For those of you who don't already know, I'm a soundtrack freak. And I'm peculiar about the types of soundtracks I listen to. I prefer instrumental over vocals, and instrumental firmly rooted in the classical tradition than the more modern, avant-garde. I suppose that's natural given my classical training.
My interest first began during an analysis session in a film class I had decided to take on a whim. The film was Born on the Fourth of July and the first sarcastic remark that came out of the professor's mouth during the opening titles was, "Oh. Recognize that fanfare?" The film aficionados in the class groaned in commiseration. Later, I learned that the music was composed by John Williams who I knew vaguely as that old guy who had conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Film composers walk a fine line between creating an ambience for the movie and not to be so intrusive to make the movie watcher from getting up and leaving because their ears are assaulted by offensive noise. It's a distinction that goes underappreciated, probably because so many of the composers succeed in not alienating the audience.
When this site used to be called Grendel's Lair (I know, not very original), I had a whole slew of music reviews which were primarily on soundtracks. Most of the soundtracks were from movies that I had never seen before since I usually obtain scores because of who composed it and not why. Of course, nowadays, I don't get so many soundtracks to review. Besides, there are already very good review sites online (Score Reviews, Soundtrack.net). But some soundtracks are simply obscure and very little information is found about them.
Her Majesty Mrs. Brown by Stephen Warbeck. I've been looking for this one for over two years now, probably because it's out of print. None of the record stores I've gone to (be it new or used) have a copy so I had to resort to obtaining it online. Mrs. Brown works fantastically on screen, but I'll have to admit the score loses some of its luster by itself. This is one of the few soundtracks I got because I saw the movie although judging by this by itself, it's hard to tell whether or not I would go for this composer's other works.
The Mighty by Trevor Jones. This is the guy who also wrote the scores for The Dark Crystal and The Last of the Mohicans. The Mighty is more a combination of New Age/World Music and Celtic than classical, but catchy. However, this score is easily dated, especially with its resemblance to Dark City (which he wrote in the same year, 1998). In fact, the longest sequence in The Mighty is virtually identical to the finale in Dark City (although not as bad as John Williams whose later works all sound like a rehash of Indiana Jones). The only thing I really disliked about the album as a whole was the song "Let the Good Times Roll" by B.B. King and Zucchero. That just stuck out like a sore thumb.
Restoration by James Newton Howard et al. Howard is an excellent composer and before LOTR came out, I was one of the few hoping that maybe the bigwigs might sign him onto that project, but unfortunately Howard's recent work had been Disneyfied (Dinosaur, Atlantis, Treasure Planet). Restoration is one of those scores where the collaboration is almost perfect. It helps, of course, if one of the collaborators is dead. I could tell that Howard did his homework as his own compositions blended seamlessly into the work of Henry Purcell, an English Baroque composer who wrote a lot of ceremonial music for the British monarchs.
