Here’s part II of my 2013 roundup. Enjoy!
APRIL 2013
April was the best month yet with really good scores sprinkled across the month. In the beginning of April was got Spartacus: War Of The Damned by Joseph LoDuca and it was (and is) the best in the Spartacus series so far. Released on the same day was the score to the fantastic television series House Of Cards. The score by Jeff Beal has a few great moments, particularly the ‘House Of Cards Main title’ which is just damn addictive, just like the series. Just a week after that we got Oblivion by Anthony Gonzalez & Joseph Trapanese. They had followed all the rules of great sci-fi action and delivered a really good score with some amazing cues. On the same day Oblivion dropped we got Evil Dead by Roque Banos, a hell of a horror score, particularly the amazing ‘Abominations Rising’. From the always great Yoko Kanno we got Kids On the Slope, a jazzylicious experience. To top it off, the ending of April was really great with scores such as Iron Man 3 by Brian Tyler where he takes the franchise to new heights. Then there was Kon Tiki by Johan Soderqvist, Superman Unbound by Kevin Kliesch and finally The Grandmaster by Shigeru Umebayashi & Nathaniel Mechaly. All in all, a very good month.
There were a number of games scores this month, some more impressive than others. On the disappointing side we had Defiance by Bear McCreary and Dead Island: Riptide by Pawel Blaszczak, but on the other hand we got a fantastic score from Tyler Bates: God Of War Ascension. That score really brought war to the franchise. I thought it was bad-ass before, but I was clearly mistaken. There was also Halo 4 Soundtrack Volume 2 by Neil Davidge & Kazuma Jinnouchi that was pretty good but far from the first score. Lorne Balfe delivered a good score with Assassin’s Creed III: The Tyranny Of King Washington, but it should have been better.
The biggest disappointment for me was Defiance by Bear McCreary. I had at least expected a couple of great cues, and I didn’t get a single one. Sinbad by Christopher Henson was also an utter disappointment to me. I was hoping for some swashbuckling fun, but I didn’t get any. 42 by Mark Isham was overall very disappointing except for a fantastic cue ‘Jackie Robinson’. G.I Joe Retaliation by Henry Jackman was largely disappointing as well.
I wasn’t really positively surprised by anything this month. It was either as expected or way below expectations.
Soundtrack Of The Month: God Of War Ascension by Tyler Bates
Cue Of The Month: I’m Sending You Away by Anthony Gonzalez & Joseph Trapanese (Oblivion)
Number Of Soundtracks Listened To: 33
April Soundtrack Reviews:
Company You Keep, The by Cliff Martinez
Dead Man Down by Jacob Groth
Defiance by Bear McCreary
Dignity by Eric Neveux
G.I. Joe: Retaliation by Henry Jackman
House Of Cards by Jeff Beal
Spartacus: War of the Damned by Joseph LoDuca
Trance by Rick Smith
42 by Mark Isham
Disconnect by Max Richter
God of War: Ascension by Tyler Bates
Halo 4 Soundtrack Volume 2 by Neil Davidge & Kazuma Jinnouchi
Oblivion by Anthony Gonzalez & Joseph Trapanese
Sinbad by Christian Henson
To The Wonder by Hanan Townshend
Continuum Season 1 by Jeff Danna
Crestfallen by Henrik Skram
Assassin’s Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington by Lorne Balfe
Dead Island: Riptide by Pawel Blaszczak
Mud by David Wingo
Americana (Wish You Were Here) by Jordan Shapiro
Grandmaster, The by Shigeru Umebayashi & Nathaniel Mechaly
Iron Man 3 by Brian Tyler
Kon-Tiki by Johan Soderqvist
Superman Unbound by Kevin Kliesch
MAY 2013
Spring is starting to turn into summer, yes May is one of my favourite months of all time and it has nothing to do with it being my birth month or that we celebrate the Norwegian National day in May, oh no, not at all. It’s also the prequel to summer blockbusters as we start to get some of the really big ones and for a soundtrack geek, it’s pure heaven. Unfortunately May also seems to be a waiting month with fewer scores than usual. Luckily for us, May of 2013 was a great month and it all starts with a really impressive, but unheard of, television score called The Beauty Inside by Dustin O’Halloran. It’s also very short, but it’s a real beauty with subtle but impressive themes and soundscapes. In the middle of the month we get the excellent Epic from Danny Elfman. It’s not as good as Oz The Great and Powerful, but this is turning out to be a great year for Elfman. A surprise hit for me is James L. Venable’s Scary Movie 5. The movie is so bad, I had to quit watching less than 30 minutes in, but the score is both scary and fun and no sign of ridiculous cartoon comedy which it could have been judging by the film. We got another great television score this month from Brian Keane. Copper Season 1 is just all fun with great use of Irish music. Finally we got the very anticipated sequel to Star Trek. Star Trek Into Darkness by Michael Giacchino was really good or even great, but even so, it is suffering from the greatness of the first score. In my review of Pain & Gain by Steve Jablonsky I mentioned that I probably wouldn’t listen to any cues from this in the future (or something to that effect). I was totally wrong. “I Believe In Fitness” is simply brilliant, my Chariots Of Fire moment of the year.
