http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:51:34 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/26/165134.php Michael SchuermannIt's been a week since I wrote my review of John Williams' score for Revenge of the Sith. In that review, I expressed great disappointment in the score, and I accused it of being "boring" and largely without thematic development or direction.Since then, I've had several constructive conversations with readers via e-mail as well as with my wife, and those conversations caused me to decide to take a few days completely off from the score, and then to revisit it. Here's what I found.When I sat back down, I decided to revisit the Episode 1 and 2 scores first, to get a taste of where Williams was taking the music. I found in Episode 1 that he was trying to sound like the John Williams of the late 70s and early 80s, and essentially trying to write an original trilogy score. While he succeeded in some part, I feel that the score was a bit flat overall. In Episode 2 he seemed to abandon that approach, and wrote a score in his current scoring voice. Thus, the score felt natural, had an energy to it that Episode 1 rarely had, and made for an interesting listen on CD. The only thing missing? Not a whole lot of themes carried over from the original trilogy or Episode 1, except for the force theme.And so I arrived back at Episode 3. And you know what? This score is actually pretty good. In fact, I would say that, on CD, it's equally as good as Episode 2. It's just totally different. You can tell that Williams was writing for a movie that actually had something to grasp onto, unlike Episode 2. This score has a TON of drama to it. I think that's what I missed during my initial listening (and what I wasn't listening for, thus my negative taste for it initially).Now, don't get me wrong. This score sounds NOTHING like the original trilogy scores (except for a section of track 9). And, if you haven't liked either of the prequel scores, there's a very good chance that you won't like this score either. BUT, that being said, I am changing my rating of this from 2 1/2 stars to 4 stars.Rating: **** out of ***** (4 out of 5).NOTE: This is a followup to my original review, which can be found here. Music28678@blogcritics.org Tue, 26 Apr 2005 16:51:34 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/04/20/194639.php Michael Schuermann** ½ out of ***** - (2 ½ out of 5)And so it concludes. On May 3, Sony Classical will release the score to the final Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith. This single disc affair marks John Williams' swan song for George Lucas' sci-fi epic, spanning 28 years and six films. The question on everyone's mind is "is it any good"?First, let me clarify. I am NOT reviewing the score as heard or used in the film. I have not seen the film and most likely will not until it opens on May 19. I AM, however, reviewing the score as it appears on CD. Episode 3, when it reaches theaters, will likely be a bit over two hours long. On the score CD we are given roughly 72 minutes worth of music. Star Wars films are scored "wall-to-wall" for the most part, meaning that they have music throughout almost the entire film. Given this information, we can guess that there's probably at least 45-50 more minutes of music composed that isn't present on this CD. Woe that it is not...A perusal of John Williams fan Web sites will reveal several articles written by people who were present for much of the recording sessions of this score, and those articles reveal cues being recorded that are thematically rich. These cues reportedly treat us, the listener, to variations and restatements of many of the most beloved themes from the Star Wars saga. So why aren't they on the soundtrack?The biggest complaint about this CD? It's boring. The CD often feels choppy and edited together. Many of the cues have rough or odd transitions from one section to another, seemingly indicating that most of the music is in fact from different parts of the film, but here combined for the sake of "longer tracks". And because of this we hear very little thematic development, either within tracks or through the track to track progression of the album. Most of the tracks are very textural in nature, and many feel like they are underscore for dialogue scenes. Most interesting is that for a film reportedly high on action, we get precious little action music.Regarding what we are given, there are some highlights. In particular, Williams writes a beautiful and haunting statement of the "Across the Stars" theme in the track "Anakin's Dream". He also gives us a raucous and primal track for "General Grievous". There also is a track for the final battle between Anakin and Obi-Wan entitled "Battle of the Heroes" which seems to be a concert version of the theme, with full choir and orchestra. The last track on the CD, "A New Hope and End Credits", sends the CD out with some rousing variations of themes old and new (I won't spoil which ones for you). But apart from these four tracks, it's a very mixed bag. And I emphasize very.Ultimately, it's disappointing. Star Wars purists and completists will want to pick up this CD, as it does have interesting sections here and there. But to get to those interesting sections we sit through so much that is uninteresting.Will the score as heard in the film be different? Probably. In fact, Williams' CD releases lately have been very spotty, while the scores in the film have been like night and day compared to the CD; effective and enjoyable. So, be sure to check out the score in the film if you aren't sure about picking up the CD. And, if you feel necessary, write to Sony Classical and ask them to release the remainder of Williams' music for the film. Perhaps then it will be a more enjoyable listen.NOTE: The retail release of this CD comes with a bonus DVD containing "music videos" conveying the Star Wars saga through music. This DVD was not included with the review copy of the score CD.------------------------For comparisons sake, here's how I rate the other two prequel scores as released on CD:Episode 1: The Phantom Menace *** ½ out of ***** (3 ½ out of 5)Episode 2: Attack of the Clones **** out of ***** (4 out of 5) Music28440@blogcritics.org Wed, 20 Apr 2005 19:46:39 EDT