Brian Tyler Live

The Brian’ Mighty

Brian Tyler Live -
Film Music for Stars,
Cars and Superheroes.
7th May - Royal Festival Hall, London

So again I found myself with the same dilemma as when I covered the Hans Zimmer concert (right here). I rarely do concert reviews and, a few weeks now after the fact seemed probably a little late. However, this was a truly great evening and, since it turns out that this was the great man’s debut concert, I figured I’d write a little appreciation of it here... plus a few minor criticisms thrown in for good measure.

Okay, so while I had a couple of Brian Tyler’s scores from before the end of the last decade, I really started to sit up, take note, and begin to enjoy the music of Brian Tyler when he scored the fourth Rambo movie, back in 2008.  I was impressed by what he did with that score and... a fair number of them after that. I’ve been steadily amassing a selection of this guy's albums since then because I feel he’s one of the truly genuine blockbuster talents of his generation. One of the relatively ‘new crowd’ like Michael Giacchino and Alexandre Desplat who are the modern day equivalents of such composers with the stature of the Herrmanns, Goldsmiths and Williams of this world.

The concert was pretty packed out and, when he came on stage and addressed the audience, I was amazed by how young he looks. He’s actually only a few years younger than myself but, trust me, he looks maybe 20 years younger than that, as I’m sure people must tell him all the time. More importantly, he seemed very laid back and friendly and he seemed to have a nice, fun working relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Choral Society, not to mention two outstanding vocalists called Tori Letzler and Yael Shoshana Cohen.

He also seemed very energetic and enthusiastic with his players, moving around a lot (almost dancing as he conducted) and generally feeling the music as he went. I usually find his music quite orchestrally dense or layered but, unlike a few of his contemporaries who tend to deviate to cacophony when using a similarly crowded palette, his works are often quite beautiful and tend towards melody in surprising ways, sometimes. He really is a great composer and I’m happy to say that he managed to get his exact ‘Brian Tyler sound’ out of his performers that night. I was sitting not far from the front and I could feel the bass notes hitting me as the band played on. I was surprised to see him wearing headphones during the conducting and what he had playing on them was clearly audible from where I was sitting... he’s the first composer I know who has taken along his own ‘click track’ to conduct to, while in concert, which I found fascinating.

In between tracks, he would take the time to regale the audience with stories of his career experiences such as the time he got the call from Sylvester Stallone and he hung up on him, thinking it was a director friend doing a bad imitation. When he told of how his agent rang up to tell him he’d just hung up on Sylvester Stallone, he got a big laugh from the audience. Of course, that phone call got him the score to Rambo IV (reviewed here) and the three movies, to date, in The Expendables franchise (Reviewed here, here and here). He also confirmed my suspicions that this was his big concert debut, and pointed out his mum and dad who were in the audience to see him. So that was pretty cool and heart warming, I have to say.

He got through a vast array of stuff and packed in quite a lot, with gallons of music from his career including Children Of Dune, Thor - The Dark World (reviewed here), Iron Man 3 (reviewed here), The Fast And The Furious, Now You See Me (reviewed here and which still, criminally, has not had a CD release), Constantine and Aliens VS Predator: Requiem... along with a whole host of others including some excerpts from his video game scores. I was annoyed that he didn’t play anything from Battle: Los Angeles (reviewed here), Bubba Ho Tep or John Dies At The End (reviewed here) but he covered a lot of ground in one sitting. He even ‘world premiered’ three tracks, two from upcoming movies... which included the stupidly titled Now You See Me 2 (Seriously? This needed to be called Now You Don’t) and a lengthy suite based on his Marvel Studios Fanfare music, which I’m really hoping he makes available on CD at some point.

Now it wouldn’t really be one of my reviews if I didn’t have a few little grumbles and so, here we are...

When it was announced that he would also be playing a ‘Tribute to John Williams’, a composer I’d seen conduct his own stuff a fair few times, I thought it was pretty unnecessary, to be honest. We were there for Brian’s music, not Johnny’s, and I would have rather he’d played just his own stuff but... well that’s his choice. As it turns out the tribute was only one track long and it was the concert version of William’s opening title march from Superman The Movie. So my first proper grumble was that I think he took the track just a little too fast and, also, that he didn’t seem to be bringing out the detail of the music like he did in his own stuff. Which was interesting but, hey, people were happy with this so I’m pretty sure I’m in a minority here.

My second criticism was the playing order of one of the pieces. He opened the concert with the main theme to Thor - The Dark World but, during the second half, he played one of the slower, more emotionally charged pieces from the film, with vocals performed, so beautifully, by the lovely Yael Shoshana Cohen. Since the track was so far removed in placement order in the concert, I wondered how many people in the audience who were less than familiar with the composers score on this one would have realised that she was singing a kind of slowed down variant of that opening melody. I know the two friends I was with had no idea that this is what she was singing so it’s a shame that this didn’t follow that opening piece, I think.

My third grumble relates to the titling of a piece. When each cue was played, the title of the film in the original typography of that movie was displayed on a big screen above the orchestra... but when Brian played his opening from Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem... the second of the two AVP movies, it was titled only Aliens Vs Predator, which is the name of the first movie with a score by someone completely different. Nothing wrong with the music, however. Tyler’s score is pretty much the only saving grace of that film, which itself plays like Aliens and Predators have been somehow caught up in a bad teenage slasher flick. Lovely, Holstian piece though and, as usual in this concert, Tyler knocked it out of the park.

My fourth grumble was the encore... there wasn’t one. Which is almost a criminal act in a UK concert venue (I don’t know what they do in the United States and, I don’t care). I know it was Tyler’s debut but we clapped an clapped and clapped while he came out four times midst standing ovations. The audience were really working hard wearing their hands out for that encore but they didn’t get one. Alas, that wasn’t great but... well the rest of the evening more than made up for that, I have to say.

All in all, I’ve seen a great number of movie concerts over the years by a great number of maestros such as Williams, Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Nyman, Glass, Morricone, Zimmer and a whole host of others I’m not going to list here. These people were/are giants and their music will enrich the minds of many generations to come. Brian Tyler came to England in his debut concert and he conquered the hearts and ears of the audience at the Royal Festival Hall (a venue I prefer much more, acoustically, to the Royal Albert Hall) and, as far as I’m concerned, he stood with the memories of these giants and more than held his own. An absolutely brilliant concert experience and all I can say is... if you get the chance to see him anytime, definitely get yourself a ticket, I don’t think you’ll regret it.

