Sunday Shuffle

I haven't done one of these in a while, so here's a randomizing of the MP3 library:

1. "Farewell and End Title" from Dances With Wolves. One of my favorite scores, and one of my favorite films.

2. "Children In Chains", from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I liked this movie at first, then I hated it, and then I liked it again. I dunno. I'm weird that way. The last score of John Williams's "golden" period, when nearly everything he wrote was terrific.

3. "May Angels Fly Thee Home", from Merlin. A very good fantasy score by Trevor Jones. (I liked the TV movie a great deal, too. If you see it, make sure to watch the complete DVD version, as opposed to the heavily-edited VHS version.)

4. "Domestic Experiences", from Little Women. I'm coming to very much love Thomas Newman's writing.

5. "An Architect's Dream", from The Towering Inferno. I've never seen the movie. It's an early, pre-Star Wars score by John Williams. I only bought it because the FSM CD was close to selling out, and a year or two later when I really needed money, I pawned it on eBay. In truth, I've never listened to it all the way through. This particular track is pretty good, on first hearing. Lots of the familiar Williams pathos.

6. "Cheek to Cheek", from Top Hat. Fred Astaire, singing to Ginger Rogers. What can I say about this? It's one of the best performances ever of one of the best songs ever.

7. "Porco e Bella" from Porco Rosso. I haven't listened to this score all the way through in detail yet, but as the score plays in the film, I like it a lot. Joe Hisaishi has a real feel for Hayao Miyazaki's tendency to tell stories from any time and setting he wants. (Porco Rosso takes place in the post-World War I Mediterranean. It wouldn't even be fantasy if the hero hadn't been subject to a curse that gave him the features of a pig.)

8. "Enter Lord Vader", from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Again, not much that I can say about this one. I just love John Williams. That is all.

9. "Remembering", from Total Recall. As far as I am concerned, this score marked the end of Jerry Goldsmith's most fruitful years. He continued to compose music for over a decade after Total Recall came out, but with few exceptions I find most of his output during the 1990s to be lackluster and, occasionally, even boring.

10. "The Matrix Revolutions", from The Matrix Revolutions. I only made it through about a half hour of The Matrix Reloaded before I fell asleep, and I never bothered watching Revolutions. But Don Davis's score is a keeper. Davis created one of the more distinct sound worlds for this series.

Well, that was fun. Or not.