I’ve been waiting for quite a long time for the release of Darren Aronofsky’s biblical disaster epic. Now that it’s finally here it also means a new film score from Aronofsky’s collaborator Clint Mansell.
The soundtrack to Noah is definitely on par with past Mansell scored Aronofsky films going all the way back to Pi. It’s a soundtrack that’s both epic, majestic and more than just a tad apocalyptic. One of my favorite tracks from the soundtrack comes at a moment of triumph early on in the film which creates a sense of hope in the face of the approaching divine apocalypse.
“Make Thee An Ark” starts off slowly. Layers on layers build within the string work by the Kronos Quartet who have worked with two Mansell on past Aronofsky films. The track actually has a nice musical throwback to Mansell’s work on The Fountain. It’s probably the influence of that past film which made the Noah soundtrack appeal to me more than the previous ones for Black Swan and The Wrestler.
My latest review was one where I mention my surprise at just how good Disney’s latest animated film really turned out. It was a surprise born out of seeing the House that Mickey built returning back to it’s fairy tale roots. A return which first began with 2010’s Tangled and now continues with their latest, Frozen.
Close to everyone who has seen Frozen have fallen in love with the film and with many of the characters in the film. Like all past classic Disney animated films, Frozen also succeeds in having some great musical numbers. Frozen doesn’t just have strong characters, storytelling and musical numbers, but it has some great singing performances to round everything into what looks like a classic in the making.
Disney Animation has been kind enough to provide, for free, one of the biggest highlights of the film and what I consider my favorite singing performance in a cast full of them. Idinia Menzel as Elsa didn’t just hold her own in the acting department, but also knocks it out of the park with her power ballad “Let It Go”. Her voice just has a power all their own which brings the character of Elsa to life. The emotions she shows throughout this number just grows and grows as her character grows gradually from the unsure Elsa and into the sassy and confident queen inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s character from his fairy tale, The Snow Queen.
Best to just watch and listen to Idina Menzel just sing her heart out.
Let It Go
The snow glows white on the mountain night Not a footprint to be seen A kingdom of isolation, and it looks like I’m the Queen The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside Couldn’t keep it in, heaven knows I tried
Don’t let them in, don’t let them see Be the good girl you always have to be Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know Well now they know
Let it go, let it go Can’t hold it back anymore Let it go, let it go Turn away and slam the door I don’t care What they’re going to say Let the storm rage on, the cold never bothered me anyway
It’s funny how some distance Makes everything seem small And the fears that once controlled me Can’t get to me at all
It’s time to see what I can do To test the limits and break through No right, no wrong, no rules for me I’m free
Let it go, let it go I am one with the wind and sky Let it go, let it go You’ll never see me cry Here I stand And here I stay Let the storm rage on
My power flurries through the air and to the ground My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around My one thought crystalizes like an icy blast I’m never going back, The past is in the past
Let it go, let it go When I’ll rise like the break of dawn Let it go, let it go That perfect girl is gone Here I stand in the light of day Let the storm rage on, The cold never bothered me anyway
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.
The previous “Song of the Day” was Polymorphia and comes courtesy of one Krzystof Penderecki. Why stop a good thing and go with someone else for the latest one when Penderecki continues to bring in the horror.
“Kanon For Orchestra and Tape” was also used in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist and one could tell just from listening to it that it fit perfectly. Like Polymorphia, this particular piece uses the string section to help create that encroaching dread and horror while adding some nontraditional sounds to keep the listener off-balance.
Just listening to this piece one could be made to believe that there is a Hell and the Devil’s just waiting to get out and play.
For the first horror “Song of the Day” I couldn’t decide on which theme from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser I should use.
Fans of the film should know well the original theme composed by Christopher Young for the film. It’s a more orchestral theme that gives the film a sort of grand guignol grandeur. It’s an epic piece that would get used time and time again for each successive sequel. There might be some minute changes to the theme with each new film, but the basic composition remains. It’s a theme that helps one visualize forbidden texts and grimoires laying in wait for the ones brave or foolish enough to turn the page.
Then there’s the unreleased and unused theme that Barker had originally wanted to use from the industrial band Coil. This theme for the film was more about discordant melodies that harkens back to the more disturbing musical composition used for The Exorcist. It’s a theme that brings up images of the sublime and exquisite pain that Pinhead promises to those solve the Lament Configuration.
Some fans prefer the original Christopher Young suite while others have grown to love and prefer the more disturbing piece from Coil. I, for one, think both could’ve been used in the film though if I had to pick one to use as the main theme then I would go with Christopher Young’s composition.
Finishing off my Pacific Rim soundtrack trifecta is the Mako Mori theme by Ramin Djawadi.
