GLADIATOR - Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard
If there was ever a score that reaches the height of perfection, this must be it. The kind of music that elevates a film from great to colossal. From the sinister beginnings of 'Progeny', which starts off the Gladiator battle waltz, to the soothing 'Earth', to the highly effective 'The Might Of Rome', to the now-immortalised 'Now We Are Free'. Very much transported its listeners to the time of the Roman Empire.
THE FOUR FEATHERS - James Horner
I love scores that incorporate ethnic music into it, and it doesn't come more interesting in this one, in which Horner attempts to clash and integrate jarring, wailing North African music with soothing or imperialistic Western styles. 'The Makings Of A Soldier' is Horner's typical way of beginning a film - yet it's never been done better than here. The romantic theme in 'The Dance' is just heartbreaking, and is made more poignant in 'The Letters' where three notes calling out in silence, slowly, is all it takes to melt one's heart and unleash that sense of loss. The action cues in 'The Mahdi' and 'Escape' were beyond excellent in gnashing North African and Western music together.
UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN - Christophe Beck
A rare gem of an impressive dramedy score. The music is about hope, and poignancy, and sometimes both, and it does the first with bouncy Italian glee and the second with strong and heartfelt feelings. The motif in 'Roma', 'Mud Slide' and 'White Dress' is just so good, I don't know how to describe it. Each individual piece works, and so does the whole album listened to at one go. Really makes one feel at home when played while doing house chores. Ultimately, a score that will be remembered for much longer than the film itself.
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY - John Powell
While the score to The Bourne Identity is interesting and have a few memorable tracks, this one exceeds and then some - every single track is good. Literally the best action score ever. Powell uses synths, but he is masterful at combining that with percussions to create pulsating and pounding beats that drives the listener forwards and brakes at the most random of places, screwing up with inertia and momentum, leaving one beaten and thrown as much as the Bourne character was during car chase sequences. This is an achievement - and one that sustains throughout the whole album. The second half of the 'Goa' track is just so good you could put it on Repeat One and never get tired of it. The 'Funeral Pyre' is quite possibly the first score track to mix in percussion to effectively portray the feeling of sudden loss, and doing it so well. The action tracks in 'To The Roof', 'Berlin Foot Chase', 'Moscow Wind-Up' and especially 'Bim Bam Smash' are the highlights in the way the music makes the action progress and the adrenaline pump. You'd never believe it but it's the best score since Gladiator.
CHILDREN OF DUNE - Brian Tyler
A film score has two jobs to do - complement the movie, and make for a good listening experience outside of the movie. This is a score that does both jobs so well, it nears perfection. While the mini-series is already in good shape under a talented cast and crew, the score helps propel the sci-fi story into something more emotional, poignant, nostalgic, almost like a home world that one has left and is now filled with a sense of melancholy and sorrow. Done with a budget, yet, it still manages to utilise a wide range of instruments, including many North African percussions, to the point that many times the music sounds like 'desert music'. The feeling of a lone man walking in a vast, empty, horizonless sea of sand is always present. The 'Inama Nushif' track does the same job as Gladiator's 'Now We Are Free' - it brings out the undefinable something that gives people a high whenever people listen to certain music. Truly a score that transports the listener to the world of the story.
Other scores that I really wanted to include up there - Laura Karpman's TAKEN ... not the tracks in the album themselves, but the actual score used in the film, which was seriously underepresented in the CD. So poignant are some of the themes, in particular the one that starts the whole thing with Fanning's voiceover.
Also, it's a shame that none of Thomas Newman's scores are up there - worth mentioning are a couple of tracks from ROAD TO PERDITION, IN THE BEDROOM, FINDING NEMO, and probably his best work to date ANGELS IN AMERICA. Most of his scores feature cues and tracks that aren't linked to one another - and in between you find some of the best music ever heard in the world of film music. (AMERICAN BEAUTY would have been up there ... but it was a 1999 score.)
Weekend snippets
12 hours ago
