Soundtrack Review: There Will Be Blood by Jonny Greenwood (2007)

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This is a review of the motion picture score for There Will Be Blood by Jonny Greenwood.

It’s funny, but whenever I think of this score I think about the controversy it stirred up. At first it was sure to be nominated for an academy award for best score and then it was deemed ineligible due to the fact that it had used some pre-existing material from his earlier work “Popcorn Superhet Receiver” and also featured music from Arvo Part and Johannes Brahms. It was an outrage for most people, but rules are rules I guess. Jonny Greenwood is a member of the band Radiohead and play pretty much every instrument ever made. This is the track list of There Will Be Blood:

1. Open Spaces
2. Future Markets
3. Prospectors Arrive
4. Eat Him By His Own Light
5. Henry Plainview
6. There Will Be Blood
7. Oil
8. Proven Lands
9. Hw/hope Of New Fields
10. Stranded The Line
11. Prospector’s Quartet

It’s quite a short score with only 11 tracks and a total playtime of 32:58. It has gotten rave reviews all over the board, top scores which of course helped getting the public more annoyed with the Oscar committee for not letting it be nominated. I, however, am not as impressed with this as most critics are. Yes, when I watched the movie, it was really superb, it was in fact better than the movie itself I thought. The music was so fitting and so powerful, it couldn’t have been better. So I got the score and listened to it at home and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get that feeling I had when watching the movie. It remains a mystery to me how some music sound great in the movies, but not in the stereo, and vice versa.

It’s not bad though, the more I listen to it, the more I like it. Its heavy use of strings is quite powerful in its own right, and some cues are just plain fun, like “Future Markets” which is just insane. When it comes to strings I still prefer Philip Glass, but I have listened to this one far more than any other Philip Glass score. I have to say that There Will Be Blood intrigues me a lot and I desperately want to hear more scores coming from Jonny Greenwood. Is Jonny Greenwood a genius? I think he is. There, I said it, Jonny Greenwood is a musical genius, he has to be when he is so versatile with everything he does. What he has created here is quite brilliant, but perhaps out of my listening spectrum? Who knows? Maybe as I listen to it more, it will become an obsession of mine. For now though I have to be honest and give it a moderate score as I am not ready yet for Jonny Greenwood’s brilliance. Listen to There Will Be Blood by Jonny Greenwood below:

Film Review For There Will Be Blood

The Sunday Soundtrack Charts April 20 2008

Every Sunday I round up the most selling scores and soundtracks on Amazon. Here’s this week’s charts.

1. The Last of the Mohicans (Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman)
2. Leatherheads (Randy Newman)
3. Pride & Prejudice (Dario Marianelli)
4. There Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood)
5. Atonement (Dario Marianelli)
6. Braveheart (James Horner)
7. Out of Africa (John Barry)
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore)
9. Meet Joe Black (Thomas Newman)
10. Chocolat (Rachel Portman)
11. The Holiday (Hans Zimmer)
12. Blade Runner Trilogy 25^th Anniversary (Vangelis)
13. The Mission (Ennio Morricone)
14. The Illusionist (Philip Glass)
15. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Klaus Badelt)
16. The Assassination of Jesse James (Nick Cave & Warren Ellis)
17. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Howard Shore)
18. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Hans Zimmer)
19. Gladiator (Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard)
20. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Danny Elfman)
21. The Legend of 1900 (Ennio Morricone)
22. Batman Begins (Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard)
23. Stardust (Ilan Eshkeri)
24. Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Craig Armstrong & A.R. Rahman)
25. Titanic (James Horner)

1. Juno
2. Across The Universe
3. Once
4. Shine a Light
5. Into The Wild
6. August Rush
7. Enchanted
8. A Good Year
9. Sweeney Todd
10. Dan in Real Life
11. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
12. No Reservations
13. The Darjeeling Limited
14. Death Proof
15. Grease
16. La Vie En Rose: La Mome
17. My Blueberry Nights
18. Garden State
19. The Sound of Music
20. Eddie & The Cruisers
21. Walk The Line
22. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
23. The Thomas Crown Affair
24. Hairspray
25. Love Actually

[tags]movie score, soundtrack, movie music, film score, film music, soundtrack charts, the last of the mohicans, randy edelman, trevor jones, leatherheads, randy newman, pride and prejudice, dario marianelli, juno, across the universe, once[/tags]

The Sunday Soundtrack MP3 Charts April 20 2008

Every Sunday I round up the most selling MP3 scores and soundtracks on Amazon. Here’s this week’s charts.