NUTS4R2 @ FilmsOnWax

Hi there,

Just a quick shout out to some of my off site articles on film music, a subject I love but am less confident when it comes to writing about it. The FilmsOnWax links have all now been added to my music section in the clickable Index near the top right of this page. Just click on ther and scroll on down past the Books and Films before coming to the Music section, just before the TV Shows and Miscellaneous Articles sections.

Alternatively, you can click on the titles below to take you straight to the articles. I hope you like them all and give FilmsOnWax your support...

Best Scores of 2014

Deep Note: The Foundations of a Good Giallo Score Library

Eerie Listening: 31 Great Euro Horror Scores Part 1

Eerie Listening: 31 Great Euro Horror Scores Part 2

Eerie Listening: 31 Great Euro Horror Scores Part 3

Twang! Twang! You’re Dead: The Foundations of a Spaghetti Western Score Library Part 1

Twang! Twang! You’re Dead: The Foundations of a Spaghetti Western Score Library Part 2

Top 40 Soundtrack CD releases of 2012

Well, here I am again with another run down of what I personally consider to be the best film related album releases of the year just gone. I use the word film related because, as you’ll see if you read further, not all the coolest gems released this year were actually used in the movie they were intended for.

As you can guess from the fact that this yearly article seems to be gaining another ten spots every year I do it, the market is nearly saturated now with even more really great soundtrack restorations from some great little labels. This has been pretty hard on the wallets of even the most seasoned of collectors, let alone casual non-collector buyers like myself, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if the bottom drops out now, before too long. At least, that’s what I think may happen, anyway.

Whatever happens though, I know one thing... we’ve never had it so good in terms of great releases in a single year. In fact, we’ve had it so good that I’ve included a section right at the end here of “honourable mentions” where you will find the titles of almost another 40 of this years score releases just listed because, not ten years ago when releases were slightly slimmer than they have been the last few years, any or all of these could easily have made it into the top ten.

Finally, I’ve put a small section in right at the end for a couple of scores that really disappointed me and which I thought might have pushed the boat out a little further than they did. I feel these were wasted opportunities.

So, if you enjoy a nice piece of scoring, settle down to read my round up of what I consider to be the best releases in a year which seemed to have two main themes or biases running through it, as you’ll discover the further you read - I think 2012 will definitely be remembered in soundtrack circles as both the year of the “rejected score” (this year really reached its zenith in that respect when an album containing not one but two unused scores for The Last Hard Men, by Rosenman and Goldsmith, was released) and, of course, the year of Star Trek... enjoy.

40. The Expendables 2 by Brian Tyler (Silva Screen)
Okay, so The Expendables 2 (movie reviewed here) was a much more entertaining movie than the first film and, likewise, Brian Tyler’s score is at once more rhythmic and captivating than his previous effort for the franchise (although that was a rock solid and robust piece of scoring too). I’ve started getting into this composer much more over the last couple of years and this album release continues my relationship with his music in a positive light.

39. The Woman In Black by Marco Beltrami (Silva Screen)
Beltrami is another of the “younger guns” of modern film score composing that I’m willing to consider more as I get older. This is exactly the kind of atonal dominated score, pitched against some softer melodies, you would expect to get for a horror movie, but that’s okay because it’s competent, appropriate and does its job effectively. A good listen. My review of the film itself can be found here.

38. Dracula 3D by Claudio Simonetti (Deep Red)
It’s nice to have any new film from Dario Argento and, though I despair that this movie will never get a cinema release in this country, this doesn’t stop me from celebrating the fact that it’s, once again, composed by Goblin’s figurehead member Claudio Simonetti. It’s a great little score and will appeal to most fans of Simonetti’s work (but hey, I even liked his score for The Cardplayer, so take what I’m saying with a pinch of garlic, maybe). There’s what sounds like some nice theremin components (don’t know for sure if an actual theremin was used on this album but he’s certainly trying to make it sound like there was) and also a punchy, if somewhat obvious in its lyrical content, “Dracula song”. As an extra bonus, aside from the snazzy 3D lenticular cover, the CD has a free DVD of an old set of Simonetti videos of his Argento re-orchestrations and remixes (including the rap versions... yeah). On second thoughts... that last may not be much of a bonus after all.

37. The Sword And The Sorcerer by David Whitaker (BSX)
Well this was an interesting surprise. I have no other full scores (to my knowledge) by Hammer composer David Whitaker, so I thought I’d better grab this one as it’s a movie I remember from my teenage years. I nearly missed how good this one is the first time I played it because I was busy with something else and just didn’t pay it enough attention. However, I tried it again a month or two ago and realised how brilliant it is. This really is a rousing, old school score in the style of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Errol Flynn romps and listening to this rich album, your buckles will truly be swashed!

36. Alfred Hitchcock Hour Vol 3 by Various 
(Varese Sarabande Club)
Following on from the previous year’s releases of Bernard Herrmann scores for the TV show The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, this third volume release proves almost as essential with composers such as Lyn Murray, Lalo Schifrin and Leonard Rosenman contributing to scores in a variety of styles.

35. The Dark Knight Rises by Hans Zimmer (Watertower)
For the third part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy (movie reviewed here), James Newton Howard, co-composer of the previous two scores, dropped himself out of the mix and Zimmer goes it alone. This isn’t a bad score though and, while not as good as the music in the previous movie, certainly manages to follow in its footsteps in a way which is both appropriate to the story and in a way which ties the films together thematically. Zimmer seems to have been getting a lot better at movie music over the last five years or so and this one doesn’t let the side down.

34. The Bourne Legacy by James Newton Howard 
(Varese Sarabande)
And talking of James Newton Howard, his score for the new Bourne movie (reviewed here) is a nice match for the legacy left by John Powells scores from the earlier movies. Howard re-uses parts of Powell’s leitmotif as starting blocks for some of the scoring on this and it all makes for an exciting listen... perhaps a little better than the movie that inspired it.

