Snowpiercer (Soundtrack) by Marco Beltrami - Review + Audio

Frozen Motion
by Richard Buxton

Based on the French graphic novel LE TRANSPERCENEIGE, SNOWPIERCER marks BONG JOON-HO’S English-language debut, and the last of the South Korean film industry’s big three directors (Bong Joon-ho, Kim Jee-woon, Park Chan-wook) to venture west in recent years. Though its release was subject to substantial delays outside Asia, Snowpiercer is nothing less than a riveting, refreshing, and downright entertaining science-fiction action film from an immensely talented director.

SNOWPIERCER, set in a grim dystopian future aboard a self-sustaining train without a terminus, charters the uprising of the oppressed within the remnants of humanity’s fragile existence. This ambitious, claustrophobic sci-fi is director Bong’s first foray into action, and has been met with almost universal praise. While his equally talented South Korean colleages Kim Jee-woon, and Park Chan-wook stumbled somewhat with their English-language debuts, SNOWPIERCER’S critical success has made great waves for the South Korean film industry on an international scale.

Aside from Japanese composer TARO IWASHIRO’S score for MEMORIES OF MURDER, music in Bong’s films hasn’t particularly stood out, either in-context or standing alone, nor has the director formed any sort of long-lasting relationship with a composer. As a result, MARCO BELTRAMI boarded the project. Had BELTRAMI produced a by-the-numbers action score, it would have been a missed opportunity to provide something unique for a truly unique film. However, Beltrami has most definitely succeeded in his work for SNOWPIERCER, though in a way that is not entirely satisfying.

The dark reality of SNOWPIERCER’S world is immediately evident in the score’s bleak opening - a fog of desolation that never clears and ultimately represents the divide between the score’s success and failure. As a supporting character in the film, BELTRAMI’S score blends in perfectly, but as a solo act it doesn’t quite have the muscle to boast consistent thrills. Subsequently, those who have not seen the film will have greater difficulty in finding moments worth revisiting.

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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Soundtrack) by Michael Giacchino + Audio Review

Thrills and Feels

Review by Christopher Coleman

Two years ago the movie-watching-world got a pleasant surprise with RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES; however, the bad taste left by Tim Burton’s reimagining of THE PLANET OF THE APES, a decade earlier had not quite left the mouths of some. This somewhat hindered RISE from the box office heights it probably should have hit. That Wahlbergian-foulness was resilient enough to still be found in the detectable quantities come 2014 and the dawning of the sequel to RISE. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES would see two significant changes behind the camera from director Rupert Wyatt to Matt Reeves and from Patrick Doyle to MICHAEL GIACCHINO as the score’s composer. Would such significant changes continue the resurrgence of the franchise or send it back down the apocalyptic hole from whence it came?

Thankfully, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES has been both a critical and box office smash, hopefully setting us up for further sequels of similar quality. After a summer of critical failures raking in countless millions and the critically acclaimed under-performing at the box office, it is, on some level, a relief to see that quality story-telling and character development can be equally rewarded. In the case of DAWN, the story in this sequel is brilliantly told and shifts the central characters from the humans to the apes - who were by far the most interesting element of RISE. Caesar, Koba, Maurice, and Rocket are all back and they have built up a peaceful community of apes, thriving but mere miles from some of the humans that survived the ALZ 113 virus that exacted its mortal, global toll. With the humans struggling to maintain their hold on life, and the apes continuing to develop their own, the intersection of the two species was inevitable and the eventual, inherent plagues that seem to stem from intelligent, familial communities such as: hubris, mistrust, miscommunication, bare their ugly head and plunge the two groups into kill-or-be-killed-conflict.

Patrick Doyle’s 2011 score for RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, while adequate enough for the film, provided less emotional lift or personality than some hoped for, especially in comparison to another 2011, Doyle-project, THOR. That said, his triumphant “rise” theme delivered a couple of very emotional moments, especially at the film’s conclusion as the newly emancipated apes literally rise into the nearby forest-trees. If nothing else, this theme alone seemed to provide a solid launch pad for any sequels that might come, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

READ THE FULL REVIEW

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Soundtrack) by Henry Jackman - Review + Audio

Listen to this Review!

Oh Captain, My Captain
Review by Christopher Coleman

April isn’t supposed to be a month for blockbuster movies. Captain America isn’t supposed to offer one of the better stand-alone entries in The Avengers series of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe and Henry Jackman isn’t supposed to be the one carrying on Cap’s musical story. Yet all these things are.

When last we left CAPTAIN AMERICA he, along with his new Avengers crew, had just saved New York and likely the rest of the world in the process … unless you count his brief Loki-channeled, cameo in THOR: THE DARK WORLD. Regardless, Captain America now finds himself in the post-911, post-tesseract, United States of America. Just as Tony Stark and Thor had to make significant life-adjustments as a result of the “Battle of the Tesseract,” so does Steve Rogers - perhaps even moreso.

It is in this modern, politically-grey, paranoid, and cynical America that Cap finds his next cinematic adventure. Fighting against a mysterious and formidable foe, known as The Winter Soldier, and an even greater, more elusive enemy, Captain America, Black Widow, Nick Fury, and the Falcon take on new biological, technological, and idealogical threats in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Leaving behind the nostalgic and simplistic patriotic tones of THE FIRST AVENGER and ALAN SILVESTRI’s pitch-perfect score, this Cap sequel’s original score is equally fitting. Perhaps not as listenable out of context, but it is difficult to argue that HENRY JACKMAN’s score for The Winter Soldier is not a fit for the film.

