Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12/18/15)

[YoNoSe]

This place is so weird sometimes.

 

[IrishJedi]

I guess I gotta point out that we've had almost 17 YEARS of listening to the TPM score versus just over 2 whole months for TFA.

 

[a-dev]

I guess I gotta point out that we've had almost 17 YEARS of listening to the TPM score versus just over 2 whole months for TFA.

Aaaand I'm back

So at what point could it conceivably be declared that the TPM score is nevertheless still better than the TFA score without this excuse being used? I mean, the TPM score will always be 17 years older than the TFA score. How long till it is no longer immune to criticism, just so I know

 

[IrishJedi]

I don't know, but it would surely be listening to the TFA score more than just 4-5 times.

 

[Mighty_Jabba]

Kylo's theme is so prominent in the film, I'm surprised people can't remember that one. It's also so wonderfully simple, sort of like the Empire theme from ANH and immediately gets the message across when watching or listening - "the bad guys are here".

Some scores require more than one listen to fully appreciate them. The orchestral music can be very layered, you don't always catch on on all the little things first time round. It has nothing to do with having to force oneself to like them.I remember listening to How to Train Your Dragon 2 for the first time and being so disappointed, especially since I loved the first one. But after a few more listens it just clicked and now I prefer it to the first one. Had a similar experience with Star Trek The Motion Picture, now I consider it Goldsmith's masterpiece.

I think The Force Awakens is one of those scores that you need to listen a little bit more and then it hits you, just how awesome it is.

I like the prequel scores, but I always felt the big choral pieces like Duel of the Fates or Battle of Heroes were a bit at odds with the Star Wars "sound". The OT never had anything like this, but I gues maybe it made sense because the prequels were so far removed from the aesthetics of the OT. The prequels also have a lot of generic action music that Williams did through the 2000's - think "Anderton's Great Escape" from Minority Report. The action writing in TFA is much better and more often driven by themes. And TFA has that OT feel to it that something like Duel of the Fates never did. It just immediately screams Star Wars and it really feels like the Williams of old. At least that's how I feel about it.

 

[IrishJedi]

Kylo's theme is so prominent in the film, I'm surprised people can't remember that one. It's also so wonderfully simple, sort of like the Empire theme from ANH and immediately gets the message across when watching or listening - "the bad guys are here".

Some scores require more than one listen to fully appreciate them. The orchestral music can be very layered, you don't always catch on on all the little things first time round. It has nothing to do with having to force oneself to like them.I remember listening to How to Train Your Dragon 2 for the first time and being so disappointed, especially since I loved the first one. But after a few more listens it just clicked and now I prefer it to the first one. Had a similar experience with Star Trek The Motion Picture, now I consider it Goldsmith's masterpiece.

I think The Force Awakens is one of those scores that you need to listen a little bit more and then it hits you, just how awesome it is.

 

[karamazov80]

So you guys put on movie scores to listen to, at home and in the car and stuff? Weird.

 

[IrishJedi]

So you guys put on movie scores to listen to, at home and in the car and stuff? Weird.

Yeah. The car is actually a great place for listening to scores, especially on long commutes or road trips.

That said, I dare you to listen to "Brothers In Arms" from the FURY ROAD soundtrack without several traffic citations.

 

[karamazov80]

I've seen lots of discussions about it, but in the back of my mind kept thinking folks were just always listening to it in the context of the movie That's all I'm really interested in listening to that kind of thing. Personally though, I love a good soundtrack. I listen to the Footloose and Ghostbusters CDs all the time.

 

[IrishJedi]

Man, even back in the day I would wear out my soundtracks on vinyl. And when the Walkman was invented it was like a revelation.

 

[a-dev]

I don't know, but it would surely be listening to the TFA score more than just 4-5 times.

The point is you have to want to listen to a score. 17 years is all well and good but I could still have only listened to the TPM score 4-5 times if I didn't like it enough to give it any more tries. For this reason I tend to need those INYOURFACE tracks otherwise I'm just not going to bother in the first place. Rey's theme is TFA's only hope, it's the one track that I might bother to sit through the rest of the score for and maybe find a liking for some of the other stuff.

I just think this was much easier with the likes of the TPM score, there was a greater quantity of 'hook' music.

 

[YoNoSe]

I think discussing which has immediate appeal and which is the better soundtrack are two different conversations.

If you're interested in something you give it the benefit of the doubt, which is often rewarding. Many great albums of all types don't have a "hook."

 

[DiFabio]

I don't like AOTC and haven't watched it in many years but the Anakin/Padme arena track, Clone Army track, Jango's escape track and that track that plays when Anakin and Obi-Wan are chasing that female bounty hunter alien lady are all better pieces than anything contained in TFA. Especially when detached from the movie in their own right as simply a John Williams score. In fact, I don't remember people ever proclaiming a John Williams Star Wars soundtrack as unmemorable or mediocre until 2015. Hmmm.

The Prequels blow chunks for the most part, but those three soundtracks and the sound editing and mixing in all three movies are solid and just as good if not better than this new stuff. Even something lame involving Jar Jar Binks is given an operatic feel simply from the soundtrack. This is ****ing London Symphony orchestra material,








Force Awakens wasn't even orchestrated in London and that's evident from the titles and opening crawl. Combine that with mediocre composition to begin with and it just isn't up to snuff in my opinion.