33. The Amazing Spider-Man by James Horner (Sony Music Classical)
Okay, so I am still not sure what to make of Horner after all these years. I used to love him when he first started out, before I realised how much... um... borrowing was going on. And before each album essentially became a repeat of the last one. The new Spider-Man movie (reviewed here) surprised me in that not a lot of the music was familiar to me and I thought it a pretty groovy listen... even the bit which somehow jumped out at me as being from Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan but, oh well, that’s showbiz I guess.

32. Sherlock Series 1 - David Arnold and Michael Price (Silva Screen)
Arnold and Price’s scores for the two Sherlock TV series were both released within a month or so of each other at the start of 2012. This first album is a lot more engaging than the second, continuing all the main themes and variations that I wanted to hear (including the action music which was artfully alluded to in the 2012 Doctor Who Christmas Special, The Snowmen.  For reviews of the individual episodes of Sherlock, click on the index at the top right of this page and go to the TV section.

31. Haywire by David Holmes (Silva Screen)
David Holmes score for Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire (movie reviewed here) is a curious blend of elements. At once evocative of jazz and laid back at its own pace, it also simultaneously manages to be great action/chase music... which is a bizarre combination of mellow, soothing orchestration and pulse-pounding tension. I have no idea why this score and the subsequent album release works so well... it just does.

30. Planet Of The Apes by Danny Elfman 
(La La Land) Expanded 3 Disc Edition
Well, when everyone heard that the talented Danny Elfman would be taking on the “reimagining” of Planet Of The Apes, everybody (myself included) assumed it would be unmemorable in comparison to the original, groundbreaking Jerry Goldsmith score for the first on-screen incarnation. Everybody was wrong and this fully expanded three disc edition of the score really shows up just how great it was (although still not a patch on Jerry’s).

29. The Shadow by Jerry Goldsmith (Intrada) Expanded 2 Disc Edition
I’m always a sucker for a good bit of Goldsmith and his score for The Shadow, which utilises some electronics alongside the orchestra (like he did in such classic scores as Supergirl) is a haunting vision of 1930s New York. There’s a little bit of the feel and atmosphere of Elfman’s music to Burton’s first Batman movie lurking within the heart of this score, which is unsurprising for the time, but Goldsmith manages to still do his own thing and it’s a catchy, fun ride. This expanded edition makes it even catchier and even more fun!

28. It's Alive by Bernard Herrmann (Film Score Monthly)
Film Score Monthly finally makes available, Bernard Herrmann’s Moog-tinted score for the Larry Cohen classic about a killer baby with very big teeth and a healthy appetite. Weird and disturbing in Herrmann’s choice of orchestration, as you would expect from this particular artist. There is no way on earth you could ever mistake this kind of sound with any other composer. A very welcome addition to anybody’s soundtrack library.

27. Le Pistole Non Discutono 
(aka Pistols Don’t Argue aka Guns Don’t Argue) 
by Ennio Morricone (GDM)
Morricone’s score for the Spaghetti Western Guns Don’t Argue is a welcome disc for any lover of the “Morricone sound”. Most people will have the song from this score, Lonesome Billy, laying about on some Morricone compilation or other, but it’s good to finally have a decent edition of the score it came from available for a limited time.

26. The Sweeney by Lorne Balfe (Rhino)
I don’t exactly know who Lorne Balfe is but he certainly succeeds in out-Zimmering Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight Rises with this one. If you appreciate Zimmer’s Herrmannesque repeat motifs, layered with a jagged sense of gritty texture, then you’ll love what Balfe does here with this score. Very dark, very propulsive and, ultimately, very listenable. I’ll have to keep an ear out for this composer in the future. Movie reviewed here.

25. Dredd 3D by Paul Leonard-Morgan (Fontana)
Again, another composer I know nothing about, this score has one foot in the clean urban electronica of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York and one foot in the gritty, disordered, audio sleaze of modern scoring. Sometimes there’s a main theme which kind of gets in the way when it’s used in the film itself (reviewed here) but it certainly makes for a nice listen. Just not as good a listen as the next entry...

24. Drokk: Music Inspired by Mega City One 
by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury (Invada)
Ok, so remember back in the intro where I said that one of the themes to this year’s soundtrack releases was rejected and unused scores? Well this album of electronic music, which can be found in the shelves of the larger record stores in their pop music section, is actually the rejected score for Dredd 3D (and it beat the actual score release to the movie, and the movie itself for that matter, by a few months). This one really is in full-on, early 80s John Carpenter mode, so if you’re a fan of those scores like The Fog, Dark Star and the aforementioned Escape From New York, then there’s a good chance that this could be your kind of thing. Nice album release decision.

23. Los Angeles, 1937 (Chinatown rejected score) by Philip Lambro (Perseverence)
Okay... so here we have quite a legendary rejected score... this time to Chinatown. Up until now, even the name of the composer who Goldsmith replaced was in some debate, until fairly recently. The label who put out the CD aren't even allowed to name the fact that it's the rejected score to Chinatown on the actual cover. This CD of the rejected score by Philip Lambro, which also includes a few of his other musical pieces, (which helped get him the gig) is a great piece of scoring and not, in tone, dissimilar to what Goldsmith ended up composing for some sequences. Some brilliant atonal sections too.

22. Die Hard With A Vengeance by Michael Kamen 
(La La Land) Expanded 2 Disc Edition
Finally we have a full and expanded release of a score that everyone bought back in the day, spent ages trying to find their favourite cues, and then got angry when said cues weren’t on the original release. This movie score, whether the composer liked it or not, is all about his brilliant orchestrations of the American Civil War song “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” and this 2 disc version of the album finally lets you hear those. La La Land had already released a greatly expanded version of the original Die Hard a year or two ago and Varese Sarabande Club had followed suit a couple of months before this release with a two disc, expanded edition of Die Hard 2: Die Harder (which almost made it into this list)... for Die Hard soundtrack fans, this was the year when John McClane Came Marching Home.

21. King Kong by John Barry 
(Film Score Monthly) Expanded 2 Disc Edition
So Film Score Monthly’s penultimate release  in the marketplace is an expanded, proper edition of John Barry’s score for the 1976 remake of King Kong. Excellent stuff here for Barry fans, full of sweeping, lush, romantic themes before Barry started overworking them (hey, that’s just my opinion, leave me alone). Could possibly have done without some of the native percussion music but, otherwise a sound listen.