1. Transformers (Steve Jablonsky)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Klaus Badelt)
3. King Arthur (Hans Zimmer)
4. Kingdom of Heaven (Harry Gregson-Williams)
5. Pride & Prejudice (Dario Marianelli)
6. There Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood)
7. Munich (John Williams)
8. The Incredibles (Michael Giacchino)
9. Conan The Barbarian (Basil Poledouris)
10. Black Hawk Down (Hans Zimmer)
11. The Namesake (Nitin Sawhney)
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Howard Shore)
13. Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones (John Williams)
14. Beowulf (Alan Silvestri)
15. Reservation Road (Mark Isham)
16. Fearless (Shigeru Umebayashi)
17. The Painted Veil (Alexandre Desplat)
18. Hero (Tan Dun)
19. Star Trek: First Contact (Jerry Goldsmith)
20. The Merchant of Venice (Jocelyn Pook)
21. Master & Commander (Ira Davies, Christopher Gordon, Richard Tognetti)
22. The Prestige (David Julyan)
23. The Bourne Ultimatum (John Powell)
24. Chariots of Fire (Vangelis)
25. Atonement (Dario Marianelli)

1. Juno
2. Across The Universe
3. Into The Wild
4. Once
5. August Rush
6. Alvin and the Chipmunks
7. The Darjeeling Limited
8. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
9. Enchanted
10. Hairspray
11. Death Proof
12. Sweeney Todd
13. A Good Year
14. Fred Claus
15. The Sound of Music
16. Garden State
17. Wristcutters: A Love Story
18. Everything is Illuminated
19. Annie
20. Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny
21. Unleashed
22. The Departed
23. Frida
24. From Dusk Till Dawn
25. Music And Lyrics

[tags]soundtrack, movie score, film music, movie music, film score, movie score, juno, across the universe, into the wild, transformers, steve jablonsky, pirates of the caribbean, klaus badelt, king arthur, hans zimmer[/tags]

Soundtrack Review: Shutter by Nathan Barr (2008)

This is a review of the motion picture score for Shutter by Nathan Barr.

Horror composer Nathan Barr is back with the latest Japanese horror US remake Shutter. Although it’s probably wrong to call him a horror composer, I mostly remember him from Hostel and Hostel Part II. He has composed for about 30 movies, and this year he will compose for the movie Tortured and “The Slammin’ Salmon”, in addition to a Television series, a vampire drama called “True Blood”. I liked Hostel Part II quite a bit, and hope Shutter is up there with that, even better, maybe as good as The Eye. This is the track list of Shutter:

1. Welcome To Tokyo
2. We Hit A Girl!
3. Tgk
4. Making Love
5. Alone In Tokyo
6. The Spirit Room
7. The Argument
8. Fly In The Eye
9. Visiting Murase
10. Jane Visits Tgk
11. The Truth
12. I Saw Megumi
13. Driving To Megumi’s
14. Rest In Peace
15. Flip Book
16. The Whole Truth
17. Psych Ward
18. Good To Me

It’s a solid 18 tracks for a total play time of 45:16. Horror scores have a tendency to be short, but this is an ok length, because I know horror scores have a lot of music. I like it most when the music in horror movies isn’t just ambient or background noise, but becomes a part of the movie like in Marco Beltrami’s “The Eye”. I will compare this score to “The Eye”, not because they both are US remakes of their Japanese horror counterparts, but because I thought “The Eye” sets the standard for horror scores so far this year. At first listen, I am happy to say that these two scores do have certain elements in common. Shutter is more horror-like than “The Eye” because it has parts who is there to scare the sh** out of you. What I like though, is that a lot of it is instrumental, like “The Eye”, it feels like a “proper” score, but there’s definitely a sense of horror.

Nathan Barr is a big fan of string instruments, and in this case it’s really good. Strings can be a horrifying instrument when put to good use. It is very haunting and dark at times, and sometimes it’s used as background noise, sometimes to make a theme. He also uses the harp a lot, which ironically is not a dark instrument, but Nathan Barr use it to great effect here as it is his way of playing a theme. You might not hear a theme throughout this score if you don’t listen because it’s subtle, but it’s there. All in all, I am happy with this score. It is definitely more scary than “The Eye”, and that’s a good thing right? Well, it probably is, and in that respect, it should score higher, but I still think “The Eye” is better overall as it is a new way of scoring horror, more thematic beautiful themes. Listen to Shutter by Nathan Barr below:

Retro Wednesday: Great Movie Music – Part 2

Continuing from last wednesday here are 5 more great songs from the movies. Enjoy!

The Neverending Story (1982)

Limahl – The Neverending Story

One of the great songs of the 80s. I just love it. I didn’t like anything else Limahl made though, but the music and movie is cool!

 

Footloose (1984)

Kenny Loggins – Footloose

“Let’s daaaaaaaaaaaaaance!” And why not? Awesome music that even gets me excited about dancing. It’s no easy feat.

 

Back to the Future (1985)

Huey Lewis & The News – Back In Time

Getting back in time has never been better than this. Huey Lewis has produced a number of hits, and this isn’t their biggest one to be fair, but I love it, both the movie and the music.

 

Flashdance (1983)

Irene Cara – Flashdance (What a feeling)

Want more dancing? Then look no further. This is the full video. Great song.

 

Convoy (1978)

C.W. McCall – Convoy

Hehe I couldn’t find a better video than this, but I love this cool song. Miss the movie. I have to watch it again one of these days. I think this one was the nr. 1 on Billboard top 100 for the year charts in 1978. That’s pretty amazing.

[tags]soundtrack, movie score, movie music, film music, film score, retro, convoy, c.w. mccall, irene cara, flashdance, huey lewis & the news, back in time, back to the future, kenny loggins, footloose, limahl, the neverending story[/tags]