I know I’ve been mighty quiet on this blog the past year. I
would like to say that I’ve gotten a lot busier—in fact, I have gotten busier. Nevertheless, I admit that I have been devoting
my diminishing free time to pursuits other than writing. In any case, the time
has come for me to slavishly follow the lead of the more prestigious film score
review sites by compiling a list of the best scores of 2014. As in last year’s
post, this will be more of a “year in review” post, covering all the new scores
I heard in the last year.
I thought that 2014 was a better year for mainstream
American film music than 2013. For example, Mark Mancina’s thrilling score for
Planes managed to place 4th in last year’s list. This year’s score
for Planes: Fire and Rescue, while comparable in quality to the first (and
maybe even a little better), placed 11th this year. (I listened to
27 new scores in both 2013 and 2014). While Danny Elfman and Michael Giacchino
didn’t get a whole lot of work this year, Alexandre Desplat did—and all five of
his scores that I listened to evinced quality writing. I’ve always thought
Desplat was a pretty good composer, but he’s starting to become a personal
favorite now. Former collaborators Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell
returned to film scoring after taking 2013 off; Powell’s comeback ended up being
more glorious, though to be fair, he had a better canvas to work on. And
surprise—Hans Zimmer, who seems to have taken leave of his talent since 1999
(with one or two exceptions), wrote one score that didn’t suck and another that
was within a smidgen of being masterful.
Some notes on scores I heard in the film but not on the
soundtrack: The Raid 2 (Fajar Yuskemal, Aria Prayogi, Joseph Trapanese) took a electronics-heavy
approach similar to that Trapanese and Mike Shinoda used for The Raid:
Redemption, though with more “ethnic” (presumably Indonesian) flavoring—but not
anything terribly distinctive. Muppets: Most Wanted featured some charming
songs by Bret McKenzie, but Christophe Beck’s score made no impression on me.
Beck’s score to the entertaining Edge of Tomorrow (starring Mr. Scientology and
Emily Blunt) consisted of themeless, stock action music that did nothing to
distinguish itself from the music of countless boring action scores by Ramin Djawadi,
Steve Jablonsky, Tyler Bates, and the like. God’s Not Dead had a score by one
Will Musser, but I’m afraid the only music I remember from that film is the
eponymous song by The Newsboys. Rupert Gregson-Williams (Harry’s brother) wrote
some African-flavored music for the Blended (in which Adam Sandler and Drew
Barrymore meet cute for the third—or is it the 53rd? --time) as well
as some easy-on-the-ears romantic tunes, but nothing I felt like paying to hear
on a soundtrack. Another Zimmer apprentice, Heitor Pereira, wrote music for If
I Stay (starring Chloe Grace Moretz, playing a character who, in a dramatic
change for the talented actress, is a normal human being). The music must have
been pleasant enough, but again, I don’t recall any of it. Finally, David Fincher’s
superbly directed Gone Girl received an underwhelming score by Trent Reznor and
Atticus Ross (par for the course for the pair as far as I’m concerned). As you
can see, these scores ranged from unmemorable to downright insipid; I don’t
feel like I’m missing anything by not having them on album.
Part 1 will cover 27-21 (plus some special mentions), Part 2
will consist of 20-11, and Part 3 will comprise 10-1:
Special Mention: String
Quartet #1/Early Chamber Works, Othello Ballet Suite (Elliot Goldenthal)
Sadly, Goldenthal doesn’t seem to be in demand for film
work, but his record label, Zarathustra Records, did release a stellar pair of
albums in 2014. The former CD exhibits Goldenthal’s considerable abilities and
assured voice even at such a young age; the brass quintet in particular is
especially wild while still manifesting compositional maturity. The Othello
suite would rate in my top 10 if it were a 2014 film score; the slightly
unhinged yet exhilarating “Tarantella” and alternately radiant and musically
eclectic “Adagio” are particular highlights.
Special Mention: Into
the Woods (Stephen Sondheim)*
Sondheim’s masterful, witty, twisted musical has been around
for a while, but this Broadway show, one of the earliest (and best) fairy-tale
mash-ups, finally made it to the big screen. Sondheim’s songs are, of course,
magnificent in their sophistication and specificity to theme and character;
from the classical sound of Rapunzel’s air (threaded throughout the score and
forming the spine of “Stay with Me”) and the soaring excitement of “Giants in the
Sky” to the melodramatic strains of “Agony” and the sincere emotion of “Witch’s
Lament” and “No One Is Alone,” Sondheim’s craft is impeccable. The film actors
do well pretty well with the singing, but the real attraction of the film
soundtrack is the grand orchestrations of Sondheim’s melodies, both in the song
backings and the score tracks. Cinderella’s theme and Rapunzel’s theme (the
latter of which becomes more of a general theme as the film goes on) receive
some especially lush treatments in “Cinderella at the Grave,” “The Forbidden
Tower,” “Ever After,” and “The Far Away Prince.” I still prefer the singing of
the Broadway actors (and Sweeney Todd remains my favorite Sondheim musical),
but the instrumental arrangements in this film version make the soundtrack a
must-buy for fans of the show—and good musicals in general.
