The last couple of months I've watched 3 Carter Burwell movies: Three Billboards, Goodbye Christopher Robin and Ballads For Buster Scruggs. I loved the score in all these movies. It had some really simple but very nice themes. Just the style I like. Any other movies by him which is like this?
I also watched Mildred Pierce (score was just OK to me) and the Buffy movie (lol....).
Try Kinsey, Rob Roy, and Gods and Monsters (excellent films too).
I haven’t seen the film, but The Finest Hours is really excellent music too.
Yavar
If you have not already, you, or anyone interested in the mechanics of how composers are run through grinder, should read Carter Burwell's post on his site http://www.carterburwell.com/projects/Finest_Hours.shtml. It ends up a pretty good film and score. Thankfully more of his score is on the CD.
Oh, and his score to Missing Link is pretty good as well, delightful little animated film as well.
PSYCHO III, his second or third score, unique and unusual with a lovely main title (unfortunately very incomplete album and no CD release), some samples available at his site. http://www.carterburwell.com/projects/Psycho3.html
WONDERSTRUCK is also a great score, beautiful theme.
A lot of Burwell scores are brilliant in context but so minimal that they're hard to listen to on their own. For Burwell scores that make for great albums, I'd second Rob Roy, Gods and Monsters, Wonderstruck, and Kinsey, and I'd add The Hudsucker Proxy, maybe his most all-around fun score.
A lot of Burwell scores are brilliant in context but so minimal that they're hard to listen to on their own. For Burwell scores that make for great albums, I'd second Rob Roy, Gods and Monsters, Wonderstruck, and Kinsey, and I'd add The Hudsucker Proxy, maybe his most all-around fun score.
At this point I will work with minimal with themes, which he does, versus those other guys standing behind my head doing that bwwaa bwaaa in my ears throughout the entire film.
A lot of Burwell scores are brilliant in context but so minimal that they're hard to listen to on their own. For Burwell scores that make for great albums, I'd second Rob Roy, Gods and Monsters, Wonderstruck, and Kinsey, and I'd add The Hudsucker Proxy, maybe his most all-around fun score.
At this point I will work with minimal with themes, which he does, versus those other guys standing behind my head doing that bwwaa bwaaa in my ears throughout the entire film.
Oh, I prefer it! It just means that sometimes a Burwell score can blow me away in the film, but then when I go to the album there's not a lot to hold onto away from the film.
PSYCHO III, his second or third score, unique and unusual with a lovely main title (unfortunately very incomplete album and no CD release), some samples available at his site. http://www.carterburwell.com/projects/Psycho3.html
WONDERSTRUCK is also a great score, beautiful theme.
Psycho III has been my holy grail score for years. I've just about given up hope that Intrada or anyone else will give this a proper complete edition soundtrack. There are at least 3 if not 4 versions of Scream of Love, so plenty of bonus track potential and the fact that this has never had a CD release should suggest this is long overdue.
Psycho III has been my holy grail score for years. I've just about given up hope that Intrada or anyone else will give this a proper complete edition soundtrack. There are at least 3 if not 4 versions of Scream of Love, so plenty of bonus track potential and the fact that this has never had a CD release should suggest this is long overdue.
My hopes were high back in 2015 when Intrada finally released Part II... as time passed my hopes were vanishing, but now are reignited with the Universal Heritage series and LLL. It is also a grail of mine since several years. My problem with the LP program is that it includes all the source music (ok, its from Burwell also), but misses a lot of the underscore. Main omission is the haunting track for Maureen’s return to the house at the end. Other significant tracks missing are the choral track during Norman and Mother first conversation, the middle portion of Before and After the Shower and the finale.
I'm a Burwell completist. I have everything he has commercially released, and most of the FYCs and rarities.
Be aware that I prefer him in sweeping, melodic, romantic mode, so my favorites are not his spare, minimal Coen Brothers work, though I admire that music tremendously.
For highlights, I'd recommend:
CONSPIRACY THEORY - his masterpiece, with one of the top five single cues I've ever heard in my entire life:
TRUE GRIT - epic Western score based around the melody of a traditional song
THE FINEST HOURS - his most breathtaking score in years. Disney somehow allowed him to write an epic score, filled with themes, though they dumped portions of it from the finished film, they released the full score as an album.
CAROL is gorgeous, and reminiscent of Philip Glass
MILDRED PIERCE is achingly beautiful
His second TWILIGHT score, BREAKING DAWN: PART 1, is also beautiful, much bigger than his score for the first film and much more melodic than his third one, which I believe had to be completed by other people in a rush to the release date:
Among his "quirky" small scores, THREE BILLBOARDS is probably my favorite, it's emotional and big:
I also love his score for INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, especially the cue "Love is Good," but I can't find any samples online.
I agree, IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU is one of his best scores. Only two cues are on the CD, but he has more music from the score at his website:
Rob Roy is my favorite Burwell score, by a distance. Plenty of excellent themes and action material. I thought the music worked terrifically well in the film. Fine movie with top notch performances, well worth seeing.
I have everything he has commercially released, and most of the FYCs and rarities.
