Soundtracks

CD Review: NAPOLEON AND EUROPE (500 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/12/2013
NAPOLEON AND EUROPE soundtrack | ©2013 Music Box Records

Just before he’d briefly invade Hollywood with his spectacularly ominous score for 1992’s DRACULA, esteemed Polish composer Wojciech Kilar would wave the colors for France’s self-appointed Emperor for the Gallic television series NAPOLEON AND EUROPE. Those American fans used to the elegant, brooding quality of Kilar’s work on DEATH AND THE MAIDEN and WE OWN THE NIGHT might be pleasantly surprised by the sometimes joyful quality of his main theme as it revels in triumphant orchestral splendor, sprightly marches and even a bit of Baroque harpsichord comedy, all setting the stage for a little man’s sense of greatness, and the […]Read On »


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CD Review: BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY DAYS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/11/2013
BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY DAYS soundtrack | ©2013 Kritzerland Records

Those expecting this prequel score to repeat the 60s pop Latin swing of Burt Bacharach will be in for a delightfully rude Irish awakening when listening to the BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY DAYS soundtrack. It’s an iconoclastic gem of ’70s western scoring, courtesy of the unsung Patrick Willliams, whom Kritzerland last paid tribute to with heir release of CUBA. Not only does BUTCH  impress with its pennywhistle, harmonica and spoon percussion, but even more so by using a forlorn tuba, chirpy flutes and a harpsichord to give CASSIDY more the feel of a comedy about mismatched band mates in […]Read On »


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CD Review: THREE AMIGOS! soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/10/2013
THREE AMIGOS! soundtrack | ©2013 Perseverance Records

Credit longtime Elmer Bernstein fan (and family friend) John Landis as the guy who thought the composer’s important orchestral style could be applied to hilarious ends by being played straight in ANIMAL HOUSE. It was a film that made Bernstein an inadvertent king of comedy by unwinkingly using his old-school sound for the likes of AIRPLANE! STRIPES and GHOSTBUSTERS. So it was natural that Landis would call on Bernstein to inadvertently spoof the Oscar-nominated western sound of TRUE GRIT and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN for three not-so magnificent silent movie stars fooled into becoming real heroes in 1986’s THREE AMIGOS!  Bernstein’s […]Read On »


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CD Review: STOKER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/09/2013
STOKER soundtrack | ©2013 Milan Records

With his creepily rhythmic fusion of orchestra, rock and electronics, Clint Mansell had been a go-to guy when it comes to capturing a building sense of psychosis, whether it’s cutting-edge synth mad science in PI and MOON, Middle Eastern music possessing a serial killer artist in SUSPECT ZERO, or the cool strings for the teen thrill killers in MURDER BY NUMBERS. But it was Mansell’s ever-more insane twisting of Tchaikovsky for a BLACK SWAN ballerina that really made him a go-to guy for women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. For STOKER, Mansell applies a slightly more groovy classical […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/08/2013
THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE soundtrack | ©2013 Water Tower Records

The swinging funk sound of SUPERBAD proved to be the hat trick that’s propelled Lyle Workman into the self-styled comedy score for THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE dealing with a Vegas populated by such other hot acts as Christophe Beck, Christopher Lennertz and Theodore Shapiro. All share a talent for combining today’s retro-pop grooves with the kind of orchestral magic appreciated by the David Copperfield generation. Like the best shows, Workman energetically swings from one style to the next with a constant sense of musical surprise. Brazen Latin rhythms do a reveal to Swingles Singers kitsch, while the screaming rock guitar […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE FURY soundtrack (3500 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
THE FURY soundtrack | ©2013 La La Land Records

Brian De Palma was lucky enough to get the real Herrmann deal to participate in his cinematically brilliant games of Hitchcock fetishism for SISTERS and OBSESSION. And just as James Stewart mooned over Kim Novak’s doppelganger, De Palma has since spent a good part of his thriller-centric career getting just about every composer since Bernard’s passing to dress up in his musical clothing, which has provided a pretty good fit for such men as Pino Donaggio (DRESSED TO KILL) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (FEMME FATALE). Perhaps that dramatically macabre sound has never been tailored better than to John Williams, an artist […]Read On »


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CD Review: JACK THE GIANT SLAYER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/07/2013
JACK THE GIANT SLAYER soundtrack | ©2013Water Tower Records

Make no mistake that composer-editor John Ottman can adventurously lighten up when in the sole musical seat to provide dynamically fun work on ASTRO BOY and two FANTASTIC FOUR flicks. Yet when he teams up with director Bryan Singer, the results usually skew towards the dark side, from the outrightly oppressive VALKYRIE and APT PUPIL to the brooding super-heroics of X-MEN UNITED and SUPERMAN RETURNS. So it’s a pleasant surprise that the duo have chosen an entertainingly inconsequential project like JACK THE GIANT SLAYER to finally sit back and have some fluffy, creative popcorn with. Yet ironically, JACK impressively proves […]Read On »


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CD Review: OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL soundtrack | ©2013 Intrada Records

Long before fairy tale movies were in vogue, Danny Elfman was applying equal parts enchantment and foreboding to such fractured Tim Burton fantasies as EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and BIG FISH. So it’s no surprise that a filmmaker prone to dark, deceptively kid-friendly adventures would start the recent trend off with ALICE IN WONDERLAND, even if it was a film that pretty much went down the rabbit hole. However, Elfman’s strikingly themed score stayed above the helter-skelter effects fray with its clever plays on English propriety. Now, Elfman’s music truly gets to fly in the genre for Sam […]Read On »


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Interview: Composer Alex Heffes investigates the EMPEROR

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/30/2013
EMPEROR soundtrack | ©2013 Lakeshore Records

The weight of history can be as dramatic as it is romantic, a counterpoint explored in any number of classical films, and symphonically lush scores that have dealt with the West’s awakening to the war-torn East. Now, that majestic sound has been robustly picked up by British composer Alex Heffes for EMPEROR, the new film from director Peter Webber (“Girl with the Pearl Earing”) that contrasts General MacArthur’s postwar search for the guilt, or innocence of the country’s god-ruler Hirohito with a military investigator’s desperate quest to determine if his Japanese fiancé has survived his nation’s bombing of her motherland […]Read On »


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CD Review: GLADIATOR soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 03/24/2013
GLADIATOR soundtrack | ©2013 Intrada Records

Jerry Goldsmith was arguably the greatest composer to hit Hollywood. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of producing delightful cheese as much as he was a true masterworks. Case in point is his score for 1992’s GLADIATOR, an inner city boxing melodrama long forgotten in the wake of the Russell Crowe picture whose stakes were life and death. In this case, it was a TKO for Goldsmith when ROADHOUSE director Rowdy Herrington kicked his score to the curb in favor of Brad Fiedel, a composer whose electronic abilities were likely more “with it” than the veteran musical fighter. Yet […]Read On »


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