27. X-Men: Days of
Future Past (John Ottman)
X-Men: DOFP provided Ottman a golden opportunity, as he
became the first composer to score more than one X-Men film. Unfortunately, he
squandered that opportunity (though it may be director Bryan Singer’s fault),
providing a dull, lifeless score that quotes his theme from X2 only once
outside of the opening and closing credits. X2 used to be my least favorite
X-Men score, but its orchestral mush sadly proves far superior to the prosaic,
unpleasant electronics and simplistic ostinatos of DOFP.
26. The Equalizer
(Harry Gregson-Williams)
Other reviewers have said this more eloquently than I, but
The Equalizer sounds just how you’d expect a Denzel Washington/Tony Scott
action thriller to sound (though Antoine Fuqua directed this film).
Gregson-Williams knows how to create propulsive action music without sounding
obnoxious; brash, thrashing electric guitars take no prisoners in the
concluding cue “The Equalizer” and a touching motif plays to Washington’s
relationship with Chloe Moretz’s character. But the score doesn’t feature
anything Gregson-Williams hasn’t done better before in Spy Game and Man on
Fire.
25. Guardians of the
Galaxy (Tyler Bates)
If I were writing about the use of the songs in the film,
then Guardians of the Galaxy would rate much higher on this list. However, I’m
focusing on the score here, and Tyler Bates’s effort, while containing an
adventurous main theme and a stirring anthem for the Nova Corps, fails to
impress whenever those themes aren’t playing. And, sadly, the themes don’t really play as
often as I would have liked. The action music in particular consists of
monotonous, simplistic string chopping that bores after about three seconds. As
about half of the hour-long CD consists of action music, you can imagine how
tedious it gets. Again, the songs are what provide the real musical interest in
this superbly entertaining movie.
24. Captain America:
The Winter Soldier (Henry Jackman)
Jackman eschewed Alan Silvestri’s Captain America theme in
his score, and his own simpler theme for the character pales in comparison. Yet
Jackman’s orchestrations of the theme in “Taking a Stand” and in the even
better cue (unreleased on CD) that plays under the closing few minutes of the
end credits are quite stirring. The electronic screaming effect for The Winter
Soldier, while unpleasant by design, serves as a distinctive accompaniment to
Steve Rogers’s twisted, broken “antagonist.” And—I know this is blasphemy—I I like it more than
the Joker’s music in The Dark Knight. While not a great score, the more
consistent action material puts it a step above the score to Guardians of the
Galaxy.
23. The Lego Movie
(Mark Mothersbaugh)
This score sounds a lot better in the film than it does on
CD; the film dials out the more obnoxious electronic noises (listen to the
first few seconds of the opening cue, “Prologue,” and compare it to the opening
logos in the film, for example). “Emmet’s Morning” is the catchiest cue, the
electronics matching the energy of the music without overwhelming everything
else. Serving as the antidote to the all the wild electronica, “My Secret
Weapon” contains unexpectedly emotional writing for the orchestra. Emmet does
have a main theme that Mothersbaugh molds into different guises, while
Wildstyle gets a motif that sounds a bit like “Waltz of the Flowers” from
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. But the real gem is the deliberately vacuous song
“Everything is Awesome!!!” written by Shawn Patterson and produced by
Mothersbaugh.
22. The Amazing
Spider-Man 2 (Hans Zimmer)
I wasn’t the biggest fan of James Horner’s score the first
“Amazing” Spider-Man, yet I was baffled and disappointed to learn that Hans
Zimmer would be handling the sequel. Yet despite the score’s six co-composers
and five co-co-composers, it still features some reasonably entertaining music.
Electro’s emo-poetry theme comes across as self-indulgent, and Spidey’s theme
itself doesn’t rise beyond its Aaron Copland influence. Yet Zimmer and Company’s
varied instrumentation (from woodwinds to high brass to light dubstep) provides
a mélange of musical interest, while the action cues (“Still Crazy,” “I’m
Goblin,“ and “Cold War”—that’s right, those are pretty much the only action
cues on the album) eschew the tedious low string ostinatos Zimmer’s been so
fond of for the last decade. Most of the “down-time” music is rather dull, and
overall, this is the least of the Spider-Man movie scores. However, it is still
by far the best superhero score Zimmer has done to date (though that’s not
saying much).
21. The Expendables 3
(Brian Tyler)
I’m sure differences exist among Brain Tyler’s scores for the
three Expendables films, but they all kind of just run together. (If I’m
remembering correctly, only the first uses a choir). The main theme for these
films consists of several simple, catchy cells that Tyler sprinkles throughout
the scores, embellishing them with complicated writing for brass and strings.
There’s a whole lot of action, but fortunately, Tyler writes some of the most
thrilling action music today. “Valet Parking Done Right” and the explosive
“Armored Freaking Transport” exhibit Tyler’s considerable skill at creating
complex yet clear music. Ultimately, there’s not much more to say about this
score—it’s big, loud, and exciting, but not quite distinctive enough to count
as one of Tyler’s best.
