'I was curious how deeply involved Danny Elfman and John Debney were in the writing of the score. Taylor mentioned that from about 80 minutes of ‘Before I Wake”s score, Danny Elfman took the biggest cue of them all which is about 13 minutes long. Additionally one of Taylor’s favourite scenes in the movie is accompanied by an “amazing piece of music” which again was scored by Danny Elfman.
[Danny Elfman] spent a lot of time on ‘Before I Wake’. He did a couple of big chunks and we did the rest. So definitely it wasn’t like “Here’s this little piece of music, I’m outta here.” Luckily enough we worked with quite a few different guys and Danny isn’t like that at all. He definitely worked really hard on it. He likes to write his music and he gives great advice and opinion. Same as John. He is a true collaborator. He comes in, does his thing and that’s great.'
I haven't even heard about Debney's involvement until now... Elfman mentined almost 2 years ago while he had his Burton concert in Prague that this was the one he was working on at the time...
interesting there is no Debney credit anywhere near the amazon link... but perhaps some of the cues will be still included...
As i think Danny Elfman did the more 'tuneful' moments of the score I remember his contribution being quite strong in the film. Looking forward to getting this one.
1. Somnia (1:59) 2. A New Home (1:14) 3. Flashback (1:02) 4. Cody (2:51) 5. Monarchs (0:54) 6. First Day Of School / Afraid To Sleep (2:44) 7. Lighterflies (1:32) 8. Someone’s Here (1:41) 9. Cody And Annie (1:02) 10. Family Portrait (1:48) 11. Sean (Danny Elfman) (2:01) 12. I’m Sorry (1:19) 13. The Life Cycle Of Butterflies (2:12) 14. Memories Of Sean (1:45) 15. Christmas (Danny Elfman) (2:01) 16. I’m Always With You (1:54) 17. The Bully (1:19) 18. Asleep In Class (2:26) 19. I’m Awake, This Can’t Be Happening (1:34) 20. Missing Kid (1:12) 21. Zolpidem (1:15) 22. Come To Bed (1:32) 23. Taken Away (1:42) 24. He Won’t Wake Up (2:14) 25. Cody’s Past (1:27) 26. What Happens When He Dreams? (6:52) 27. He Needs To Sleep (3:10) 28. Something’s In The Bathroom (2:27) 29. Nightmares (2:48) 30. Defeated (Danny Elfman) (9:58)
I'm glad to see that the Elfman tracks are clearly delineated as such, so I can only download those. Unless the score otherwise is smokin' good, of course, but I doubt it -- contemporary horror scores aren't usually my thing.
I e-mailed Varese about this a short while ago and they told me it had been delayed but will be released at a future date. Sure hope it doesn't fall through the cracks. Really liked this and the film.
Finally got the Varese limited release of the CD. The Elfman stuff is really lovely - seems like a completely different score than the majority of the album, but that's fine.
Either way, the album doesn't sound like horror movie autopilot, which sometimes seems to happen in genre scores. A pretty good listen.
This is another score I've never really liked (I'm having one of those mornings!). Ambient, drones, sound design with lots of dreaded 'stingers' (the cheap, easy way to bag a scare), it does have some nicer moments here and there (the Elfman tracks are okay and the Newton Brothers add some pleasant sounding cues), but nothing to really write home about. This is another Mike Flanagan film I've seen (I'd completely forgotten about it) that's neither good nor bad. It just is. Completely ordinary/forgettable in every way. I wonder how Elfman got involved with scoring portions of the film, alongside Flanagan's usual collaborators? Seems strange. Filed, never to be played again (probably).
That's right. Danny has also scored her daughter's own movies, btw.
It's a good film, but I think I've listened to the soundtrack all but twice. I would never have sought it out if it hadn't been for Elfman's involvement. This kind of horror scoring (bunch of stingers, tenuto strings and sneaking around music) is not my cuppa tea at all. But as an Elfman completist, I need to get it, whether I like it or not. In fact, I still need to get the CD; I only have it as files.
I really liked the film and was always surprise it never got more praise but I think a lot of folk felt like Kev did. I thought the tragic central theme with the surprisingly not exactly ‘happy’ ending worked really well. The music isn’t any kind of stand out though ( I hate the cheap ‘stinger’ approach in horror writing as well) but it does benefit from a more solid listen rather than in the background like I usually play stuff. I never really warmed to The Newton Brothers until their ‘Hill house’ score. The emotional end sections which continued in ‘Bly Manor’ just blew me away.