For those who have only listened to the original soundtrack as released by Hollywood Records, I have the greatest sympathy for you. Jackman’s original score is the poster-child for the need of context. It’s performance on soundtrack, without this context, is painfully disappointing. The score jumps from Bourne-like action to unadulterated Americana, to twisted-metallic-screams. If one has a Captain-America-like grit and determination for repeated listens, then there are threads that do connect many of these seemingly disparate patches together. My advice? See the film and make your subsequent listens to the score a substantially more pleasurable experience.

Henry Jackman’s score is evenly balanced between action, dramatic, and atmospheric cues; seven of the first two type and six of the last. The action and dramatic cues certainly hold the lion’s share of identifiable musical themes and moments, but, if one care to look closely enough, there are a number of interesting moments tucked within the many layers of the synth-symphonic-hybrid pieces as well.


READ THE FULL REVIEW 

Return of the Audio Soundtrack Reviews? Maybe.

You might have noticed that my latest review for PACIFIC RIM includes an audio edition. (Ok...maybe you hadn't, but there it is above.)  You might also remember this being a more common feature on our reviews about a year or so ago as well.

And then...they disappeared.  But why?

A couple of reasons.  First, while I have loved SoundCloud since the first time I laid eyes on it, and while we were graciously accepted into their beta-podcast program, that beta-period closed and we just had more content than the free plan allows.  So in order to not add any additional costs to running the site, I elected to just not add any more audio reviews.  Second, the fine folks at SoundCloud asked that we night include any music clips in our episodes (something I very much wanted to do...and got quite a few requests for).  Still, I wanted to abide by their rules and so did not include any material that could cause a problem.  Oddly enough, it wasn't too long after that I noticed, not just clips, but full tracks, not owned by the individual who posted it, being added all over the site.   Later, I found plenty of podcasts with music clips in them, too.  That was a bit frustrating and my inquiries to SoundCloud went unanswered.

So as great as SoundCloud is, I was left with little choice than to find another solution.  Still, as you can see, some of our past audio reviews got a few ears on them.  Moving from the SoundCloud platform was far from ideal, but sometimes one never knows what other great services are out there until you are forced to look.

All my wanderings and journeys finally landed me at Mixcloud ... and I could hardly believe it was true. Since their platform was created for the specific purpose of music line-ups and mixes, this suited the requirements of our audio-reviews perfectly. We've been using them for a while now, as an additional outlet for our SoundCast episodes and have been quite happy with the service.

So now, I've published the first of what could be many audio-reviews.  As we have always tried to do at Tracksounds, we want to provide soundtrack-geniuses around the world, as many easy ways to ingest soundtrack-centric content as possible.  I believe the audio format to be he most convenient, flexible, and in our subject matter's case, the most relevant means of doing so.  It seems only natural to be able to listen to the music being referred to in a review. No?

As great of an idea as I think it might be, you, the soundtrack-genius community, have a huge-say.  If you find these audio-reviews valuable, here's what I'd like for you to do.  Simply head over to our Kickstarter page and ... I kid.  I kid.

No Kickstarter here, just let us know you're listening by:



1) Actually listen to the review. (As you can see there is a "listens" counter next to the headphone icon.

2) Hit the little like/favorite/heart button on the player.


If we can get at least 100 listens and/or likes/faves by this coming Sunday (10/20), then we'll take that as a "Yes." from the you.



To be clear, you're not listening/liking/faving because of the content of the review.  You're "voting" on continuing the reviews in this format..


How easy is that?

Pretty painless, but very, very valuable to us. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to listen and click and maybe even sharing.  Of course, if you'd like to say a little sum'n-sum'n about all of this audio review business, please use our handy comment section below...or dare I mention our Speakpipe, voice-mail widget?


We greatly appreciate your feedback!

Christopher

W.E. (Soundtrack) by Abel Korzeniowski - Review + Audio

Chocolate for the Ears
Review by Helen San

W.E. is a romantic drama about the complicated love story of King Edward VIII and the American woman he abdicated his throne for, Wallis Simpson. The second directorial effort by Madonna, W.E. was her baby. She researched it for years, co-wrote it, cast it, and pored over costuming decisions. Attracted to the melancholy of A SINGLE MAN, she handpicked composer ABEL KORZENIOWSKI (Ah-bell Kohr-shen-yow-ski) for this project.

Told in flashbacks, the film moves back and forth between contemporary and period settings. KORZENIOWSKI wrote a classic, timeless piece that could fit easily in whichever time period it found itself. Madonna was very specific about wanting this score to be more emotional than cerebral; it should be simple enough to connect with audiences easily. She gave explicit instructions to KORZENIOWSKI, a classically trained composer, to not “overthink” it. I think this may have been one of her best decisions on this film. Madonna may not be the greatest actress or film maker. But the woman knows her music and how to sell it.

I’ll cut to the chase. The score moved the heavens out of me. It doesn’t have the sheer, mind-blowing brilliance I heard in BATTLE FOR TERRA or the pure, astounding beauty of A SINGLE MAN. But W.E. reaches right in, grabs my gut, and transports me to every single love story I’ve ever seen, heard, or felt. It is the universal embodiment of the raw, emotional power of romantic love. I daresay it is the most romantic score I’ve ever heard. Yes, ever. Eat your heart out, FRANCIS LAI. You’ve been dethroned, MAURICE JARRE.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE (AUDIO VERSION AVAILABLE)