[Nicolai P. Zwar]

That’s right, one album per post. 🙂

Okay, let’s see how I mean this. Remember Thor’s 10 Topics that interest/don’t interest you?. An attempt to see what people are really interested in.

Well, this is a Film Score Forum, so I guess we can all pretty much safely assume that most people here are interested in film music in one way or another.

So let’s try something a little different, and hopefully a bit of fun.

This thread is not another “list your 10 favourites/best/whatever” thread. We have plenty of those already, and they’re great, nothing wrong with lists, but not all threads can and should be list threads, so this one wants to go into a different direction. This is an album thread. Singular. Focused. One album per post.

The idea is simple: Once you go in, you don’t come out.. oh, wait, sorry, that was from the John Carpenter film I watched the other day… let’s try again.

The idea is simple: Pick one album — any album you like — an tell us a bit about it. Why you like it, why you picked it, what you want others to know about it, and so on.. of course, it’s a film score forum, but I guess it’s okay if I say you can extend this to any album you want, film score, rock, jazz, classical, pop, electronic, whatever you love.

What an “album” is defined by you. By that I mean you can define and a “1 album per post” topic could be:

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK as a standalone album

The ARISTA box of the STAR WARS scores

ALL THE STAR WARS SCORES as a conceptual whole

Every release of STAR WARS – A NEW HOPE and how they differ

And so on, I hope you get the idea. It may be a single LP, a CD, a digital release, a box set, a particular film score and all its recordings, a compilation, it’s all fair game. You can compare all the VERTIGO recordings and it would still be “ok”. Can be a longer post that explores the music in depth, or just a short post where you tell us why you picked that album and what you want us to know about it.

As long as your post is clearly about that “one” topic, that one album/score/edition/collection, it fits.

You can post as many times as you like, just keep it one album per post so each entry can breathe.

This isn’t meant to be academic. Unless of course you want it to be, that would be fine too. No pressure to write a dissertation though. Just share why this album matters to you, what it does for you, and why someone else might want to give it a spin.

A suggested outline (use, ignore, or adapt as you please… this is just to help you on the way, by no means feel bound by it):

Album:
What exactly are you talking about? Be as narrow or broad as you like.

Why did you pick it:
What makes this album special to you? A memory? A musical idea? A performance? A mix? A release history?

When did you first hear it:
And maybe: when did you last revisit it?

What stands out:
A cue, a track, a movement, a performance, a production choice, a theme, a moment, mastering, booklet?

How it sits with you today:
Has your relationship with it changed over time?

Optional angles you might explore:

How you discovered it

A personal anecdote tied to the album

Why you think others should (or shouldn’t) check it out

How it fits into the composer’s or artist’s larger body of work

That’s it.
Pick an album.
Tell us why it matters.
One album per post.

Looking forward to reading your entries, in the hope of discovering (or rediscovering) some gems along the way.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

As it happens, I had eventually intended to do a LOT of threads about individual scores/albums, where I talk about such things. This board doesn’t have too many of them yet. And of course we do chat a bit about individual albums in the “What are you listening to?” thread, although probably briefer than what you had in mind.

Anyways, once I’d finished the “FSM #” series (I’ll do about 50 of those, I think, out of the 1306 threads I started there, most of which are – indeed – about individual titles). And maybe some other broader topics I had in mind that I hadn’t posted about on other boards before. And THEN I had planned to delve into the individual scores, with their individual threads, perhaps as I go through them in my current collection walkthrough (I just need to emerge from the Williams & Elfman cave first).

But no reason why you can’t have them here as well.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

There may be similar threads of what I had in mind, and of course there are threads about individual scores, but that’s not really what I was looking for. I thought of this more along the line of browsing through the files in a record store, where you pull out that one album and start talking about it. A thread that tells a bit about the albums and about the people who post about them. And if more people do it, it might just become a thread with all kinds of albums and short (or long, by all means, no one’s stopping anyone) album introductions.

So not so much a thread about a single score, nor a thread with just lists of scores, but the “pick one album and talk about it” thread. 🙂

Here’s an example what I had in mind (which I of course already wrote while you replied here).

I’m talking about WIZARDS by Andrew Belling.
Released by La-La Land Records in 2012 (LLLCD 1223)

I first stumbled onto the movie WIZARDS decades ago, back when VHS finally meant you could watch strange, culty films at home instead of waiting for some late night TV slot. I had read about the movie in a film book and actively sought it out. The movie mixes fantasy, science fiction, and is a bit of a psychedelic fever dream. The plot is simple: two twin wizards, one good, one evil, leading their nations continually into war, with the good side fending of the bad side, until the “bad” side rediscovers and weaponizes Third Reich propaganda… It was bizarre, bold, and unlike anything else I’d seen. Not necessarily “good”, but most certainly “unique”. And interesting. So I watched the movie several times.
One thing stood out for me: Andrew Belling’s score.
It didn’t sound like regular animation music, and definitely not what regular animation music sounded like in the 1970. No Mickey Mousing, no wall to wall orchestral bombast, no musical songs. (There is a song, a nice one even, but it’s not a “musical song”.) Instead you get this odd fusion of jazz, lounge, a surprisingly charming song, touches of classical writing, and a general 1970s vibe that feels both handmade and completely sincere. It is a quirky, and in my view strangely beautiful score. A perfect match for Bakshi’s off kilter world.
For years I hoped the score might somehow get released, but realistically… who was going to put out the music from a decades old cult film by a composer who wasn’t exactly a household name like Goldsmith or Williams. It felt like a long shot.
And then La La Land actually did it. In 2012. That was wow, they released one of my old forgotten favorites from my youth days.
I doubt it was a big seller, which is a shame, because it’s one of those albums that exists almost in spite of the market. For me, it was a small miracle. A piece of my teenage film discovery years suddenly preserved, cleaned up, and sitting on my shelf.
I even had a bit of contact with Andrew Belling via social media, just brief exchanges, but he came across as genuinely warm, gracious, and delighted that people still cared about his work. He passed away last year at 80, and that makes the album feel even more personal now.
This isn’t a score for everyone. It’s not traditionally “epic,” it’s not orchestral, and it doesn’t try to be. But if you’re in the mood for a funky, jazzy, slightly psychedelic 1970s concept album meets film score, WIZARDS is a wonderfully unusual little journey.

