Last year was really a great year for film music. My favorites and comments are below in no order.

1. The Red Violin (Corigliano)--this is a great score outside the normal Hollywood scoring style.

2. Sleepy Hollow (Elfman)--There is much to hear on repeated listenings. I know many thought "Instinct" a better effort, but this IMHO was far more interesting.

3. Being John Malkovich (Burwell)-This intriguing Twilight Zone-like film has one of Burwell's best efforts to date. When will this guy get some larger recognition?!

4. The Sixth Sense/Snow Falling on Cedars (JN Howard) Although aware of Howard's talent, these two efforts managed to open my wallet for a change. The first film's work was especially well done.

5. The Green Mile (Newman) I preferred this to American Beauty for the way the music moved me during this film. The cd makes for enchanting listening as well.

6. The Phantom Menace (Williams) While many express outrage over the cd release, I can't understand it. It is a listening experience similar to that of the other original releases for these films. There is much to hear and the only frustrating thing is that the score is good enough that we want more.

7. The Mummy/13th Warrior (Goldsmith) I suspect that if this was Horner we'd be complaining of self-plagiarism. I love both of these scores and they make a great companion set.

8. Titus (Goldenthal)--Now while I have heard bits from this only as I await my copy of this to arrive, I have heard enough to know that this will be on my ever long list for 1999.

Honorable Mentions for: Angela's Ashes (Williams) & Talented Mr. Ripley (Yared).

Well, that is a lot, and I may have missed a few. After all, a guy only has so much time and money!

• The Phantom Menace - The album is an insult for the whole score, but the music is still great.
  
• The Mummy - I like it much better than 13th Warrior
  
• The Cider House Rules - Got that one very recently, so I may still be a little biased. But it's really beautiful.
  
• The 9th Gate
  
• Superman and Jane Eyre (Williams) - If re-releases are allowed.
  

1. The Mummy by Goldsmith
It's still rotating in my player after almost a year!

2. Message in a Bottle by Yared
How come everyone only cares about The Talented Mr. Ripley? Message in a Bottle is a much better score.

3. Angela's Ashes by Williams
This one is just beartbreaking.

4. Anna And The King by Fenton
Dramatic and moving.

5. The 13th Warrior by Goldsmith
OK! Its sounds like The Mummy, but still great!

Kevin Su

1. The Phantom Menace
2. American Beauty
3. The World is Not Enough
4. Anna and the King
5. Tarzan
6. 13th Warrior
7. The Cider House Rules

The Ninth Gate - Kilar
Walking With Dinosaurs - Bartlett
The Mummy - Goldsmith
Raise The Titanic - Barry
The 13th Warrior - Goldsmith
Playing By Heart - Barry
Jason and The Argonauts - Herrmann
Monte Walsh - Barry
Thin Red Line - Zimmer

Most Un-Played Buy's of 99....
Instinct - elfman
The Haunting - Goldsmith

The Thin Red Line

THE PHANTOM MENACE (we need an expanded version!!!!!)
ANGELA'S ASHES
THE MUMMY
THE 13TH WARRIOR

TWINE is a honorable mention

THE PHANTOM MENACE - CD was great, but should have been a double CD set. Still worth playing like I do.
THE MUMMY - Some of Goldsmith's best work.
THE 13TH WARRIOR - Gets more play than THE MUMMY. Definately one for anyone's collection.
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH - One of the best Non-Barry Bond scores.

Additional:
BABYLON 5 - SLEEPING IN LIGHT - Chris Franke's best work on the show. Really tugs at the heart.
BABYLON 5 - RIVER OF SOULS - A fun score, filled with choirs chanting and lazy loungey type jazz.

James Newton Howard - The Sixth Sense (worked perfect in the film)
Thomas Newman - The Green Mile (better score and film than American Beauty)
John Williams - Angela's Ashes and Phantom Menace (come on, it's Williams!!!)
James Horner - Bicentennial Man (a main theme to die for)

Bringing Out the Dead - Elmer Bernstein
Being John Malkovich - Carter Burwell
Magnolia - Jon Brion
American Beauty - Thomas Newman
Princess Mononoke - Jo Hisaishi
and apparently since it counts as being in '99: The Thin Red Line - Hans Zimmer (even though parts are missing from the CD, particularly the theme from the villiage that is repeated elsewhere in the film)

1. The Mummy
2. Galaxy Quest
3. Innerspace complete
4. The 'burbs complete
5. The Back to the Future Trilogy

American Beauty (Thomas Newman)
The Hurricane (Christopher Young)
Deep Blue Sea (Trevor Rabin)
The Mummy (Jerry Goldsmith)
The 13th Warrior (Jerry Goldsmith)
Three Kings (Carter Burwell)
Sleepy Hollow (Danny Elfman)
Iron Giant (Michael Kamen)
The Sixth Sense (James Newton Howard)
Galaxy Quest (David Newman)
Forces of Nature (John Powell)
Eight Millimeter (Mychael Danna)
Anna and the King (George Fenton)
Wild Wild West (Elmer Bernstein)
The Astronaut's Wife (George S.Clinton)
Stuart Little (Alan Silvestri)

Best unreleased scores:
Analyze This (Howard Shore)
South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Marc Shaiman)
Mystery Alaska (Carter Burwell)

quote:

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Originally posted by James:
[b]Message in a Bottle Kevin Su, I could not agree with you more on this score. It is absolutely marvelous. Probably my favorite of the year.

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Absolutely! And it just gets better and better with repeated listening.
Well, but it seems that we're the only people who ever mentioned this one..

The Green Mile (indeed better the American B, though that score is still good too)
The Phantom Menace (dissapointing CD, but still great music!)
Snow Falling on Cedars (one of my all time faves)
The Mummy (pure fun!)
The World is not Enough (dum de de dum dum, dum dum dum dum de de dum dum)
Sleepy Hollow (ahhhh, Elfman and Burton. They can't go wrong!)
Tarzan (Lovely stuff, great songs, fantastic underrated score)
Magnolia (near perfection!)

Dan (UK)

The first is Jerry Goldsmith's THE MUMMY.

It irritated me that Mr. Clemmenson over at Filmtracks wrote that this score had too many themes to be coherent.

Please remind him that he awarded a five star rating to THE PHANTOM MENACE, with many more motifs than THE MUMMY.

I am not generally a fan of a score with multiple dominant themes, personally, but there's something to be admired about how well structured this music is and how well the themes (only five) are interrelated. The themes are all excellent musically as well. And as score for the film, the Maestro proves once more why there's nobody better than Jerry Goldsmith.

To Mr. Clemmenson I suggest another couple of listens. EVERY MOMENT of the score rotates very logically and quite cleverly around certain thematic material.

I love so much of Goldsmith's commentary on the action that I don't have time to start even listing a few...seeing how it is that I will become carried away.

We never see this degree of brilliance in musical commentary from Mr. Williams that we hear in Mr. Goldsmith's work here.

It is an absolutely riveting musical experience--every time I take a listening journey.

The second score is THE SIXTH SENSE.

No more needs to be said about it besides the fact that it's everything a good score should be.