathaway’s dulcet voice breathes through “Take, O Take Those Lips Away,” and she duets with singer Audra McDonald on the beautiful ballad “Full Phathom Five.” The latter features lyrics culled from The Tempest.

Dave Pittu sings the part of an Elizabethan minstrel in “O Mistress Mine,” and joins Hathaway and Raul Esparza for “Come Away Death.” Elsewhere, a lilting flute carries the instrumental “To the Gates of Tartar.”

My only complaints about the album are the lack of vocals by Hem singer Sally Ellyson and the brevity of the songs due to the nature of the theatrical production.

I was not granted permission to share an mp3, but you can hear samples at the links below.

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Hem Official Site

Kurt Vonnegut & Dave Soldier: Ice-9 Ballads

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Ice-9 Ballads is the new soundtrack to Kurt Vonnegut‘s classic novel Cat’s Cradle. A 1997 collaboration between the late, great author Vonnegut and composer Dave Soldier, the album features nine tracks that were directly inspired by the book. I didn’t know quite what to expect when I first received it, but I can’t imagine a more perfect score for my favorite novel of all time.

Kurt Vonnegut adapted the lyrics himself from his novel Cat’s Cradle, and named the songs after chapter titles in the book. Dave Soldier composed and arranged the melodies, which capture the delightfully bizarre mood of the novel. The songs are fleshed out beautifully by The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Tiye’ Giraud, Jimmy Justice, and Valarie Naranjo on the African balaphone.

“Annihilation Life” opens in a mellow, old-fashioned blend of bluegrass, jazz, and classical styles akin to Pianafiddle. “Dyot Meet Mat” follows with a buoyant, chiming Caribbean vibe.

Vonnegut narrates several songs in a cool, spoken word manner reminiscent of William S. Burroughs. This vocal style is particularly used well in the standout track “Nice, Nice, Very Nice”, the lyrics of which were culled from Bokonon’s “Fifty-third Calypso” in Cat’s Cradle. The song swirls and chirps like a psychedelic Talking Heads number accented with dramatic orchestration and a choir of female voices that remind me of Cibo Matto.

“Duo for Clarinet & Meade Lux Lewis” returns to the vintage style of the opener with a splash of classic piano blues, then “14th Calypso” stirs a light hint of Gospel into Island instrumentation.

Also included on the disc is “A Soldier’s Story”, which was recorded in the style of a 1940s radio broadcast. The song is based on a text by Vonnegut that was inspired by the death of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier to be executed for cowardice during World War II. Vonnegut voices the General in the piece, which again features music composed by Dave Soldier. DJ Phil Schaap fittingly plays “The Radio Announcer”, Dina Emerson is “The Red Cross Girl”, Wilbur Pauley is “The MP”, and Brad Hougham portrays “The Soldier.”

“East St. Louis, 1968″ closes the album with the tale of a young viola player’s first trip to the city. But it is undoubtedly the first literature-inspired portion of the disc that will certainly push it toward the top of my end of year list.

Kurt Vonnegut & Dave Soldier – Dyot Meet Mat (mp3) *
Kurt Vonnegut & Dave Soldier – Duo for Clarinet & Meade Lux Lewis (mp3) *

*mp3s hosted by Mulatta Records

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