20. Moonrise Kingdom by Alexander Desplat (Commercial Marketing)
If it wasn’t for the fact that this was a various artists compilation album with only 5 tracks full of Desplat’s gorgeous score on it (possibly all he composed for the movie which is reviewed here?) then this would undoubtedly have beat out the next entry and placed a lot higher. As it was this album has possibly the best cue of all year... the tone of the film leans heavily on an old, narrated recording of Benjamin Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra and about halfway through the end credits, which is the final track on this album, Desplat’s brilliant cue The Heroic Weather gets a similar narrative deconstruction... and it’s brilliant.

19. John Carter by Michael Giacchino (Disney)
This film was not the absolute best adaptation there could be of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels A Princess Of Mars and The Gods Of Mars (the first two novels in his Barsoomian chronicles) but it was certainly a fun, well made, science fantasy epic in keeping with the spirit of the novels (if not the main protagonist) and it really didn’t deserve to flop like it did. However, because it did flop, I’m guessing a lot of people didn’t get to hear Giachino’s wonderful, lush score. This is the highest entry for any soundtrack to a brand new movie this year... which means that it gets my “Number One Score Of The Year Award”, if such a thing existed. Movie reviewed here. 

18. The Last Man On Earth by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter 
(Monstrous Movie Music)
One of the great modern soundtrack labels, Monstrous Movie Music are pretty much the only soundtrack label who specialise purely in releasing scores from old 1950s/60s US monster infested B-movies... and the film scoring community is all the richer for it. They actually had a number of great releases out this year (see my honourable mentions section... but they were The Brain From Planet Arous/Teenage Monster, Destination Moon, Kronos/The Cosmic Man, Missile To The Moon/Frankenstein's Daughter and Rocketship XM) and in any other year I can imagine they might have all been present in my top 40... there just wasn’t enough room to fit them all in this year. Sawtell and Shefter’s score to The Last Man On Earth, the first of four movie adaptations to date of Richard Matheson’s novel I Am Legend, is a real ear opener for me. I usually like a bit of S and S composition but the rawness and power of some of these cues, especially those “backed up” with choral “overlays”, make for a very rich listen. They only pressed a thousand of these just recently, so miss it at your peril.  I review the film here. 

17. Star Trek: First Contact by Jerry and Joel Goldsmith 
(GNP Crescendo) Expanded edition
Well GNP Crescendo surprised everyone by jumping onto the “expanded Star Trek” bandwagon and releasing the first album they’ve released in years (then did it again several months later with an expanded edition of Star Trek: Generations). The late, great Jerry Goldsmith delivers a fantastic score for the second of The Next Generation movies (and that crew’s best movie), drawing on both his original Star Trek The Motion Picture theme (which had already become the standard by now for both crews) and also his Klingon music from the first and fifth Star Trek movies, but used this time as a more heroic theme to accompany Worf. He is aided in some cues by his son, Joel, who sadly died last year. Some really beautiful pieces here.

16. X2: X-Men United by John Ottman (La La Land) 2 Disc Expanded
Wow. This was a surprise. La La Land’s release of an expanded score to the second X-Men movie reminded me of why I’d wanted the soundtrack so much when the original album came out (which, as so often the case, neglected to include the best cues from the movie). This is a score which really benefits from an expansion as all the different elements seem to make more sense over a larger time frame... and it’s finally got that opening kick-ass White House invasion choral music everybody wanted the first time around.

15. The Fog by John Carpenter (Silva Screen)
John Carpenter’s classic, scary, haunting and occasionally jump-out-of-your-skin disturbing score to his best movie gets “another” 2 disc expansion but unlike the last time this happened, this one gets it right with the original scoring sessions finally on here, as well as the original album released. High pitched, almost subliminal electronics will grate away at your mind while the various percussion and effects will remind you why this picture scared you in the first place.

14. 7 Cadaveri Per Scotland Yard by Piero Piccioni (Quartet)
The composer of such groovy ass scores as The Tenth Victim and Le Streghe gets his score for a Paul Naschy movie released in what is only the second new score devoted to this label's “continuing” music for Paul Naschy movies, since they launched the idea with Howl Of The Devil. As you might expect, Piccioni’s score of sinister crime filtered through sexy sixties/seventies style jazz makes this one of the most fun releases of the year. Really glad I jumped on this one and also looking forward to acquiring a “review copy” of the film at some point from the usual suspects.

13. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country by Cliff Eidelman 
(Intrada) 2 Disc Expanded
Back in 1991, when I first heard this score, I was really taken by it. It was sweeping and moody and I even didn’t mind the “homage” to Gustav Holst’s Mars, Bringer Of War nestled not so subtly within it’s brooding intensity. Cliff Eidelman would obviously be the next Johnny Williams... or so I thought. These days, I still havent heard anything else by him or knowingly seen any other movie he scored. What happened? This score is brilliant. And, of course, this new expanded edition is even more welcome.

12. Batman Forever by Elliot Goldenthal (La La Land) 2 Disc Expanded
What a terrible, terrible Batman movie this was (followed by an even worse sequel) and what a brilliant, amazing bit of scoring to accompany this bat-wreck. Goldenthal’s unusual orchestrations and metallic percussions twisting furiously around fast paced, hopped up jazz noodlings have always made this a winning soundtrack. This expanded edition extends the win for you.

11. Star Trek The Motion Picture by Jerry Goldsmith 
(La La Land) 3 Disc Expanded
Another Trek dream comes true as Goldsmith's original Star Trek score gets the full-on, deluxe expanded treatment from La La Land. Over three hours of music including the complete score as heard in the movie, the original album, outtakes, alternatives, oddities and, of course, a musical instrument called the “blaster beam” which is supposed to be able to make a woman spontaneously orgasm when she hears it for sustained lengths. One of the all-time greats sounds the best it ever has.

10. The Robe by Alfred Newman (La La Land) 2 Disc Expanded
I may not be the religious type but I’m a sucker for old school Hollywood biblical epics from time to time and this movie is curiously cynical in tone (see my review here). The music on this one, a new discovery for me, is lush and romantic and sounds suitably big for when you’re in the mood to blast that kind of stuff out yer speakers. Definitely one which will get a lot of plays over the years.

