Ready to Take a Ride on John Powell's Bull Run?

John Powell is really on a roll this year for me.  Tonight I decided to take some advice and try out what some are calling the best action score cue of the year: Bull Run from John Powell's Knight and Day.  Get ready for a rip, roaring Spanish styled tango John Powell style.  Right from the first raps of the percussion you know this is going to be a fun ride.  Frentic strings, guitar, brass quickly join the dance with barely a few seconds of breath catching for the cue's just under five minute running time.  Even the tango's traditional musical instrument the bandoneón makes an appearance.  What would a tango be without a bandoneón?  What can I say?  What are you waiting for?  Click on over to Amazon and get this amazing cue now!***** 

The Battle of Pelennor Fields by Howard Shore

I came late to Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings scores.  My wife got me Return of the King just a couple years ago for Christmas and earlier this year I finally purchased Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers.  A couple weeks ago I watched the special edition version of Return of the King.  Hours into the movie comes one of the best cues of the trilogy, The Battle of Pelennor Fields.  Chills coursed through my body as the music built to the climactic Rohan theme's roar in sync with the charge of the Rohirrim army lead by King Théoden against the orc horde.  Wow, what amazing visuals and Howard Shore nailed the score for the sequence!  I realized that my original album release of highlights did not have this amazing cue, certainly among the best of the film and the entire trilogy.  I soon remedied this over at Amazon.  If you can't afford the complete Return of the King score release price tag, then may I recommend four cues for download in order of priority:

The Battle of Pelennor Fields
The Crack of Doom
For Frodo
Shieldmaiden of Rohan

Plunking Down for Craig Armstrong's Hanging and Escape

Plunkett and Macleane is a 1999 movie in the historical, action, comedy genre, which sounds like an interesting combination as is the merging of different styles in Craig Armstrong's score. I discovered this score recently on guvera.com, an ad based free download service currently in beta.  I picked up two tracks, Hanging and Escape.  Both tracks came up in my research into choral film music.  Hanging starts out with a string statement of the theme and then the chorus states the theme followed by a more subdued statement performed by a children's choir.  The cue continues alternating between string and choral statements of the theme, with the choral part becoming louder and more of an outburst by the end.  The track closes suspense fully with Escape beginning with an even louder choral outburst, although this time backed by electronic drum loops.  It sounds like an odd combination, but it really works and makes for an exciting, heart pumping listen.*****

John Powell's Surprise Hit: How to Train Your Dragon

John Powell hit a new high on my radar this year with his hit score to How to Train Your Dragon. How to Train your Dragon is quite simply one of the best scores of the year and one of the best to come along in the animated genre in some time. John Powell has done animation before (I just love Oogway Ascends from his co-scored effort of Kung Fu Panda), but never at the level of maturity and cohesiveness (no mickey mousing to be found here) found in this 2010 score.  So why do I like How to Train Your Dragon?  A heroic main theme (Test Drive is one of my favorite renditions), Celtic influence throughout, romantic sentimentality (just check out the awesome Forbidden Friendship cue), excellent use of percussion (check out the end of Coming Back Around, for example), and excellent sub-themes (check out Dragon's Den---it sounds so epic it's hard to believe this is coming from an animated feature) are a few of the reasons. Groundbreaking scores like this just do not come along that often and undoubtedly this one will be emulated and likely end up in trailers for other movies in years to come. As of this writing, How to Train Your Dragon is the best score I've heard so far in 2010 and one worth picking up the entire score.  Keeping it coming John!