Yea, totally. His melodic vocabulary and harmonic development is painfully conservative and simple sometime. It sullies the staying power of his music for me and make it feel a bit trite. Same reason I just can't listen to FOREST GUMP's main theme or most Rachel Portman scores - just so so so simplistic, and not "good simple" in the way that, say, SUMMER OF 42 or TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD's themes are.
Precisely. One reason why Rachel Portman's Never Let Me Go is my favorite score of hers is that unlike many of her other works (they're lovely, of course) it isn't "easy" -- music that is too easy just bores me after a couple listens.
Early in my music listening (say ages 12-14), these were exactly the sort of scores that appealed to me, to be honest. I wanted straightforward lovely orchestral themes. But as I began to listen to more and more music (particularly the vast riches of concert hall music, developing a taste for Shostakovich for example) it just wasn't enough.
"It's all lovely and pretty, no doubt, but like with all other McKenzie scores I've heard, it's all very "on-the-nose" and literal, like the music you sometimes hear in those huge, American prayer meetings (I have the same issue with a great deal of Michael J. Lewis' stuff too). Undermines some of the music's effect for a reserved Norwegian. I can understand why certain types of fans go apeshit over this, but to me, it's always with a bit of aftertaste. I doubt it's going to be a Top 10 contender."
I can tolerate a bit of kitschy schmaltz now and then, but it's also too transparent to give much of a replay value.
No CD = no sale ! 