9. Wolfen (unused score) by Craig Safan (Intrada)
Less than a year after they finally released James Horner’s score for Wolfen on CD, Intrada made available Safan’s rejected score for the movie (a casualty of the project shifting through various executives hands, from what I can make out... they lost the director in the deal too). I’ve not actually seen this movie yet myself (yeah, I know, don’t worry... it’s in the pile) but as much as I liked Horner’s score for the finished product, I like Safan’s rejected score more. It’s a lot more subtle than Horner’s version and has a vague sense of dread and unease about it. I don’t know how appropriate each score is to the movie, but I’d recommend picking this one up before it’s too late if you are into horror movie music.

8. The Long Goodbye by Johnny Williams (Quartet) Expanded
This expanded edition of what is, essentially, the same song/tune treated in various ways, hasn’t been far from my ears since Quartet released it earlier in the year. It’s got to be one of the catchiest tunes (and sets of lyrics for that matter) going and it will stay in your head long after you finish playing it. An absolutely astonishing inclusion is an eight minute plus ad-lib rehearsal version with Clydie King constantly chatting and jumping in and missing her cues as she accompanies the piano. Absolutely riveting track which I can’t do without.

7. North By Northwest by Bernard Herrmann (Intrada)
Well, I certainly didn’t expect to be buying this album again for a fifth time. All time classic Herrmann score makes it’s remastered STEREO debut from the original sessions. One of those incessant bits of Herrmann repeat scores that grabs you by your collar and shakes you around a bit until you appreciate the composer’s genius. This sounds pretty amazing for a 1959 recording.

6. La Resa Dei Conti (The Big Gundown) by Ennio Morricone 
(GDM) Expanded and complete
Morricone’s classic Spaghetti Western score is expanded once again... which means I have to buy it all over again. At least, unlike the previous Japanese expansion, the end titles weren’t missed off this time. It’s all in stereo and the restored few seconds of unbelievable intro on Seconda Caccia is actually something I’m really pleased to have restored, even if those few seconds are the only new material on the album. Those opening guitars as “the mob” hunt down Cuchillo are just amazing. I ummed and ahhed about picking up what is my fourth or fifth edition of this score for months... but am now really pleased I did. One of the all time great Spaghetti Western scores. Read my review of the movie here. 

5. Casino Royale by Burt Bacharach 
(Quartet) 2 Disc Expanded
This (yet another) expanded edition of the 1967 comedy indulgence, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Bond movies, is pretty much the definitive edition. It comes in a little box with a couple of beautiful booklets and the, pretty much, complete score to the movie this time around. If you want a fun listen... this is it.

4. Ben Hur: The Complete Collection by Miklos Rozsa 
(Film Score Monthly) Expanded 5 Disc Edition
Yeah, you read that right. It said five discs. Five! I thought the former, expanded 2 disc edition from Rhino was amazing enough (and complete). This brilliant remastered and represented edition of Rozsa’s classic score is an amazing achievement and it also contains, aside from the complete score, various out-takes and alternate versions plus some compilation cover albums from the time of the film’s release by some famous conductors which lend the score a different sound and actually, and I find this surprising myself, enrichen the whole Ben Hur musical experience. Set your stereo for ramming speed!

3. Conan The Barbarian by Basil Poledouris 
(Intrada) Expanded 3 disc edition
This is a truly incredible score and I’ll grudgingly admit that this is probably going to be the best presentation of it we’re going to get now. If you’ve never heard it before... it’s easily up there in the top five all time greatest scores, along with the likes of Ben Hur, Vertigo, The Empire Strikes Back and The Magnificent Seven. Any other time it would probably make my number one spot but my favourite track got kinda screwed up in the mastering (I reckon) and the other track I was desperate to hear got treated like source music and moved out of sequence. Still a welcome presentation, however.

2. Star Trek: The Original Series by various composers 
(La La Land) 15 Discs Complete Scores
Wow. Since this came out right at the end of the year (arrived over here a few days after Christmas) I’m still trying to work my way through these very familiar compositions by the likes of Alexander Courage and Gerald Fried (among many) which make up all the music and library cues from the original Star Trek TV show from the sixties. Some amazing stuff full of nostalgic deja vu. This should have been this years number one spot and any other year it probably would have been except... this next album was released.

1. Condorman by Henry Mancini (Intrada)
Blimey. I can’t tell you how many years I’ve personally been waiting for somebody, anybody, to release the score to Condorman. Oh wait, yes I can. I saw it at the cinema on its initial release and came out humming two of the main themes back in 1981. So that means I was waiting for this particular “Holy Grail” for 31 years. If you live anywhere in England and you heard a big, long echoey “Woohoooooo” lasting 5 minutes a few months ago, then that was me reading Intrada’s announcement of this release. Loads of fun and catchy comedy/action cues and easily the greatest score release of the year. Catch this one before it becomes extinct.


Honourable Mentions
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Henry Jackman
L'Assassino E' Al Telefono by Stelvio Cipriani
Battlestar Galactica Vols 3 and 4 by Stu Phillips
Black Sabbath (US score) by Les Baxter
Body Heat by John Barry
The Brain From Planet Arous/Teenage Monster by Walter Greene
Charade by Henry Mancini (expanded)
A Comedy Of Terrors by Les Baxter
Destination Moon by Leith Stevens
Die Hard 2: Die Harder by Michael Kamen (expanded)
Enemy Mine by Maurice Jarre
High Plains Drifter (including used and unused scores) by Dee Barton
The Hobbit by Howard Shore
I Married A Monster From Outer Space (various artists)
L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce (Island Of The Fishmen) by Luciano Michelini
Kronos/The Cosmic Man by Sawtell and Shefter
King Kong Lives by John Scott
The Last Hard Men (rejected scores) by Leonard Rosenman and Jerry Goldsmith
The Masque Of The Red Death by David Lee
Men In Black 3 by Danny Elfman
Missile To The Moon/Frankenstein's Daughter by Nicholas Carras
Moon 44 by Joel Goldsmith
The Phantom by David Newman (expanded)
The Raven by Lucas Vidal
The Raven/An Evening Of Edgar Allan Poe by Les Baxter
Resident Evil: Retribution by TomandAndy
Rocketship XM by Ferde Grofé
Silent Hill: Revelation by Jeff Danna/Akira Yamaoka
Sinister by Christopher Young
Sherlock Series 2 by David Arnold and Michael Price
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home by Leonard Rosenman (expanded)
Star Trek VII: Generations by Dennis McArthy (expanded)
2 Days In The Valley (rejected score) by Jerry Goldsmith
War Of The Worlds/When Worlds Collide by Leith Stevens

