CD Review: RIO 2 soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/30/2014
RIO 2 soundtrack | ©2014 Sony Classics

From having elephants hear whos to training dragons and teaching penguins tap dance, John Powell rules the animated animal kingdom when it comes to scores that fly on wings of energetic exuberance. Now he once again takes flight to Brazil with a return to the world of RIO, whose new trip up the Amazon gives him even more opportunities to bring on exotic South American percussion and winds, courtesy of such indigenous guest artists as UAKTI, Milton Nascimento and Carlinhos Brown. They’re peppy, pop-py birds of a feather in giving Powell a wonderfully manic, yet affectionately energetic sound depicting a […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: LAST PASSENGER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/29/2014
LAST PASSENGER soundtrack | ©2014 Movie Score Media

Liam Bates dynamically wants us to know that he’s moving up from conductor to solely taking over the driver’s seat for this Brit train-to-hell thriller, which has a few passengers doing their damnedest to stop a madman from taking their once-normal ride to a flaming last stop. And right along with Bates on the pedal are the gleeful ghosts of Michael Kamen and Jerry Goldsmith, with the smashing, brassy action touch and John Williams-esque swirling strings pressed right to the floor (along with that composer’s electric piano way with emotion). While it’s soon apparent that Bates doesn’t quite have their […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: DRAFT DAY soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/28/2014
DRAFT DAY soundtrack | ©2014 Lakeshore Records

As the second “sports” movie after MONEYBALL to deal with the behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing that makes for a league roster, DRAFT DAY takes on the far more physical world of football with a decidedly less musically cerebral approach. But that doesn’t mean that John Debney is all rhythmic brawn and no brain as he helps make heated phone conversations, chalkboard stats and Machiavellian negotiations into electrifying listening. Re-teaming with Ivan Reitman after helping the director move up a more youth-oriented yard line with the relationship dramedy NO STRINGS ATTACHED, Debney deftly plays between alt, pop rhythm and orchestral emotion […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/26/2014
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST soundtrack | ©2014 Quartet Records

A tale as old as time, and the movies, gets a fantastical, live action French reboot from Christophe Gans, a director who knows something about fearsome animals after making BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF. Beyond its stylized snowscape, a standout spell for this relatively faithful version is its gorgeous score by Pierre Adenot, whose lavishly melodic and utterly enchanting score conjures the light and darkness of fairy tale imagination in any musical language, sans the singing teapots. Having scored numerous films in his native land (with his contribution to PARIS JE T’AIME likely being most familiar to American audiences), BEAUTY AND […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: THE RAID 2 soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/25/2014
THE RAID 2 soundtrack | ©2014 Spacelab 9

While its exhausting running time and sadistic body count certainly isn’t expanded on to THE RAID 2‘s benefit, one returning factor that this sequel makes bigger, better and more bad-ass is the in the punishingly exciting score by Joseph Trapanese and two composers given their shot at redemption.Teamed with Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda for the first apartment-by-apartment Armageddon of  THE RAID Trapanese is now accompanied by Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemai – the Indonesian dudes who actually scored REDEMPTION before Trapanese and Shinoda kicked them to the curb. But there’s anything but hard feelings here beyond meting out even more […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER soundtrack | ©2014 Intrada Records

Where most Marvel movie scores have been sure to couch their metal musical exosuits in warmly approachable orchestral flesh, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER is the first comic book score from the studio to truly do a Terminator number on its listeners for a significant chunk of time, going for hammering, stripped-down percussion and nail-on-chalkboard effects, a cold, troubling sound even crazier than the kind of ultra-beat scoring you’d normally get for scores featuring such assassin-turned-heroes as Jason Bourne. However, we’re talking about a hero-turned-assassin in THE WINTER SOLDIER, which is more than justification for Henry Jackman to come up […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/24/2014
YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES soundtrack | ©2014 Intrada Records

The ’80s were the glory days when it came to the Amblin pictures that truly imparted company head Steven Spielberg’s handprint of thrillingly humanistic fantasy and chills to any number of movies that stand as classics for a certain generation – among them BACK TO THE FUTURE, GREMLINS and THE GOONIES. Also uniting these movies were their sweeping orchestral scores by the likes of Alan Silvestri, Jerry Goldsmith and Dave Grusin, which also resonated with a topical pop sound. But if there was one Amblin composer who stood as the answer to equaling the thrillingly lush, symphonic quality of John […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: GIRL ON A BICYCLE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/03/2014
GIRL ON A BICYCLE soundtrack | ©2014 Lakeshore Records

After using a groovily offbeat acoustical approach for to play the tangled LA relationships of LOVELY & AMAZING and FRIENDS WITH MONEY, American composer Craig Richey takes a trip to Paris for a more universally symphonic comedy sound for GIRL ON A BICYCLE, as an Italian tour bus driver with a sex-starved German fiancée finds himself falling for a winsome French bicyclist who passes by his route. While he wittily captures its characters’ nationalities with an accordion and mandolin, this enjoyably sweet is mostly about using lushly melodic strings for the kind of perky Francophile enchantment practiced by Alexandre Desplat […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)

CD Review: THE FACE OF LOVE soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/02/2014
THE FACE OF LOVE soundtrack | ©2014 Varese Sarabande Records

With a real talent for playing intimate orchestral emotion, Marcelo Zarvos is making a name for himself when it comes to psychological dramas from THE BEAVER to THE WORDS and even the sweetly pokey scoring for ENOUGH SAID (now out as a Varese limited edition). It’s a feeling for the mysterious nature of human relationships that gets a Hitchcockian treatment as Annette Benning’s widow suffers a non-lethal case of vertigo after becoming enamored with a dead ringer for her husband. Going for the kind of richly emphatic, strongly theme-driven emotion that other composer’s might fear to tread in, Zarvos captures […]Read On »


COMMENTS (1)

CD Review: DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/01/2014
DEMITRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS soundtrack | ©2014 Kritzerland Records

Franz Waxman took over from Alfred Newman for this more action-oriented sequel to the smash Cinemascope hit THE ROBE,  music that lavished in the widescreen opportunities for sex, slaying and that good old time Hollywood religion. Making an on-screen point that he was taking a very big spiritual cue from Newman’s original work in addition to themes from its holy melodic clothing, Waxman’s score is a colorful blend of sword-and-sandal spectacle and messianic message so particular to this genre, music that’s exciting and moving in equal measure. While not trying to ethnically capture the sounds of a Roman Empire under […]Read On »


COMMENTS (0)
  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 8
  6. 9
  7. 10
  8. 11
  9. 12
  10. 13
  11. 14
  12. ...
  13. 48
Increase your website traffic with Attracta.com

Dr.5z5 Open Feed Directory

bottom round