Cinema and music. A combination made in heaven, up there with peanut butter and jelly, and chocolate and peanut butter, and peanuts and peanut butter. When a score works with a film to amplify a theme or elevate mood it can be a transcendent device. True, I'm not fully versed in the cannon of score composers but there's nothing that connects to me more than the work of Jon Brion. Maybe it's his encyclopedic knowledge of 60's pop and rock or his adventurousness...maybe it's because he produced Aimee Mann. Anyways, I know I like what I like.
FAVORITE JON BRION SCORES (That I've seen): 4). Boogie Nights, Magnolia (Tie) 3). I Heart Huckabees 2). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 1). Punch-Drunk Love
Apparently he did the score to The Break Up, but I can't bring myself to see the thing. I'll just have to wonder and hope the movie didn't ruin the score.
The score to Punch-Drunk Love is so integral to the movie and so sonically fascinating that I have to place it atop the rest of his sterling compositions. If you haven't seen Punch-Drunk Love, see it (it's arty and is designed to show how arty Adam Sandler is). [Side Note - Eternal Sunshine is still the best movie on this list. It haunts me to this day...it rattles chains in my closet...it ran over my dog...]
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I think my picks on the quality of the scores are pretty much concurrent with my picks for quality of the movies. Magnolia is my favorite, with Punch-Drunk at a close second. But Punch-Drunk is quite a rich comedy, sonically and visually. PTA's a smart dude.
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I tried Punch-Drunk once. maybe I need to try again. I couldn't get ten minutes into it. hm.
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This is such a great move. Two thumbs up
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I've bought most of Jon's soundtracks, but have to say that unless he sings a real song, the rest of the music-backgrround tracks leave my iPod like death metal fans at a Yanni concert.
So, I love "Here We Go" on this CD. The rest is in my ozone layer.