I'm a growing admirer of Christopher Young's healthy body of work. For me, "Flowers in the Attic" is nothing short of a marvel in the field of orchestral music. "Flowers" is basically the score of my dreams, along with Bernard Herrmann's "Obsession." I also have a strong love for "The Fly II," and "Dream Lover," and have greatly enjoyed his two "Hellraiser" scores as well as the beautiful "Shipping News." But I am still fairly new to his work and I would love to read opinions of the following scores. Thanks in advance to anybody who responds. Comments will be immensely appreciated:

1. Sweet November
2. Head Above Water
3. Hider in the House
4. Hush
5. Max and Helen
6. Murder at 1600
7. Nightmare on Elm Street II
8. Unforgettable
9. Wheels of Fire
10. Wonder Boys
11. Bright Angel
12. Bless the Child
13. Def Con 4
14. In Too Deep
15. Judas Kiss
16. Species
17. The Gift
18. The Glass House
19. The Big Kahuna

I've heard some of "Haunted Summer," which sounds like pure bliss (it's a score I intend to obtain in the future), but I haven't heard a note from any of the above. Thanks again.

Best Regards,
Dylan

Now I saw Hard Rain on tv and that sounded pretty good.

I heard cues from The Core and that sounds nice.

Still kind of reserved about Young; however, he is a brilliant -- if difficult -- composer to listen to.

Hmmm. I wonder what the track `Rota Rooter' sounds like???

The other one on the list to get is Bright Angel.

Bless the Child seemed like something I would greatly enjoy.

Is "Sweet November" a fairly slight/simple score? I suppose I'll try to find samples of some of these online sometime. Thanks.

I've heard that the second track on the "Species" promo is wonderful, does anybody have any further comments on that score (as far as I know, a lot of it was buried in the film)?

quote:

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Originally posted by justin boggan:
Murder At 1600 is a SKIPPER!

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1. Sweet November
OK - nothing special - pretty low-key jazz.

3. Hider in the House
Pretty routing comedy score.

4. Hush
Great! Wonderful horror score.

6. Murder at 1600
Routine stuff

7. Nightmare on Elm Street II
Pretty "out there" - not for the faint-hearted!

8. Unforgettable
Forgettable.

10. Wonder Boys
Fantastic, groovy stuff

12. Bless the Child
Wonderfully apocalyptic horror score. I was lucky enough to be at the recording sessions for this - one of Young's most accomplished scores

14. In Too Deep
Rather boring

15. Judas Kiss
OK jazz stuff

16. Species
Absolutely terrific - A-grade stuff

17. The Gift
A little disappointing

18. The Glass House
Even more disappointing

quote:

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Originally posted by Dylan:
I've heard that the second track on the "Species" promo is wonderful, does anybody have any further comments on that score

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Track 2 ("A Vibrant Slime") is very fine horror/atmosphere music, with some action stuff thrown in near the end. My comments to the score above were referring to the promo by the way, I don't know any other version of the score. My favourite track remains Fever though. As a whole, plenty of typical Young in this score, and plenty of minimalistic touches. Bits of female chorus remind me of Elfman's The Frighteners, but much better. I'd like to see Young score a Peter Jackson movie, actually.

Another great Young promo is Urban Legend.

All must-have Young albums.

Of course you'll also need:

THE DARK HALF
THE FLY II
BLESS THE CHILD

I actually became a serious Chris Young fan because of HARD RAIN, so I would recommend that one over anything else (his riff on the ALIENS temp score in the first "Jail Cell" cue is classic!)
Some other Chris Young faves of mine:

HELLRAISER - A gothic masterpiece! Seductive horror; brilliantly structured.

THE FLY II - My favorite of Young's main titles, with some great action cues.

URBAN LEGEND - Arguably his best horror score; propulsive, slashing cues.

THE GLASS HOUSE - Vastly underrated! I'm a big fan of this very thematic score.

RAPID FIRE - Entertaining, nonstop action score with some very Goldenthal-esque track titles ("Fed Funk Muck" and "Kaper Kut")

From the recommendations, it looks like these will be the next five I will try to obtain:

1. Bless the Child (This REALLY sounds like my kind of score)
2. Species
3. Hider in the House (I've been told this score is all atmosphere, with one action cue...sounds great)
4. The Dark Half
5. Murder in the First

And I have heard bits of "Haunted Summer" and "Urban Legend," which both sound like great I would enjoy (especially "Haunted Summer").

Marian, I'm glad this thread has inspired you to go back to Young. He is one of my favorites. I am a big, big fan of Danny Elfman's "Frighteners" score, and I just LOVE the choral parts in the score (though there is a lot of wonderful choral-laden cues that were left off of the album), so "Species" must be obtained.

I can't wait until "Exorcist 4," lets all cross our fingers for Schrader in that this film doesn't get too chopped by Morgan Creek, and lets all wish Young the best of luck with his score, which will arguably be immensely interesting (especially for fans).

I'm glad you gave "Dream Lover" another spin. That's fine if you don't like it that much, and Young is definately not for everybody. In fact, I didn't fall in love with his music until about two months ago.

As for Rota, I often think about the concept of nostalgia while listening to his music....but I personally think of most of Rota's music as 'romantic carnival', like a romantic encounter in a carnival at night (I guess most people won't get that, it's a Felliniesque thing I guess). Young seems to LOVE carnival music as well (Hellrasier 2 also has a winning carnival composition, then again, I LOVED Dream Lover, so...).

One interesting thing about Young...in an interview I read (can't remember where), he was asked what kind of film he wishes he could score. He said an adventure film with stop-motion animation monsters, in the tradition of "King Kong" and "7th Voyage of Sinbad." I'm wondering how he would approach a film like Jackson's remake of "King Kong" (of course, Jackson won't use stop-motion, though I wish he would).