Beautiful Creatures and A Good Day to Die Hard

Hi everyone! Here's the first round of score reviews for February!

Beautiful Creatures by thenewno2-7/10
Did it fit the movie? Yes. The score was an intriguing mix of a romantic era orchestra with modern pop music beats and guitar or haunting vocal tracks interspersed through out. At times, it felt like the soundtrack to a high school romance, yet at other times, it was more like a dark fantasy adventure. I think that's exactly what the movie is, a blending of those two concepts.
Did it make me feel something? Yes. There were definitely moments that made me stop, sit up, and listen a little closer. Like on Breaking the Ice, when there's suddenly a banjo playing sadly, or in Dark Magic, where the cellos suddenly went crazy and got my heart racing.
Was it original? Yes, I believe it was. I loved what the composers did with blending an older sounding orchestra and modern music styles.
Did I like it? Not as much as I though I was going to, but yes, I did, a little. I really like the romantic orchestral feel to some of the tracks.. It was like the music I played in my high school symphony orchestra, the Beethoven and the Saint Saens. Music meant to accompany an opera, where every emotion is heightened to the extreme. I didn't like it as much as I wanted to because of the melody problem. I really like strong, recurring melodies, and the melodies in this score didn't feel used enough or strong enough for me. My favorite tracks were The Caster Theme, Lena's Magic/The Love Theme, and Lena's Love Rage/Macon's Adagio. Purchasing suggestion? Buy the tracks you like! In any case, I think the style mixing is great and worth listening to if you have time-Spotify is the greatest!

A Good Day to Die Hard, by Marco Beltrami-4/10
Did it fit the movie? Yes, it did. Another typical action movie score-heart pumping beats, loud and boisterous full orchestra. The perfect music to hear while John McClane is firing a machine gun and killing some Russians.
Did it make me feel something? Hahaha...nope. If you'll recall, one of my tests for this is listening to the score while focusing on something else. I can tell that the score stirs my emotions if the music pulls me out of my work. With this score, I listened to the whole thing and not once did I look up from my work.
Was it original? No, and here's where I take the most issue and take off the most points-it could have been! The first track was actually pretty original and cool. It riffed on Ode to Joy, which I thought was awesome! It was suspenseful and thrilling. It would have been so cool if Beltrami had taken that Ode to Joy melody, put some kind of twist on it, and then brought it back up through out the entire score. But he didn't.
Did I like it? Not really. I didn't expect to, because as I'll say again and again on this blog, action movie scores aren't my favorite. I usually listen to scores like this one when I need to get in a fast paced groove-during homework time, running on the treadmill etc. Purchasing suggestion? Unless you need it for good background music to your gun blazing adventures, don't buy it.

That's all I have for you today! Your score homework for this week is to read my post from earlier this week on our February composer of the Month and get ready for the Oscars by listening to all the nominated scores! :)

Happy Valentine's Day To Our February Composer of the Month!

Hi! I decided to post on Valentine's Day this week. Why? Because our February composer of the month is my favorite composer of all time and I'm in love with his music :) Everyone, let me introduce you to Alexandre Desplat!

Alexandre (we're on a first name basis in my imagination) was born on August 23, 1961 in the beautiful Paris, France. He began his musical journey by playing the piano at age 5. As he grew older, he was classically trained as a flautist, and then expanded his range of talents to include knowledge of Jazz, Brazilian, and African music. These diverse styles definitely show through in his scores, especially in the rhythms he uses. He had a passion for both movies and music writing, and combined those passions by writing music for film.  In his adolescence, he studied the work of the great film composers who came before him, including John Williams.

Alexandre began writing for movies in the 1990s, mostly for European films. He burst on the Hollywood scene when his score for Girl with a Pearl Earring was nominated for a Golden Globe, and since then, many his scores have been received with acclaim and nominations galore-five Academy Award nominations, six BAFTA nominations (One win for The King's Speech), six Golden Globe nominations (one win for The Painted Veil), and two Grammy nominations. In fact, he's basically been nominated every year for the past 5 years, but much to my chagrin and angst, he's not as decorated with awards as he should be. If he doesn't win the Oscar for Argo this year...well,  I guess we'll get 'em next year, Alexandre.

