A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 49, Now Playing... ”Thor: Love and Thunder”, ”Nope”, ”The Woman King”, "Black Adam" and more!

Welcome back to the show! In an effort to wrap up 2022, I’m concluding with an episode of the Now Playing sub-series of the podcast. This is following on from the previous Now Playing installment (episode 47) in which I primarily covered the first half of the year, including THE BATMAN and TOP GUN: MAVERICK, with additional notable highlights from late 2021. In this episode, enjoy music from John Williams, Lorne Balfe, Junkie XL, Alexandre Desplat among others! Below are the films and composers represented here, with time index for helpful reference. 

Title playtime index:

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER (Michael Giacchino & Nami Melumad) - 00:00:00

NOPE (Michael Abels) - 00:10:29

THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING (Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL) - 00:18:53

THE WOMAN KING (Terence Blanchard) - 00:27:18

THE LOST KING (Alexandre Desplat) - 00:34:41

BLACK ADAM (Lorne Balfe) - 00:42:30

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (Ludwig Göransson) - 00:53:07

THE FABELMANS (John Williams) - 1:03:57

I hope that everyone who listens will enjoy the episode and kindly forgive any technical or factual gaffes. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the podcast is hosted on Podbean. 

Feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their store for "a score to settle" or launch from the link below. If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate the show and write a review, it will help bring me more notice. The podcast is also available on Spotify! Check out the links to the Facebook and Twitter accounts, the latter of which can be found at @score2settlepod. Thanks again! 

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A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 48, Listening To... Music from "Predator" and "Prey"

Welcome back to the podcast! In this episode, I present and examine the music composed for the PREDATOR film franchise, from the 1987 original through to the latest installment, PREY, released via the streaming service Hulu in August 2022. My goal is to identify the themes, motifs, instrumentation and approach applied by composer Alan Silvestri (BACK TO THE FUTURE, MOUSE HUNT, THE AVENGERS) to PREDATOR (1987) & PREDATOR 2 (1990) and how this symphonic model was subsequently interpreted in the sequels and spin-offs (or not). Later, PREY eschews much of the previous musical language and charts new sonic territory, with a subtle nod to Silvestri. Additional composers represented in this pulse-pounding episode include John Debney, Brian Tyler, Henry Jackman, Harald Kloser and Sarah Schachner. 

Title playtime index:

PREDATOR - 00:00:00

PREDATOR 2 - 00:26:25

ALIEN VS PREDATOR - 00:37:10

ALIENS VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM - 00:44:36

PREDATORS - 00:51:52

THE PREDATOR - 1:04:48

PREY - 1:19:23

I hope that everyone who listens will enjoy the episode and kindly forgive any technical or factual gaffes. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the podcast is hosted on Podbean. 

Feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their store for "a score to settle" or launch from the link below. If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate the show and write a review, it will help bring me more notice. The podcast is also available on Spotify! Check out the links to the Facebook and Twitter accounts, the latter of which can be found at @score2settlepod. Thanks again! 

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A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 47, Now Playing... ”The Batman”, ”Death On The Nile”, ”The King’s Man” and more!

Welcome, everyone, to the next episode of the podcast! In this episode, I revisit a sub-series of the show called "Now Playing", during which I showcase recent soundtrack albums to which I’ve been listening. This can include music for both current film releases and classic scores newly issued on album. Below are the titles (and artists) that I present, mostly from the end of last year and the first half of 2022:

VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE - Marco Beltrami

ARMY OF THIEVES - Hans Zimmer & Steve Mazzaro

THE KING'S MAN - Matthew Margeson & Dominic Lewis

DEATH ON THE NILE (2022) - Patrick Doyle

UNCHARTED - Ramin Djawadi

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS - Danny Elfman

THE BATMAN & JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION - Michael Giacchino

TOP GUN: MAVERICK - Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, Hans Zimmer & Lorne Balfe

FIRESTARTER (1984) - Tangerine Dream

I hope that everyone who listens will enjoy the episode and kindly forgive any technical or factual gaffes. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the podcast is hosted on Podbean. 

Feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their store for "a score to settle" or launch from the link below. If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate the show and write a review, it will help bring me more notice. The podcast is also available on Spotify! Check out the links to the Facebook and Twitter accounts, the latter of which can be found at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

iTunes 

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A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 46, The Evolving Sound of Science Fiction Cinema, Part 6 - The 1980's cont

Hello again and welcome back to the podcast! In this somewhat "super-sized" installment of my multi-part trek through the music of Science Fiction cinema, I attempt to close out the decade of the 1980's. The previous installment in this series focused on titles from the years 1980-82. Here, I cover the remaining years of the decade with examples of the competing and sometimes collaborative film music trends - pop & electronic and orchestral. 

The 1980’s were a peak time of musical surprises, somewhat akin to the 1960’s when we heard a mix of traditional orchestral scores, jazz, pop & rock-based colors as well as avant garde music derived from concert techniques. Following its revival, the large scale orchestral approach continued reigning over much of cinematic Science Fiction, now bolstered by electronic and choral elements. Parallel to this were the experiments in synth and pop styles, connecting the genre to present day (for the time) musical trends. To help identify these unique sonic qualities, I'll sample music from TERMINATOR (Brad Fiedel), 2010 (David Shire), ENEMY MINE (Maurice Jarre), KRULL (James Horner), SPACEHUNTER: ADVENTURES IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE (Elmer Bernstein) and THE ABYSS (Alan Silvestri), amid more!

I hope that everyone who listens will enjoy the episode and kindly forgive any technical or factual gaffes. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the podcast is hosted on Podbean. 

Feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their store for "a score to settle" or launch from the link below. If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate the show and write a review, it will help bring me more notice. The podcast is also available on Spotify! Check out the links to the Facebook and Twitter accounts, the latter of which can be found at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

*Correction - During this episode, I mistakenly attributed the theme song for the TV series "Cheers" to composer Craig Safan. In fact, while Safan provided the series bumpers and underscore cues, the theme was composed by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo.

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A Score To Settle Podcast - Episode 45, Guest Neil S. Bulk, soundtrack album producer and editor, 2021 in review

Welcome to the next new episode! I am pleased to be joined once more by soundtrack album producer and editor, Neil S. Bulk. As heard in previous years, which long-time listeners may recall, I’ve invited Neil back to reflect on his notable projects from the prior year, in this case 2021, for the various soundtrack record labels such as La La Land Records and Varese Sarabande. Topics range from work continuing during lockdown, rescores, film score presentations vs original albums and guessing as to what was happening in 1989 with recorded cues now missing. 

Titles discussed in this episode include:

 

THE NEXT KARATE KID (Bill Conti/William Ross)

STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, GLORY, FIELD OF DREAMS (James Horner)

STRIPES (Elmer Bernstein)

CABOBLANCO, THE STRIPPER, S*P*Y*S, TORA! TORA! TORA!, ACE ELI AND RODGER OF THE SKIES (Jerry Goldsmith)

THE TIME TUNNEL (1960's TV series) (John Williams, various)

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (Alfred Newman)

LOVE ACTUALLY (Craig Armstrong)

DANTE'S PEAK (James Newton Howard/John Frizzel)

I hope that everyone who listens will enjoy the episode and kindly forgive any technical or factual gaffes. Below is the embedded player from which you can listen or simply click on the website link to head directly to where the podcast is hosted on Podbean. 

Feel free to subscribe and download the episode via iTunes, just search their store for "a score to settle" or launch from the link below. If you do listen through iTunes, take a moment to rate the show and write a review, it will help bring me more notice. The podcast is also available on Spotify! Check out the links to the Facebook and Twitter accounts, the latter of which can be found at @score2settlepod. Thanks again!

iTunes

Spotify