I'm sure these will not sell out over night. The other two will.

I use it plenty...that's my problem

quote:

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Originally posted by Widescreen:
Wish it'd been Gremlins and Inner Space among the listed.

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They'll just keep stringing us along, Chris! And we'll be strung along, happily. Any new Goldsmith is better than nothing. I'm sure Gremlins, Innerspace, Explorers, etc. will see expanded, shiny releases at some point.

However... I have a hunch that FSM might be doing Gremlins later, based on something I read at their message boards...

...but I've been wrong before.

NP: The Right Stuff

I can understand how you don't recommend it for the "average soundtrack listener," although I'm not even sure who the average soundtrack listener is and what soundtracks he listens to that makes him average, but I'm having trouble figuring out your reasoning for giving it two stars, as it is quite a short review (about a paragraph detailing the music itself), which is fine if you're unexcited by the score, except that you go on here and the FSM board trying to direct people to read the review, while you contribute even less in terms of discussion on the board itself.

You end your review by saying: "There is just not enough additional music to justify the purchase price other than the outstanding main theme." What additional music would you like? That's a pretty broad statement. I understand the stereo cues are fairly brief, but the mono presentation I feel does add some considerable depth with almost fifteen added minutes of music.

And as for that outstanding main theme, you noted: "While Hard Contract is not a monothematic score there is quite an emphasis on these (sic) theme." So I'm not sure if you don't care for the fact that the theme is dominant in the score, although that would make sense it being the main theme, or if you felt there was just too little variation in it, although you stated that: "You will hear this theme in different arrangements such as muted trumpet, guitar, flute, and other combinations."

I'm glad you responded because I love to talk about film music especially the older material.

For your information I actually had to start a thread on Maintitles for Alex North as they didn't even have one. Such a shame for such a talent. I think he had 15 Oscar nominations.

As for that thread you started, this was the entirety of your first post:

"Since I've now gone on to doing a review of the 1969 film Hard Contract, I decided that Mr. North should have his own thread at the very least."

To be honest, I'd fully expected you to put another link to your review there, but I then saw that wasn't necessary as it was featured on the Maintitles website itself.

I'm not trying to discourage you from writing reviews, especially since you are interested in older material, but for all the effort you seem to have put into promoting this one review, the review itself is pretty bare bones.

And I'm not saying that because you initially gave it a low score and I disagree with it--although your score on the site now shows three stars, which I think is more apt--but what makes it generic to me is that there is little discussion of the music itself in comparison to stating general info about the composer, the film, and the fact that half is in stereo and half is in mono.

In fact I counted the sentences in which you talk about the music on some of the tracks. There were seven. And while they aren't bad at describing the content of the few tracks you mention, they don't say anything about what you did or did not enjoy about them. You say the main theme is outstanding. How so? What about the material that doesn't focus on the main theme. Does it bore you? How so? Details, man!

If you think Alex North deserves this discussion, then by all means, discuss it, but if you're serious about doing these reviews, don't gloss over the music and then go out to all the film music boards linking to your review.

Finally, in your above post you say the following:

"If you took away the duplicate material offered in both stereo and mono how much is left and is it worth the price?"

Again, it strikes me as odd that you went to the trouble of writing the review, but not doing the math yourself. There's over thirty minutes of score in the mono portion, in which the score is most fully presented, and if you add the source cue and the main title demo from the stereo portion you have almost forty minutes. So either way, whether you look at it as over thirty minutes or almost forty, it's well within a normal album range.

But again, it's the quality of what's there that should matter, both in a soundtrack album and a soundtrack review, and if you want to be a serious reviewer, one worth promoting his own writing, you should be considering that more than just how much is there.

As far as Hard Contract was concerned I listened to it several times as well as sitting down and watching the film with the purpose of listening for the music. I also read about 20 or so pages about North on ebook google. There was a biography written about him. The key point, in my opinion, was this. "I would assume that most of the Alex North fans have already gotten their copy and are enjoying the music." I try very hard to write my reviews in such a way that a reader who knows nothing will be a little informed. The review was not necessarily written for the informed. Few outside the circle of soundtrack listener's have heard of him unless you mention he wrote "Unchained Melody." If your budget permits buy all four of the Varese releases. If you can afford one I'd vote for the Goldsmith "Lonely are the Brave" if you didn't own the older Delphi release.

Perhaps this will give you a little better understanding of me. I really have come a long way in three years and 241 reviews. Again thank you for taking the time to respond. Constructive criticism is always good.
Thomas