Disappointments
My two biggest disappointments this year were Thomas Newman’s Skyfall and Marc Streitenfeld’s Prometheus. Tommy Newmans Skyfall is not a terrible Bond album, but it was hampered by not having a strong theme to build on and the percussion heavy style of the composer made it feel a little like “Snicket,  Lemony Snicket’s, Series Of Unremarkable Bond Moments”. It’s sure to grow on me over the years but I think the composer could have made it a bit more striking (which just goes to show how “political” the oscars are, when something like this gets a nomination for best score).

Ditto for Streitenfeld’s Prometheus. All the Alien movies, whether they were any good or not, had a truly great score. Heck, even the appalling Alien Vs Predator: Requiem had a brilliant Brian Tyler score on it (the only thing about that movie that was any good) and I would have expected a score which claims to have connective tissue with the Alien movies to be a lot stronger than this. Even the acquisition, rearrangement and placement of part of Goldsmith’s score for the original Alien made no sense within the context of its use. But I’ll give it another go later in the year.

My two reissue disappointments were the absolutely essential scores by John Barry for The Quiller Memorandum and Jerry Goldsmith for Chinatown. Both cornerstones of anyone’s soundtrack library, these reissues featured no new music or alternatives and were pretty much straight re-pressings. Which is a great shame as I suspect most of the target audience for these two particular titles already had them.

Top 30 CD Soundtrack Releases of 2011

2011 Merry Go Sound

Okay. So last year I was getting a lot of hassle from people to write an end of year, best movies list which I didn’t do because... basically... I was ashamed of having to exist these days on a diet of mostly US Hollywoodland releases when it comes to the first run stuff because my local multiplex, even though it has 15 screens, is too dumbed down to show non-English language movies (I have to catch up with any outstanding foreign releases on DVD and hope that the financial risk is good).

So, in it’s stead, I decided to write a review of the top 20 soundtrack CD releases of 2010 (read it here), something I felt more qualified to be able to write about, in the hopes that it would be enough to fob people off and distract them enough from the fact that I hadn’t done a “top movies” list.

Now then... this year I was all shameless and actually did do a proper best movies list (read it here) and so I thought I’d done my duty. Not so, apparently, because now I’m being asked what my favourite score CD releases of the year were. Doh!

Okay... I buy hundreds of these things every year and, with all the small boutique labels giving us restored “Holy Grail” type restored score classics on a regular basis in very small, buy-it-in-the-three-hour-window-it’s-available limited edition runs... well, lets just say that last year was a real humdinger for score releases. So much so, in fact, that I really couldn’t narrow it down to just 20.

However, I don’t always get time to listen to the stuff I buy more than once these days (I’m going to try to sort out that problem sometime soon although, apparently, my classic ipod is filled up with over a months worth non-stop listening of scores... something like 36 days of music end to end in there at the moment... thank you 160gb!), so please bear in mind that these entries are not going to be detailed. Also, just because a score is ranked higher than another, just means that “for the moment” I like that score slightly more than the other one... and that could change when I get back into listening to the other.

I’m not, for example, suggesting that The Chemical Brothers’ excellent score for Hanna is in any way, shape or form a greater score than, say, Ron Goodwin’s score for Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines... it’s just what I’m listening to more at the moment.

Also, be aware that these are CD releases for 2011... that doesn’t mean to say the film came out in 2011 and it perhaps says something about the state of modern film scoring (which is actually more to do with the state of modern film making than anything the actual composers are doing) that so few of my favourite score releases from last year were from films that were actually released last year.

The one thing that surprised me about this list was the fact that there was only one Italian release and no Japanese releases on it this year. Oh well... I’m sure they’ll sneak back in "big time" next year. Here, then, is my top 30... for better or worse. Please feel free to share your favourite scores lists in the comments section.

30. Green Lantern by James Newton Howard (Sony)

Okay... so this was a much maligned and underrated score to a much maligned and underrated movie. A movie which, perhaps, suffered at the hands of modern audiences from having a fairly simplistic plotline. The soundtrack is very modern, however, and I think a lot of score fans might be pleasantly surprised by this one if they gave it some time in their CD player or ipod as a stand-alone experience. It perhaps didn’t help that the US release of this was only marketed as a CD-R whilst the UK release was a properly pressed CD from Sony.

29 Mimic by Marco Beltrami

(The Deluxe Edition Varese Sarabande Club)

Okay... this is a heavily expanded and remastered edition of a score I didn’t know much about, from a film I’ve completely forgotten but remember thinking was okay when it was first shown on TV. It was such an “in demand” score that I decided to give it a go based on the posted sound samples because I half expected it would sell its entire limited CD run very quickly (which it did). It was a good call because it’s a classic piece of “semi-melodic-with-some-dark-atonal-textures-thrown-in” modern day horror scoring. Definitely worth picking up in this expanded form if you can still get a hold of one.

28. It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World by Ernest Gold (La-La Land)

Ernest Gold’s vinyl re-recording of the score has been remastered and released at least twice on CD in recent history... but this new two disc edition from La-La Land is the one that gets it right by finally including the cues as they were originally recorded for the film. It’s always worth shelling out for this score just once, if only for the overture song and the main title music that accompanied the late, great Saul Bass’ incredible title designs.

27. Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines

by Ron Goodwin (Intrada Special Collection)

The first CD release of this fine score is given the full and proper two disc Intrada treatment. That opening title song is worth it alone with its very long intro which includes a bad orchestra trying to play Alfred Newman’s classic 20th Century Fox logo ident music. Put it on the speakers... it’ll go up-tiddly-up-up and it’ll go down-tiddly-down-down.