May brought us back to the glorious 80s with Power Glove’s excellent 80s synth score Far Cry: Blood Dragon. I was convinced it was a April fools joke when it was announced, but it was all real and we thank the 80s Gods for that. It’s no secret that I simply love the 80s synth maestros Faltermeyer, Hammer, DiCola, Hertzog, Vangelis and in Blood Dragon I was again delighted to go back to a decade I truly loved. Rising Storm by Lennie Moore & Chris Rickwood was decent, but nothing more. Finally we got Expeditions: Conquistador by Leonardo Badinella and Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded by Austin Wintory. Both had great parts and bad parts.
May had some real stinkers as well, but I wouldn’t call them disappointments because I wasn’t expecting greatness. In the hall of shame this month we had Only God Forgives by Cliff Martinez, Antiviral by E.C. Woodley, Free Fall by Durbeck & Dohmen and Hammer Of The Gods by Benjamin Wallfisch.
For the positive surprises, I have to include Dustin O’Halloran’s minimalistic and beautiful score The Beauty Inside. I love it when “unknown” scores pop up and surprises the hell out of me. Scary Movie 5 by James L. Venable was a big surprise for me. I was expecting comedy hell, but instead I got a pretty good horror score.
Soundtrack Of The Month: Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon by Power Glove
Cue Of The Month: I Believe In Fitness by Steve Jablonsky (Pain & Gain)
Number Of Soundtracks Listened To: 21
May Soundtrack Reviews:
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon by Power Glove
Beauty Inside, The by Dustin O’halloran
Iceman, The by Haim Mazar
Epic by Danny Elfman
Scary Movie 5 by James L. Venable
Only God Forgives by Cliff Martinez
Antiviral by E.C. Woodley
Free Fall by Durbeck & Dohmen
Pain & Gain by Steve Jablonsky
Stuck In Love by Mike Mogis & Nathaniel Walcott
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks by Fall On Your Sword
Rising Storm by Lennie Moore & Chris Rickwood
Hangover Trilogy, The by Christophe Beck
Da Vinci’s Demons by Bear McCreary
Hammer Of The Gods by Benjamin Wallfisch
Now You See Me by Brian Tyler
Star Trek: Into Darkness by Michael Giacchino
Expeditions: Conquistador by Leonardo Badinella
Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded by Austin Wintory
JUNE 2013
Summer is officially here and what a summer for soundtrack fans! From MovieScore Media we got Gagarin: First In Space by George Kallis, a totally unexpected glorious gem of a score. Full of themes and it seemed to be a massive production with great quality all around. Then came one of the televison scores of the year from WaterTower Music. Game Of Thrones Season 3 by Ramin Djawadi simply blew me away with it’s lush and gorgeous themes from the third season of the show. Game Of Thrones season 1 was good, season 2 was really good, but this was something else entirely. One of my favorite scores of the year no doubt. Horror fans got their quota filled with The Last Exorcism Part II by Michael Wandmacher. I still haven’t watched the film because I really believe it to be sub-standard compared to the excellent scary score by Wandmacher. Of course the big release for me and for many others were Man Of Steel by Hans Zimmer. Easily the most anticipated score of the year for me. The curiosity simply killed me. What had Hans done with a franchise that I utterly loved. Nothing could beat the fantastic march by John Williams, that much was clear, but from the first listen, I loved the