The first two parts of this trio were the theme to Pacific Rim and the theme to Gipsy Danger. Both were composed by Ramin Djawadi (the film’s composer) and featured lead guitar work by Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. My third choice and latest “Song of the Day” was simply titled “Mako”. This part of the soundtrack occurs primarily during a Drift sequence in the film that becomes the unifying thread to the relationship between Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako Mori character and IDris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost role. Ramin Djawadi has singer and songwriter PRiscilla Ahn join him in this song as we see an important backstory play out within the Drift. It’s Mako’s past history with the kaiju and Stacker and why she’s so determined to become a jaeger pilot despite her adopted father’s reservations.
With this track we see that Djawadi can handle emotional musical pieces as well as the more hard rock and chest-thumping sections of the film’s score. It helps to have Priscilla Ahn’s melodic harmonizing backing up Djawadi’s composition which starts off gradually and dream-like before it transitions into a soaring string movement that Djawadi’s mentor, Hans Zimmer, wished he could pull off.
To say that the Pacific Rim soundtrack was just as awesome as the film it was composed for would be an understatement. These three choices were just my personal favorites. There were more throughout the 25-track soundtrack and each and everyone of them fits the film perfectly.
This latest “Song of the Day” will be the second of what will be a trifecta of my favorite tracks from the Pacific Rim soundtrack by composer Ramin Djawadi. The first one was the main theme from the film and featured Rage Against the Machine lead guitarist Tom Morello providing lead guitar work. This second track I’ve chosen is siply titled “Gipsy Danger”.
Where the main theme has been everyone’s favorite in the entire soundtrack it’s difficult not to enjoy the motif for the main character of the film. Let’s be honest and just admit to ourselves that the main character in Pacific Rim is the jaeger christened Gipsy Danger. The track which introduces her theme in the film actually precedes the main theme. We actually hear the “Gipsy Danger” theme right from the start of the film. It combines some of the hard rock melodies and chords from the film’s main theme, but also expanding on the deep bass tone (sounding like a fog horn blowing) that punctuates throughout this theme more than it did in the main theme. This deep sound I always thought of as the “monster arriving” musical cue. It appears not just when Gipsy Danger makes her initial appearance but also whenever a kaiju emerges from the ocean and makes landfall to cause destruction. It’s a sound cue similar to classic giant monster flicks from Japan that announces either Godzilla or one of his kaiju brethren which was followed-up by the iconic monster scream.
We get both the rock and roll and heroic sound from the main theme combined with the more ominous musical cue in this chosen track. It pretty much focuses on one of the film’s taglines about creating monsters to fight monsters. The Gipsy Danger jaeger is a monster in her own right. But then she’s our monster and we always have a fondness for monsters as long as it’s our own.
I must admit that in 2012 I didn’t get to listen in full many new albums outside of soundtracks. My Fave five of 2012 Songs will reflect this fact, but still with the lack of variety in my past year’s listening habit I thought the songs I came up with for the list I still would’ve put on a much bigger favorite 2012 list if I had need to come up with one. Without further ado he are the Fave Five (though it’s more Fave Six but I decided to combine the first entry’s two as a tie).
The Fave Five starts off with a tie that comes from the same film. Both songs come from the soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. While the film may not have been up to some audiences’ high expectations the soundtrack itself by Howard Shore (and for “Song of the Lonely Mountain” as sung by Neill Finn) continued the high-quality of the Tolkien soundtracks which began with the original Lord of the Rings trilogy. “Song of the Lonely Mountain” is a much more folk rock addition to the soundtrack while the “Misty Mountains” was actually part of the film itself when the character of Thorin Oakenshield sings it with his band of dwarfs while at Bilbo Baggin’s hobbit hole in the beginning. Both songs so a great job of telling the story of the quest that begins with this first film in the new trilogy.
The theme song 2012’s Skyfall was a throwback to the classic James Bond theme song’s of the Sean Connery and Roger Moore Bond eras. In fact, I thought it’s one of the best theme songs the long-running spy thriller franchise has had these past 25 years. It helps that you have Adele singing the theme who seems to be able to hit the right proper emotional notes during the song. It’s really hard to think of Skyfall the film being as good as it is without making sure one mentions Adele’s theme for it. I’d take the leap and say that the song itself may even be better than the film itself.
Mass Effect 3 was the epic conclusion to what was this gaming generation’s version of the original Star Wars space opera. It was a story that spanned the galaxy with memorable characters, thrilling action and some very good writing. There will always be the vocal minority who seem to think the ending to the trilogy was bungled by the writers over ta BioWare. That’s a whole different debate altogether. One thing that doesn’t seem to bring out the pitchforks was Clint Mansell’s score work for the game and it all culminates with the song simply titled “An End, Once and For All” which in it’s extended version more than makes up for whatever deficiencies the ending it orchestrally-scored may have had.