26.River Of No Return by Lionel Newman,

Leigh Harline, Cyril J. Mockridge paired on one CD with

NIAGARA by Sol Kaplan (Intrada Special Collection)

Okay. I’ll come clean. If River Of No Return was released on its own I wouldn’t have bought it... but I just love the score they’ve paired it with.... Niagara. One of my favourite Marilyn Monroe films and the song” Kiss” from this is woven into the score with a firm hand by composer Sol Kaplan. It’s rare for films by composers such as Kaplan and Harline to get a release in the modern soundtrack market place. Golden age composers don’t get a lot of attention these days, unfortunately, so it’s good to have stuff by less bankable composers such as Harline and Kaplan represented on the odd CD like this one.

25. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (Null)

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross made a name for themselves with a score I’ve not heard, to a movie I’ve not seen, called The Social Network. I was a bit defensive about the US adaptation of the first novel in the Millennium Trilogy but it really wasn’t a bad version of the book... And the score is pretty interesting, it has to be said. A very special friend bought me this for my Birthday and I’m really glad she did. Starting off with their noisy cover version of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, the score has a dark but lyrical electronic sound and it’s quite rare for composers in the medium to actually produce electronic music which holds its own against traditional compositional and performance techniques. Reznor and Ross really do this very well here though and it’s going to get a lot of listens from me, I can tell that already. It’s a much more appropriate musical support than the pleasant but clichéd score on the original Swedish movie and the record company have produced this generous three disc edition which is a lot more than most would. So... much applause for this particular record label on this one.

24. X-Men: First Class by Henry Jackman (Sony)

Ok, so apart from completely and blatantly contradicting various incidents from both the third X-Men movie and also the Wolverine movie, this film was actually pretty good. The music works really well and was amazingly popular with people. The driven ostinato that underscores Magneto is one of the most stand-out tracks of the year, in its various forms.

23. Humanoids From The Deep by James Horner

and Christopher Lennertz (Buysoundtrax)

Woohoo! James Horner’s schlocky horror score for the Roger Corman produced “when fish people attack and rape our women” movie gets it’s first “official” release. This is from the days when we all thought Horner was an original! Not only that, it also has some score cuts from the remake, scored by Christopher Lennertz.

22. Project Moon Base/Open Secret

by Herschel Burke Gilbert (Monstrous Movie Music)

Oh come one. It’s rare enough to get a score release from such an obscure composer. The fact that there are two of his scores on here and one of them happens to be a 1953 scifi movie scored with an orchestra augmented by an electric string quartet and a theremin is just the icing on the cake. What’s not to like about releases of this nature?

21. The Monster That Challenged The World

by Heinz Roemheld (Monstrous Movie Music)

And here we have another rare 50s scifi B-movie score... and it’s by Heinz Roemheld. Serously people, as far as I can make out, this is the only original Roemheld score to ever get a CD release to date... which is kinda criminal when you think he wrote the original opening title music to the first Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serial (uncredited) and some great stock music for Werewolf of London (also uncredited!). Anything with big sounds to score monsters gets a big tick in my book.

20. It! The Terror From Beyond Space

by Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter (Monstrous Movie Music)

And talking of big sounds to score monsters with... Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter are better known for their scores for movies like Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea, The Fly, Jack The Giant Killer and Five Weeks In A Balloon. Here they score big again, bringing you their killer notes from beyond the far reaches of space and into your ears. Fear them!

19. Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows

by Hans Zimmer (Watertower)

This score builds on and plays around with the style and melodies which Zimmer created for the previous film. Heady stuff. Perhaps not quite such a brilliantly consistent listen as the first album, this score is still pretty interesting and it’s good to hear those little violin wisps wandering around the foreground of the tracks. Could have done without the additional bad cover version of Morricone’s excellent Two Mules For Sister Sara theme in it though.

18. The Satanic Rites of Dracula

by John Cavacas (Buysoundtrax)

Okay, so it’s probably a toss up as to whether the score to Hammer’s Dracula AD 1972 is more funkier than The Satanic Rites Of Dracula or not. I’d probably argue the former but this album is a lot more consistent in tone than the score to the previous film... even with the inclusion on the disc of some unused cues. Buysoundtrax is not a label I like dealing with due to orders that get consistently lost and absolutely abysmal customer service... however, in their defence, they do get some good, long sought after scores on the market and I try to order their stuff from other dealers now if I want to buy their product.

17. Thor by Patrick Doyle (Disney)

Patrick Doyle has never really been a blip on my radar before... until I heard this score both in the movie (which was pretty good) and then as a stand-alone CD experience (which was even better). Almost Korngoldian in its approach, this one will certainly get the goosebumps rising in certain passages. The score to Thor makes you go “cor”!

16. Hanna by The Chemical Brothers (Sony)

Again, I’ve never heard of The Chemical Brothers before but, hmmm, you know when I said earlier how hard it is to do a decent electronic score? Well these guys (?) have really got a handle in electronic music too. This one really gets under yer ear flaps. Very melodic and poppy but strangely listenable.

15. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour Volumes 1 & 2

by Bernard Herrmann (Varese Sarabande CD Club)

Woah! Right here is one amazing release... except it’s not. These are two separate multi-CD releases so I kinda cheated there I’m afraid. Didn’t want to call the article 31 best score releases of 2011, okay? I never thought I’d get any more previously unreleased Herrmann for Hitchcock releases in my lifetime. This is an amazing find and is, as to be expected, the very definition of Herrmannesque. At times dark, broody and rumblingly repetitive and at other times absolutely beautifully moving, these two limited edition sets should not be missed.

14. Metropolis by Gottfried Huppertz (Capricio)

Well, this is technically a re-recording of Gottfried Huppertz original score to Fritz Lang’s silent masterpiece Metropolis (they used to send the scores out to the orchestras or piano transcripts of them to the cinemas showing these things). What’s that you say? A rerecording on a list of movie scores? Well... yes and no. Actually no. You see, this recording is the one which now accompanies the DVD so it can be heard closer to the original vision of the film would have been... and not with some fly-by-night VHS or DVD label running classical music over it instead. Also, it’s a very important artefact of film history because the score was used a great deal in working out how to put the jigsaw puzzle of the full print of Metropolis back together again after all these years. It’s a not half bad album either! This is now, and ever shall be, the score to Metropolis.