score. I was shocked at how many themes there were, and not only that, really great themes as well. The Deluxe edition added more greatness and a clear contender to score of the year, or maybe even score of the decade. We got some excellent trailer music from the new group Twin Scoring Studio with the epic Legend Of The Guardians, one of the best trailer albums I have ever heard. Defiance the video game score was a disappointment, but the television score by Bear McCreary was a lot better. Copperheard by Laurent Eyquem delivered something fresh and exactly what was needed. Full of wonderful string based themes, this one is a winner. June ends with a bad-ass score from Ramin Djawadi. Pacific Rim was everything I hoped it to be and more. It was surprisingly beautiful as well with some great themes to add into the hard and heavy action cues.
In June we had the excellent game score Remember Me by Olivier Deriviere. The first time I listened to it, it didn’t take however. I thought the glitch effect present in the cues was disturbing, but it soon changed. Now I love it and I think it’s a very original approach, even though it feels gimmick-y. State of Decay by Jesper Kyd was very disappointing, as well as The Last Of Us by Gustavo Santaolalla although the latter had a couple of great cues. Company Of Heroes 2 by Cris Velasco was pretty decent, some great action and choirwork.
Even though I gave it a Geek Score of 78.5, I thought After Earth by James Newton Howard was disappointing and not what I would expect from a Shyamalan & JNH collaboration. Dark Skies by Joseph Bishara was a disaster. Gret movie though, and the score is very effective, but as a standalone listen it’s just sound fx. World War Z was also largely disappointing and a couple of fantastic cues saved it. Fringe Season 5 ended the series scores with a decent return.
One of the biggest positive surprises to me was Game Of Thrones Season 3 by Ramin Djawadi. I did not expect such excellence. Gagarin: First In Space by George Kallis was also pretty great, and since I was unfamiliar with the composer, that’s a very pleasant surprise. The Last Exorcism Part II by Michael Wandmacher was one of the standout horror scores of 2013, and I was quite surprised at how great it was. the TV score to Defiance was surprisingly great, specially since the game score bombed. Copperhead by Laurent Eyquem was a very welcome surprise at the end of the month as well.
Soundtrack Of The Month: Man Of Steel (Deluxe Edition) by Hans Zimmer
Cue Of The Month: What Are You Going To Do When You Are Not Saving The World (Man Of Steel)
Number Of Soundtracks Listened To: 24
June Soundtrack Reviews:
Blood by Daniel Pemberton
Remember Me by Olivier Deriviere
After Earth by James Newton Howard
Dark Skies by Joseph Bishara
Gagarin: First In Space by George Kallis
Game Of Thrones Season 3 by Ramin Djawadi
Purge, The by Nathan Whitehead
State Of Decay by Jesper Kyd
Much Ado About Nothing by Joss Whedon
Last Exorcism, The: Part II by Michael Wandmacher
Last Of Us, The by Gustavo Santaolalla
Love Is All You Need by Johan Soderqvist
Man Of Steel, The (Deluxe Edition) by Hans Zimmer
No Place On Earth by John Piscitello
Legend Of The Guardians by Twin Scoring Studio
Defiance (TV) by Bear McCreary
Despicable Me 2 by Heitor Pereira
Monsters University by Randy Newman
World War Z by Marco Beltrami
Company Of Heroes 2 by Cris Velasco
Copperhead by Laurent Eyquem
Fringe Season 5 by Chris Tilton
Hummingbird by Dario Marianelli
Pacific Rim by Ramin Djawadi