 

[Rorywan]

I don't like AOTC and haven't watched it in many years but the Anakin/Padme arena track, Clone Army track, Jango's escape track and that track that plays when Anakin and Obi-Wan are chasing that female bounty hunter alien lady are all better pieces than anything contained in TFA. Especially when detached from the movie in their own right as simply a John Williams score. In fact, I don't remember people ever proclaiming a John Williams Star Wars soundtrack as unmemorable or mediocre until 2015. Hmmm.

The Prequels blow chunks for the most part, but those three soundtracks and the sound editing and mixing in all three movies are solid and just as good if not better than this new stuff. Even something lame involving Jar Jar Binks is given an operatic feel simply from the soundtrack. This is ****ing London Symphony orchestra material,








Force Awakens wasn't even orchestrated in London and that's evident from the titles and opening crawl. Combine that with mediocre composition to begin with and it just isn't up to snuff in my opinion.

Couldn't disagree more about AOTC.
Worst score out of the entire saga.

And the recording of TFA may have been done in US, but it also has the most natural, full and warm organic sound quality of anything since the OT.
The themes certainly don't jump out at you in a commercial concert suite way, like the PT did. But that's a good thing IMO.

Listening to my 6 year old humming Kylo's theme or the resistance March while building Lego is a testimony to that.
Even I didn't pick up how strong the themes were until a few listens. It just depends on whether you have the interest to get to know the soundtrack or not. The OT soundtracks were the same. The PT were more commercial and easy listening.

 

[Rorywan]

The point is you have to want to listen to a score. 17 years is all well and good but I could still have only listened to the TPM score 4-5 times if I didn't like it enough to give it any more tries. For this reason I tend to need those INYOURFACE tracks otherwise I'm just not going to bother in the first place. Rey's theme is TFA's only hope, it's the one track that I might bother to sit through the rest of the score for and maybe find a liking for some of the other stuff.

I just think this was much easier with the likes of the TPM score, there was a greater quantity of 'hook' music.

Can't disagree with this.
It's what your into at the end of the day, but TFA has a great score, you just need to spend more time with it than the instant hit if the PT soundtracks.

 

[DiFabio]

The Phantom Menace has "natural, full and warm organic" in spades PLUS the bombast that people want to hear. And I could hear the difference between LA (TFA) and London (the other 6 movies from the OT and PT) immediately. Felt like night and day. Only thing TFA soundtrack has in common with the Original Trilogy are the reused tracks like the Vader/Empire theme when you see the helmet, or the death of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru when Rey snatches the lightsaber. The new material? Pfft

Sounds like some of you guys are praising The Force Awakens soundtrack because it's so plain and low-key. That's not how I would describe STAR WARS, the music is as much of the experience as the actual movie. Who doesn't want huge, great pieces like the Throne Room Celebration, the Empire theme or Duel of the Fates in a Star Wars movie? Even the stuff that should be driving the emotion of a scene was typical background music. A Star Wars movie with out invasive, booming melodies? What


And your 6 year old must be pretty special. People keep on saying "Kylo Ren's theme", "Kylo Ren's theme" and I can't even recall what that even is. I saw the movie 3 times and heard the tracks on YouTube and probably still couldn't identify what that theme is without being told.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

I feel like most of John Williams’ scores for a while were getting way too heavy-handed and intrusive, including in the prequels. For me, it wasn’t til around Minority Report that he started getting back to his old self and delivering soundtracks comparable to his best stuff in the 70s and early 80s. But it’s not so much about it being bombastic—it’s more about being obvious about the emotions he’s trying to convey. And it’s mostly when he’s trying to be sentimental that he goes WAY overboard like on something like War Horse and Lincoln.

I remember in particular the music cues that were playing in TPM when Anakin was saying goodbye to his mother on Tattooine that the music just hit you over the head like a mallet. It was just so loud and obnoxious and obvious in trying to elicit an emotion that it made it horribly distracting. It made a bad scene with horrible acting even worse.

All that said, I think JW’s scores are still great and I can enjoy them for the most part. I haven’t gotten around to getting the TFA soundtrack but I remember (from my one viewing) that it was one of his better scores.

I enjoy listening to soundtracks while I’m working—it helps me focus and keep a good pace.

 

[karamazov80]

I'm impressed some of you can disconnect the music from the movie. I doubt I could ever get joy out of music from the prequels, so long as I recognized them as that.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

Geez, I haven’t watched the prequels in so long I doubt the soundtracks would truly remind me of them, save for maybe Duel of the Fates.

But for a while there I was listening to a handful of soundtracks every day to the point where I was much more familiar with the music than with the movie. If I happened to watch the movie, I would notice when certain parts of the songs would drop off because of dialogue or be cut short because of the scene length.

 

[DiFabio]

But for a while there I was listening to a handful of soundtracks every day to the point where I was much more familiar with the music than with the movie. If I happened to watch the movie, I would notice when certain parts of the songs would drop off because of dialogue or be cut short because of the scene length.

I do this all the time if I'm watching people play Star Wars games.