13. Battle: Los Angeles by Brian Tyler (Varese Sarabande)

I’m beginning to really warm to Brian Tyler now. I first started taking him seriously when he stood in for the late Jerry Goldsmith by composing a score, utilising one of Goldsmith’s original themes, for Stallone’s fourth Rambo movie. Battle: Los Angeles is actually a nice little alien invasion movie and Tylers score is surprisingly melodic and, for a modern movie, uses a surprising amount of “martial percussion” in its make-up. A really great little listen.

12. Masada by Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens (Intrada Special Collection)

The theme from Masada was a long held and very popular staple of Jerry Goldsmith’s concert days. The main title is a rousing piece of music which is completely addictive to the ear. This two disc restoration of the original mini series score also includes a good deal of Morton Steven’s score from the same mini series. This music really rocks!

11. House of Usher by Les Baxter (Intrada Special Collection)

I never thought this would see the light of day. Most of these old Corman scores are totally lost but they are so often requested that some companies have been releasing the few cues they do have from various films and putting them out like that anyway. House of Usher is a classic Baxter score for a Poe movie and really gets the atmosphere. This was a must buy!

10. Gremlins by Jerry Goldsmith (Film Score Monthly)

After decades of just having four small cues of score available from this classic Joe Dante movie, Film Score Monthly bring us a definitive 2 disc edition of the whole score. Utilising his own violin motif he wrote for the “Gremlin-on-the-side-of-the-plane” remake in Twilight Zone The Movie, Goldsmith’s score will move you but also keep you in stitches. There are some witty and inventive cues in this score. An absolute classic.

9. Doctor Who Series Six by Murray Gold (Silva Screen)

Continuing his tradition of being one of the most popular composers on the UK scene, Murray Gold’s seventh collection of scores from the well loved TV show is another generous double disc helping and the Bond-like action cue from the opening of the second episode (track 5) is so good that I’m convinced this guy should get to score at least one Bond movie before he dies.

8. 1941 by John Williams (La-La Land)

Again, a long overdue expansion of a timeless classic. 1941 may not have made much of a splash at the box office but the score is typical Williams ear candy and, frankly, once you get that march in your head, it’s not going away again without a fight!

7. The Black Hole by John Barry (Intrada/Disney)

Not only a properly expanded release but also the first ever non-bootleg CD of John Barry’s amazing score to this underrated Disney movie. The overture is Barry’s homage to the Korngoldian resurgence in film scoring popularised by John Williams’ score for Star Wars and the rest is... classic Barry. Sinister and driven and an absolutely beautiful score.

6. Devil - Fernando Velázquez (Varese Sarabande Club Edition)

This score to the M. Night Shyamalan produced horror story about some people stuck in a lift with the devil was overlooked by audiences... but it was quite a nice little horror movie. The score was very strong and I’m really glad it’s got a release (albeit in a limited edition which sold out very quickly) a couple of years down the line. Really good atonal horror fest music that I find myself playing more and more.

5. The Egyptian - Alfred Newman and Bernard Herrmann

(The Deluxe Edition Varese Sarabande Club)

Well... what can one say about this incredible score co-composed by two of the greatest names in the industry. So many previous releases of this have been out in the past but this limited two disc edition is the first time the whole score has been made available... and it’s an incredible piece by two great writing talents. A necessary foundation stone to any soundtrack library.

4. Casino Royale - Burt Bacharach (Kritzerland)

Woohoo. This umpteenth reissue and remaster of Bacharach’s classic comedy Bond score is slightly expanded but, more importantly, its really well mixed this time around and has never sounded better. No wonder it sold out so quickly. Not only that but this is the first release ever... can you believe it... to feature that groovy end title song on it... “Have no fear Bond is here!” My only caveat is that there’s apparently an even more expanded two disc edition coming out from Quartet Records in February. Looks like I’ll be splashing the Bacharach cash once again then.

3. The Great Train Robbery

(aka The First Great Train Robbery) - Jerry Goldsmith (Intrada)

This is the third time on CD and, frankly, this is the expansion and remaster where the label in question got it right and did a much better job than all the previous labels who have worked with these masters. This is a seriously great “Englishified” Jerry Goldsmith score and I can guarantee you I’ll be playing it for years and years. It is so cool!

2. Lo Strano Vizio Della Signora Wardh

(aka The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) - Nora Orlandi (Quartet)

A track from this score to one of my favourite giallo movies was featured in Kill Bill Volume 2... but for some reason everybody assumed it was tracked in from a spaghetti western. Whatever... all I know is that this is a great album and I’m so pleased it’s finally got a legitimate, if limited, release. Groovy in places but... very, very haunting in others. A great piece of work from the only female composer featured on this year’s list.

1. Bernard Herrmann at 20th Century Fox Box (Varese Sarabande Club Edition)

Blimey... this really was a massive release... and a complete, and very expensive, surprise. This was released on 27th December and has 14 discs worth of numerous Bernard Herrmann scores, some of which have never been released, some of which are expanded and all of them remastered. Plus a 100+ pages accompanying booklet. At $230 (including postage to the UK) I couldn’t really afford to buy this... but I went ahead anyway and scrimped and saved on other things because Bernard Herrmann is my absolute favourite composer and they only made 1000 of these things which sold out very quickly. I was further alarmed that customs charged me a whopping extra £36 on top of that but every time I hear how great classic scores like The Ghost And Mrs. Muir and Garden Of Evil sound in this set, I just can’t bring myself to regret this purchase. An absolutely brilliant end to the year and it easily takes my number one spot.

Honourable Mentions

HM1. The Music of Battlestar Galactica For Solo Piano (Buysoundtrax)

Some solo piano transcripts (transcribed by the composer himself and played expertly by Joohyun Park) of a selection of Bear McCreary’s score for the recent TV show of Battlestar Galactica is a really great two disc set. Because it’s not been used as a score in its own right, I couldn’t include it in the main list... but it’s well worth getting your ears around if you like the music from the TV show.

HM2. The Golden Child (La-La Land)

This three disc set includes the score to the movie by Michel Colombier but that’s not the reason to buy this album. The reason to get hold of this one before it sells out (think it’s still available) is because it also includes the full rejected score by John Barry... and what a classic Barry score it is. Absolutely brilliant listening experience for any Barry fan. It’s really worth shelling out for.