Song of the Day: Can You Dig It (by Brian Tyler)

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Arleigh

In continuing the horror detox from this past month we bring to you one of the more fun film music from this past summer’s slew of blockbusters. The latest “Song of the Day” comes courtesy of Brian Tyler’s score for Shane Black’s Iron Man 3.

The first two Iron Man films had their score composed by Ramin Djawadi and John Debney, respectively. The first score was considered one of the finer efforts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film scores. Djawadi brought a much needed fun tone to set-up the wise-ass persona of billionaire, playboy genius Tony Stark. It also had a very metal and hard rock component to it’s sound that put into the forefront that this was Iron Man.

The second film’s score by John Debney wasn’t as well-received by fans and critics alike. Which just goes to show just how much of a misfire the middle film in the trilogy was. It tried to build on what Djawadi did in the first score, but ended up becoming just a derivative version that brought nothing new to the Tony Stark series.

Now this third film brings a new film composer in Brian Tyler who has had some experience in scoring big-budget spectacles and he doesn’t disappoint with his new take on the Iron Man score. While this third score doesn’t bring back any recognizable leitmotifs from Djawadi’s score it does bring in a new sound that’s more reminiscent of 60’s action spy thrillers like the Connery and Moore Bond films. It actually evokes quite a heavy, fun 60’s psychedelic tone. This is best heard in the film’s main end titles credit sequence which brings an animated look back at the trilogy and it’s many characters.

“Can You Dig It” is just a very fun song and it brings much hope that Brian Tyler being assigned to do the film score for Thor: The Dark World will do for that series what he did to finish off the Iron Man trilogy.

Video: Pacific Rim End Titles

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Arleigh

There’s nothing spoilerish in this video that has joined the End Titles sequence of Marvel’s The Avengers as a favorite of mine. Who said end titles for a film has to be the usual text scrawl we’ve been getting for decades. I’m not saying that every film should follow the digital effects used to make the end titles for Pacific Rim and The Avengers, but for summer blockbusters and epic holiday films this is a route that may just become the norm.

The end titles was created by the folks over at Imaginary Forces and all credit goes to these digital artists who made what was already an awesome and fun film even more.

Song of the Day: Blade Runner End Titles (by Vangelis)

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Arleigh

While I find my thoughts on how to continue my review on one of my favorite films of all-time I began to listen to it’s soundtrack for inspiration. So, while listening to the Vangelis composed score for Blade Runner I came across what has to be my favorite track from the many different editions of this film’s soundtrack. This track I picked to be my latest “Song of the Day”.

The track I chose is simply the “End Titles” which plays during the film’s end credits sequence. This version of the Vangelis ambient score comes directly from the Esper Edition of the soundtrack which was a bootleg edition that made the rounds in 2002. More specifically, this version of the “End Titles” track is a demo version of what would finally end up in the film.

Vangelis was one of my favorite film composers growing up and it’s saddening that he hasn’t done as much work in the last decade or so. But then his work on Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner was his best and it’s been difficult to top since. Everything about the “End Titles” track was able to convey each and every genre influence the film would mash together to make it into the masterpiece it has become. It’s ambient and electronic synthesizer melody has hints of film noir and, of course, the very science-fiction the film’s foundation has it’s origins in. This was a soundtrack that was one-of-a-kind and as much as others have tried to copy and emulate it they’ve never succeeded.