[Thor Joachim Haga]

I’ve heard of Ralph Bakshi, of course, but neither film nor score ring a bell. I have to say that you sell it in well, though. Love the mix of styles.

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

It’s certainly an odd movie. And it’s also an odd score. As I said, I don’t think it’s a score for “everybody”, and the movie isn’t nearly as good as some of its ideas are, some animated scenes are great, yet remain isolated in a narrative mess. Still my personal favorite of Bakshi’s movies though (which are all a bit odd). The trailer contains music from Belling’s original score.

[Ruslan32]

Great thread, Nicolai!

I’ve been thinking about this almost all day today. Personally, I found it quite difficult to choose just one special album… But that’s the beauty of it—it encourages me to reflect more deeply and figure out why a particular album is meaningful to me.

And that album is The Shrouds by Howard Shore.

First of all, I want to say that this score is very different from anything else he has composed—at least from the works I’ve been able to listen to. Perhaps Crimes of the Future has a somewhat similar atmosphere in terms of sound (which is also an excellent score, by the way).

Howard Shore used electronics earlier in his career, though I’ve always considered him primarily an orchestral composer. This score also stands out because of its very strong and expressive atmosphere.

The synthesizers are fascinating and sound beautiful. I’d really love to know exactly which synths he used. The music relies more on atmosphere and the harmonic qualities of the sound palette than on memorable themes, but for me, that is not a drawback at all.

The main theme, which reappears several times throughout the album, immediately establishes the right tone and mood. There are hints of Vangelis and a very Blade Runner-like atmosphere (Thor also mentioned this in his brief review on the site). In places, the music becomes gloomy and tense.

The track “Fluid of Grief” is an especially touching and sorrowful piece. The title alone already says a lot.

The track “Karsh” feels calm, reflective, and filled with musical silence. In fact, throughout the album, Shore uses silence and pauses masterfully. I would even say he makes perfect use of the soundscape: nothing feels overloaded, yet the music seems to dissolve directly into the listener’s mind.

“Becca” has a similar mood. It feels like a quiet and mournful ode to loss—to the loss of love and meaning in Karsh’s life.

Most of the remaining tracks convey the atmosphere of a technologically advanced future world while also supporting the film’s more tense and unsettling moments.

I truly love this score. I love listening to it from beginning to end without skipping tracks or getting distracted. For me, there are no weak or mediocre pieces here. I’ve listened to the album many times over the past few months, and I know I will continue returning to it.

It’s a completely electronic score, although some of the violin textures sound close to orchestral ones.

Maybe I’m one of the few people who genuinely loved this score. Howard Shore is mostly celebrated for his large-scale orchestral works, so I understand why this album might not appeal to everyone.

I became so interested in the music that I eventually wanted to watch the film itself and see how the score functioned within it. And honestly—it fits perfectly. I’m always amazed by how composers can capture visual imagery and translate it into music so effectively. I’m sure David Cronenberg was very pleased with the result, because the music conveys the emotions flawlessly.

And I’m probably also one of the few people who actually liked the movie itself. For some reason, many Cronenberg fans seemed disappointed by it, even though it contains many of the director’s signature stylistic elements and themes.

Of course, there are some uncomfortable, strange, and even unintentionally funny moments (anyone who has seen the film probably knows exactly what I mean 😉).

To me, the meaning of the story feels quite clear: Karsh never truly came to terms with his wife’s death, and over time that grief evolved into obsession.

What makes this album special to me is its atmosphere—an atmosphere of bitterness, grief, loss, and love. The soundscapes are mesmerizing. I simply lose myself in them and, at times, they help me mentally escape from oppressive reality.

Thor was absolutely right when he said that Howard Shore has an underrated talent for electronic music.

[Malte Müller]

Could you please use proper paragraphs (with empty lines). Long texts like these are really a bit hard to read this way 😉

[Nicolai P. Zwar]

Thanks, Руслан32, really great post, exactly what I was “looking for”; namely: Just pick an album you like and put a spotlight on it.

I actually have THE SHROUDS (I have all of Shore’s scores for Cronenberg movies in my collection), but not yet listened to it (and haven’t seen the movie yet).
I’m really looking forward to give it a spin now.

(PS: yeah, separated paragraphs would make for better legibility. But I read it all anyway. 🙂 )

[Malte Müller]

(PS: yeah, separated paragraphs would make for better legibility. But I read it all anyway. 🙂 )

Me too, but easier is always better 😉

[Ruslan32]

Thanks guys for the advice and feedback! I’ve tried to make some corrections based on your comments… 🙂

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