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And this is a journalistic piece.



There was a period of time when JNH was essentially the love child of John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith in his action/adventure films. Waterworld gets somewhat closer to John Williams at times, but the sentiment is quite correct. Of course, Waterworld has much stronger themes, which does not take away a much more "pragmatic" approach to Outbreak.

Don't get me wrong, I love JNH's 90s action stuff... in some places he did it better than Goldsmith, dare I say.

But he refined his sound in the early 2000's... the M. Night films helped this (and he has admitted that himself).

NP: GRAND CANYON (James Newton Howard)

So many great moments; I just need to whittle it down to a proper, flowing playlist. I've always considered the opening of the "Main Title" (before the bassline kicks in) one of the most gorgeous pieces JNH has written, he's so good at poetic, urban soundscapes.

Chaos Walking (Marco Beltrami & Brandon Roberts)

I really want to know how much or little this is by Beltrami. Because this is another empty experience, offering nothing except mood, ambiance and little if no thematic material. Love and Monsters (that was with Marcus Trumpp) was nice, at least that had some excitement (good movie too). This is once again utterly forgettable.

And then you ask my why I hardly review anymore.

Checkin' out 2021 scores, eh? I've probably sampled some 50 myself at this point, but only a very few have managed to make it into my iTunes collection (that's the ultimate 'quality stamp' I give a score). Didn't particularly care for CHAOS WALKING or HONEYDEW either, but I have these in my collection: ENCODYA, FLINCH, THE THIN BLUE LINE, UNDERPLAYED, RAYA AND THE LOST DRAGON, JULIAN SCHNABEL: A PRIVATE PORTRAIT, MINARI, DICKINSON - SEASON 2, TO OLIVIA.

NP: PROMISED LAND (James Newton Howard)

80s JNH is so underrated (and underrepresented on disc). So many wonderful things with synths and smaller acoustic ensembles - a beautiful organic extension of the various rock and pop albums he was working on at the time (as performer, arranger and producer). This is no exception.

NP: DEVIL'S ADVOCATE (James Newton Howard)

Yes, bit of an JNH "mood" at the moment (there are worse moods to be in). I've very rarely played this since I got the digital files, but it's a great one. "Delicious darkness", as I like to call it.

I've never really been into the whole Shyamalan collab, although I like many of the films. I guess THE VILLAGE is the only one I really, really like.

Well, ultimately it's in the eye of the beholder. No doubt the JNH/Shyamalan collab is fruitful, and JNH gets a lot of inspiration from it. But I am the one on the receiving end, evaluating it. For me, that score appears rather 'soulless', and by that mean I mean directionless and rather theme-less. There are bits and pieces of great music in JNH's work between the masterpieces THE VILLAGE and A HIDDEN LIFE, but they are just that - bits and pieces. Rarely does a whole album rise to the front as a coherent, envelopping piece of music. DEFIANCE is perhaps the one that comes the closest.

I believe in the autonomy of the text. If JNH was super-inspired by THE LAST AIRBENDER, that may be so. I don't know, you'd have to ask him. But if I can't find much to latch on as a listener (can't find the score's 'soul', so to speak), that is my call to make. By the way, there are several good moments in the score; but like most JNH in the last two decades, it doesn't hold up as one singular piece. There's too much non-descript material between the few highlights.

So do I, but I'm trying to avoid language which would potentially discuss the state of mind of the creator while writing it. Sure, I have my theories why I don't like A Game of Shadows as much as I wanted to and I actually know about the composer's previous score and his state of mind about it, but I don't think I considered it in my review as an explanation (especially that any reading into a creator's state of mind based on the work is at best dodgy methodologically and complete conjecture as you've never really been there in the proverbial room with him).

To me, non-descript is fine (and of course, always up to discussion, though with a produced album there's always the argument that any structural intricacies and subtleties may be lost, which is actually often the case even with brilliant album programming; simply, we can't pinpoint the material logistically), but "soulless" is close to personal (and not personal reception or opinion of the listener, but the personal state/personality of the creator).

Even if we knew the creator's state of mind about the work they're doing, it may still not impact the work anyway. While not a brilliant film in and of itself, there are masterful sequences in The Lost World (the rescuing Sarah sequence, going through the grass) even though Spielberg lost inspiration mid-filming. Ridley Scott is interesting too: Black Rain is very good, even though the filming process was very difficult (the red tape in Japan especially; he doesn't even remember the film's story very much, considering he regularly confuses Osaka with Tokyo), conversely the production difficulties with Blade Runner (Ridley's loss of his older brother, Frank contributed to him jumping ships from a de Laurentiis production of Dune, yes, the one Lynch made; cast and crew conflicts; Harrison Ford mostly having no idea what to do, because Scott thought that such an experienced actor did not need directing...) may have actually contributed to the film's success. We never know.

Yeah, I mean, I think that the "soul" of a piece is very intertwined with the "soul" (if we consider that to exist) of the creator, because it comes from his emotions, mind and whatever idiosyncratic we take into account.

NP: I LOST MY BODY (Dan Levy)

One of my favourite scores of 2019. If you're interested, you can read my brief review here: http://celluloidtunes.no/i-lost-my-body-dan-levy/

Eleni Karaindrou - To Meteoro Vima Tou Pelargou

Such a wonderful score.