CD Review: G.I. JOE RETALIATION soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 05/12/2013
GI JOE RETALIATION soundtrack | ©2013 Varese Sarabande Records

You can only expect so much when it comes to an toy-based movie, which made this new action figure model so pleasantly surprising, especially with far more of a “believable” approach as opposed to the far more juvenile escapades of the last “Joe.” Where that film got a form-fittingly bombastic orchestral treatment from Alan Silvestri, Henry Jackman’s music here is out to fit “the real world” approach to G.I. JOE RETALIATION – or at least as real world as you can get with flesh and blood action cartoons wielding futuristic weaponry. Having shown his super heroic chops on X-MEN FIRST […]Read On »


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CD Review: SIDE EFFECTS soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/14/2013
SIDE EFFECTS soundtrack | ©2013 Varese Sarabande Records

Though he’s Oscar-nominated for the fun, and very busy score to SKYFALL, Thomas Newman’s most interesting work has always lay in the minimal, electronically ethereal, world-rock sound that announced a truly unique musical voice in the 80s with the likes of THE LOST BOYS, LIGHT OF DAY and THOSE SECRETS – a TV soundtrack that also marked one of Varese Sarabande’s earliest specialty releases. So it’s fitting that the label would provide a welcome return to Newman’s beautifully chilly sound for SIDE EFFECTS, a score that brings him back to musical basics with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh after funk of ERIN […]Read On »


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CD Review: THE TOUCH soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
THE TOUCH soundtrack | ©2013 Buysoundtrax Records

Once the composer of full-blooded orchestral epics like RED DAWN, STARSHIP TROOPERS and LONESOME DOVE, Basil Poledouris would be among a number of similarly talented, and unabashedly melodic orchestra-heavy composers whose careers went south for no other good reason other than the vagaries of Hollywood demand. It took a Chinese co-production to give Poledouris his last major work with this Michelle Yeoh martial arts adventure. But with this 20 million dollar, 2002 movie still unreleased on video in the United States (at least until the advent of YouTube), and its score album only available on a hard-to-find and exorbitantly priced […]Read On »


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CD Review: SNITCH soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER 04/13/2013
SNITCH soundtrack | ©2013 Lakeshore Records

When many busy, burly action stars are content to make the same mediocre film over and over again, props should go to The Rock for doing something different with his action vehicles, interesting choices that have resulted in such atypical genre scores with a range that’s gone from Harry Gregson-Williams’ wacky Rain Forest score for THE RUNDOWN to Clint Mansell’s angered rock in FASTER. But what makes SNITCH‘s score so interesting is that it doesn’t feel like an “action” score at all, but rather an anguished drama, with an electric violin becoming a tortuously drawn lament. That’s particularly appropriate for […]Read On »


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CD Review: RIDDLE soundtrack (1000 edition)

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER
RIDDLE soundtrack | ©2013 Varese Sarabande Records

Having gone from the anime world of ROBOTECH to consistently produce impressive orchestral scores for such smaller genre films as HACK! THE GENE GENERATION and LO, Scott Glasgow goes down a Herrmann-esque road to solve the RIDDLE of a Pennsylvania town, wherein a woman’s search for her missing brother will of course unlock dark secrets that once A-list actors would rather stay buried. But if it’s a job for any indie-centric composer to make their projects seem bigger, Glasgow again shows that he’s capable of taking on far bigger thrillers with his talent for intriguing melody. With the Bratislava players […]Read On »


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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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