“Side Effects” by Thomas Newman

There are some directors out there that put special emphasis on design, and especially in this case, font design. Marc Foster for example, whose visual gimmickry made a so-so James Bond film kinda watchable. Or David Fincher, who’s still one of my favourite directors and a sure bet for the most elaborate title sequences in modern cinema. Steven Soderbergh is another director who I consider to be part of that small elitist group. There are some films in his body of work that downright ooze stylistic eye candy (sadly, sometimes over substance). Side Effects isn’t one of those films though. It’s a…

“Stranger Things” by Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein, Various Artists

Netflix’s Stranger Things is without a doubt this summer’s biggest TV sensation. No wonder the clamour for its original score was loud among fans. And the producers did answer in form of a massive 75-tracks-set, divided into two separate albums. Show ’em all you’ve got instead of setting a few specific marks, that probably was the motto behind those two releases. And while I do appreciate complete and expanded scores a lot, I’m a bit overwhelmed by that huge amount of music. But who am I to judge? I actually started working on this custom covers series before the official…

“Star Trek Beyond” by Michael Giacchino

Summer 2016 kicks off with a particularly colourful post for Star Trek Beyond, the third entry in the franchise reboot. And what a delight to see BLT Communications to come up with such a gorgeous poster campaign, after all those wasted opportunities for Star Trek Into Darkness. I only hope the film delivers what these fun and vibrant images seem to promise. Back for another round is also Michael Giacchino and I’m really glad he stayed with the series, as I enjoyed his two previous scores a lot! The official soundtrack album (#1), once again published by Varèse, is based on the teaser one-sheet. And I’m sorry to say so,…

Lost Covers, Vol. 3

The unwanted brainchilds, the dispassionate requests, the okay’ish ones I guess and the late comers. Also the lone wolves that’d definitely deserve a single post but somehow didn’t end up in one. They all suffer the same fate: Being dumped into this consolation prize of a blog entry, without the chance of ever being the single featured image on the front page. For the third time now. I should rename this series into The Good, the Bad and the Tragically Misjudged. But Lost Covers rolls off the tongue more elegantly. Though not everything’s lost on these to be honest. This time I’ve included two covers, that rightfully deserve a gallery…

“Collateral” by James Newton Howard, Antonio Pinto, Tom Rothrock, Various Artists

Michael Mann’s Collateral is a troubled rag rug of a score, with composer’s duties allegedly split up among nine different people. While James Newton Howard has been the one to walk away with the official credit, Brazilian film score composer Antonio Pinto and also musician/producer Tom Rothrock contributed easily as many musical cues as Howard. However, with the recent release of a Special Collection by Intrada’s this matter has been ended once and for all and Collateral is now officially being considered a James Newton Howard score. Despite that circumstance I’ve decided to keep my custom covers (#2, #3) fairly nonspecific. So no matter what release you…