His music is glorious. The biography on his website says that he composes with two major ideas in mind: "function and fiction." "Function" means his music fits well with the overall design and mood of the film and accompanies it appropriately. "Fiction" means that his music should go deeper than just accompanying the film and make clear the characters' deeper psychology and emotions, something which cannot always come across with clarity on film. Before reading his website earlier this week, I had no idea that those were his goals, yet I could have told you that his music always does exactly that. It always fits the film and it always gives the characters more emotional depth (even if they don't actually have it-See Twilight: New Moon) 

Interesting Facts:
-His wife is a violinist in the Traffic Quartet. She collaborates with him on his work, and he collaborates with her on her work by arranging music for her.
-His father is French and his mother is Greek, but they actually met in the US while studying at univerisity together. When they got married, they moved back to France where Desplat was born.
-He has written music not only for film, but for the theatre as well. 
-He composed for the last two Harry Potter films! If you loved those movies, you will probably love his music! 

This week, my challenge to you all is to go out and listen to Alexandre Desplat's work. Here's a Youtube video to get you started. Every score is different, but he definitely has a distinct sound that is unmistakably his own. Let me know what you think of his work! I love it so much that it's probably unhealthy. Or maybe it is healthy,  because whenever I need to unwind or get myself in the zone, I listen to his music! Anyway, have a good Valentine Day, everyone! I hope you feel loved today :)

Argo Review and Feburary Scores!

Hey everyone! Two things today-First, I'm going to give my thoughts on the score for Argo by Alexandre Desplat. Why? Because Desplat's score is nominated for an Oscar and I have reviews for all the other nominated scores! Argo came out before I started writing this blog, so I didn't have a review for it, but now I will. Second, I'm going to list the scores being released this month, which I will review at the end of the month in a master score review post! Ready, set, go! 

Argo, by Alexandre Desplat-9/10
Did it fit the movie? Yes and yes. I just saw Argo itself for the first time last night and while I was watching it, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had already seen the movie before, and it's not because the story was predictable or cliched. I think it's because I've actually been listening to this score for the past four months since Desplat is one of my top two favorite composers and I listen to all of his work. Each musical track was familiar to me, and each track came right when it should have in the unfolding of the plot. The music itself is a creative blend of exotic instruments, percussive vocals,  drums, and traditional orchestral sounds. A good example of the interplay of these is Hotel Messages.
Did it make me feel something? Yes. The first time I listened to the score, I was in the middle of doing homework. My roommate walked into the room and said "This is great working music!" And it is! Many of the tracks move at an urgent pace, but not like the angry, vengeful urgency of Desplat's Zero Dark Thirty score. It's a worried, rushed urgency, like there's a time limit that needs to be met. It is really great music to listen to while working because it heightens your sense of time and makes you move quickly. Not all of the tracks are like that, however. The Mission slows down, with horns blaring out a gorgeous, grand melody line that made me smile. Cleared Iranian Airspace is so gentle and peaceful, like coming out of a storm. I fell asleep listening to that track the other day.
Is it original? Yes it certainly is! I've never heard anything like those vocals I mentioned earlier. You can here them on Scent of Death too. It's almost as if Desplat decided to use the different sounds of fast and heavy breathing as percussion instead of drums. 
Did I like it? I liked it a lot. In fact, I'm listening to it now while writing this post! Purchasing suggestion? Buy it. The whole album is great and has tracks for every purpose, whether you need to relax or need to do work with some urgency.

And now, here is your list of scores for February! As with January, there's not many, because many films are released before awards season and not during it, but hopefully there will still be some great music to hear this month! These are the four full length scores that I found that will be released this month.

Side Effects by Thomas Newman      

Beautiful Creatures, by thenewno2

Escape from Planet Earth by Aaron Zigman

A Good Day to Die Hard, by Marco Beltrami

And that's all I have for you today! I hope you have a great week. Keep listening to those Oscar nominated scores and let me know what you think of them! The complete list of nominated scores can be found in last week's post. See you next week for our February composer of the month!