Another game’s music makes itself to my Fave Five list and this time it’s my second favorite song for the year of 2012. It’s from Halo 4 and it’s a song that brought new life to the venerable franchise. It didn’t just make the end credits more than just memorable, but also surprised many fans of the franchise’s music since the song wasn’t composed by the franchise’s original music composer, Martin O’Donnell, but by Kazuma Jinnouchi. It’s the one song in 2012 that I must’ve listened to on repeat for hours on end and probably in the high hundreds by now. It’s a song that brings back memories of the scifi soundtracks of the 80’s. It’s a work that I easily can compare to the best that’s ever been composed by luminaries in the genre like John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Michael Giacchino and others.
What can I say. The song speaks for itself. How can one not say this was the best song for 2012.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey doesn’t seem to be resonating with as many people like the previous The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not to say that the film is a bad one. For those disappointed in the film seems to want a repeat of the first trilogy. My review of the film will and shall be up later today to help celebrate the site’s 3rd year anniversary. For now let me share the ending song to the first part of Peter Jackson’s latest Tolkien trilogy.
“Song of the Lonely Mountain” is sung by Neil Finn of Crowded House and it follows on the tradition of past Tolkien adaptations by Jackson by turning to musicians who Jackson and Shore enjoy listening to. The song has a Celtic, folksy rock sound to it. I particularly enjoyed the addition of hammers ringing on anvils to help listeners visualize the exiled dwarfs of Erebor toiling in front of their foundry in preparation for the day they retake their homeland from the dragon Smaug.
I didn’t like the song when it was first premiered a couple weeks in advance of the film, but it has since grew on me and has joined the other three end credits songs from the original trilogy as favorite original film songs.
Song of the Lonely Mountain
Far over the Misty Mountains rise Leave us standing upon the heights What was before, we see once more Our kingdom a distant light
Fiery mountain beneath the moon The words unspoken, we’ll be there soon For home a song that echoes on And all who find us will know the tune
Some folk we never forget Some kind we never forgive Haven’t seen the back of us yet We’ll fight as long as we live All eyes on the hidden door To the Lonely Mountain borne We’ll ride in the gathering storm Until we get our long-forgotten gold
We lay under the Misty Mountains cold In slumbers deep and dreams of gold We must awake, our lives to make And in the darkness a torch we hold
From long ago when lanterns burned Till this day our hearts have yearned Her fate unknown the Arkenstone What was stolen must be returned
We must awake and make the day To find a song for heart and soul
Some folk we never forget Some kind we never forgive Haven’t seen the end of it yet We’ll fight as long as we live All eyes on the hidden door To the Lonely Mountain borne We’ll ride in the gathering storm Until we get our long-forgotten gold Far away from Misty Mountains cold
This weekend sees the release of Peter Jackson’s long-awaited first film in The Hobbit trilogy. With news of a new Peter Jackson adaptation of a Tolkien source material there will also be news of the return of film composer Howard Shore back to the musical legacy that is the Middle-Earth film franchise. The latest “Song of the Day” comes from the soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the track I chose has already become the most recognizable theme in this first film of the latest trilogy.
“Misty Mountains” was composed by Plan 9 and David Long and was sung by Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield and his company of Darf Companions as they spend a quiet time in Bilbo Baggins’ home the night before they set out on their quest to destroy Smaug and retake their ancestral kingdom of Erebor in the Lonely Mountain to the far east of the Shire. Every Peter Jackson entry to the Middle-Earth saga has always had the cast sing one or two songs which comes straight out of the many songs created by J.R.R. Tolkien for his novels, short stories and appendices.
This song almost describes the past and future of Thorin Oakenshield as it describes in prose the destruction of his home of Erebor in the hands of Smaug the Dragon, but it could also describe a future event him and his company of Dwarfs (and one hobbit) must defeat as part of the climax of this first part of the new trilogy. The song is just a very well made one and very memorable. So memorable that there’s already reports of people who have returned for repeat viewings of the film joining in the singing of the song when it appears on the screen. While I wouldn’t want my experience interrupted by some in the audience trying their best to sound just as good singing in a deep tenor as Richard Armitage I can’t blame some of these fans for their love and enthusiasm for the song.
Misty Mountains
Far over the Misty Mountains cold, To dungeons deep and caverns old, We must away ere break of day, To find our long-forgotten gold.
The pines were roaring on the heights, The winds were moaning in the night, The fire was red, it flaming spread, The trees like torches blazed with light.
Through the Shattered Lens 