The Score Report, 9/1/2015
Roundup of upcoming film, TV (and comic book!) scores and soundtracks
Dear world: The Score Report loves you and is sorry that it was gone for so long. The Score Report was attending grad school. The good news is that we have brought some cool stuff back with us. Take a look!
Last Friday, the 28th, saw the release of Nathan Halpern’s score for One and Two on Lakeshore Records. Kiernan Shipka stars in this sci-fi/fantasy drama about a couple of kids who discover a supernatural escape from their troubled family life. The music is a study in contrasts, as it splits itself between warm tonality and something a little more jagged, to represent the two worlds of the film.
Friday also saw the release of another film score divided against itself. H. Scott Salinas’s score for Zipper plays up the dual identity of Patrick Wilson’s character, a federal prosecutor whose addiction to escorts threatens to destroy his life and career. A light ensemble of small strings portrays the family man, while rich cello melodies paint the seductive pull of his darker side.
Joseph LoDuca may be gearing up to return to the world of Evil Dead, but he’s still turned in a new score for Pay the Ghost, a horror film about a couple whose search for their abducted son leads them to a terrifying secret that haunts New York. The score gets a digital release on September 18th, and leans heavily on eerie electronics. LoDuca says not to listen expecting to be comforted…
September 11th sees the release of James Newton Howard’s score for Pawn Sacrifice, a drama starring Tobey Maguire as Bobby Fischer, alongside Liev Schrieber and Peter Sarsgaard. James Newton Howard is a prolific composer. He co-scored the Dark Knight films, he scores The Hunger Games, and he’s just all-around awesome. Also, do you remember Bugs Bunny’s rap song from Space Jam? Buggin’? He wrote the music for that, with Jay-Z writing lyrics. Point is, James Newton Howard is good, and you should check this out.
Out digitally September 11th and on CD October 2nd is Jeff Beal’s soundtrack to Season 3 of House of Cards. Jeff Beal is an accomplished performer as well as a composer, with an extensive jazz background and a wide variety of scores under his belt. Known for his long stint composing the TV show Monk, Beal also scored Ed Harris’s film Pollock and is responsible for making you cry all through the documentary Blackfish. This one’s a 2-disc collection, which is honestly what you want from something expansive as a TV score. It’s good to see fine work getting solid treatment.
Bear McCreary is having a banner year for TV work. The second volume of his score for Outlander is due out September 25th, digitally and on CD. McCreary says that this may be the score he was born to write, having grown up around Scottish folk music, especially from the Jacobite era. This album continues to mine the first season for great soundtrack moments, including the fan-favorite Wool Waulking Songs, and an all-new, extended version of the main theme.
Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders have teamed up to score No Escape. The score got a digital release back on the 21st, but a deluxe edition is due out on September 25th. Starring Owen Wilson and Lake Bell, No Escape sees an American businessman settling into a new job in Southeast Asia just as a rebellion is fomenting. As open warfare breaks out, Wilson tries to find safe passage for his family to flee. The score makes extensive use of percussion, and samples Sanders’s daughter screaming, slowed-down and sampled as a synth pad. Which, frankly, is awesome. Jim James of My Morning Jacket also provides a track.
Last is something a little different. John Bergin has worked in comics and music for awhile now, so it makes sense that his pop-art apocalypse Wednesday would have a musical component. It gets just that and more. Wednesday is getting both a soundtrack and a score album, featuring music from Bergin, Daniel Davies, and Geno Lenardo. Bergin is known for work on The Crow, one of the earliest comic book scores. Davies and Lenardo are known for darker, heavier stuff too, like John Carpenter’s new album. But Wednesday is a gleeful pop-culture mashup about a teenage girl rescuing her father from bounty hunters in the 70’s Plymouth Barracuda he restored, so the musical output may be surprising to fans of their previous work.Both albums are due out September 18th.
