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Only through the Barry score thus far, but it is indeed a magnificent find - a glorious new JB score (read: James Bond / John Barry). Certainly sounds like Moonraker / High Road to China / Howard the Duck and so on, but there ain't nothing wrong with that. And the sound quality is superb.
Thanks to all involved for unearthing this true burried treasure.
Mark T.
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I just received my copy of The Golden Child and my first impression is that La La Land have done a superb job on this from the packaging to the 2 brilliant scores by Barry and Colombier
if you miss this release then you will be very foolish. Well done all at La La land
Lyn
I couldn`t agree more. I enjoy both scores very much. One of my favorite recent releases.
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Barry's Golden Child is one of the best things I've heard in a while. What an extraordinary find! It's epic, tuneful, exotic and exciting (i.e. the antithesis of film music today). It recalls the most appealing aspects of the 80s Bond scores, Howard The Duck, The Specialist, etc. And his arrangement of Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz" is a trip!
This is the music Barry might have written for an Indiana Jones film (though it is nothing like John Williams -- and much better than High Road to China).
It's appalling to me this score was rejected. The filmmakers evidently (and short-sightedly) wanted a more hip, "Beverly Hills Cop" sound for Eddie Murphy. But 25 years on, Michel Colombier's replacement score is about as hip as a mullet. I listen to Colombier's music and all I can picture are teenage girls with big hair salivating over pictures of Corey Haim. 
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I can't agree.
The early-mid 1980s were very much a second coming for John Barry, who had set the film music world alight with his dynamic first coming in the 1960s but who had slid behind the curtain of Goldsmith and Williams as the 1970s rolled on.
Then in 1979 with Moonraker, he scored a real 'back to form' film music hit. And then Somewhere In Time happened, which soon led to a string of new hits including Body Heat, Raise The Titanic, Frances, Octopussy, Out Of Africa, etc. It was as if Barry had discovered his 'sweet spot' -- that thing he does uniquely well and sets him apart.
There was something slightly different. This second coming wasn't quite so spectacular than the first in terms of vitality, but there was one thing he was doing even better than ever: writing really strong, eloquent, lucid, lyrical, long-lined themes. He'd been dong that all along of course, but now it reached an 'all time high', if you'll forgive the joke. Coupled with that particular orchestration he'd fallen for, which was very rich, I think the results were both astonishing and defining. At least in terms of "non action music". (Goldsmith, Williams and Silvestri were still gods in the high-energy movie arena, an arena Barry wasn't designed for.)
Now: Golden Child.
Okay, it's not in the super-echelons of Somewhere In Time and Out Of Africa and in many ways, it is Barry doing a Barry routine rather than stretching out to do something different. Fair enough. However, I think the Golden Child does everything that defined Barry's second coming, with the advantage that the score goes to more musical places than a Frances or an Out Of Africa.
The two major themes (Best Man In The World, Wisdom Of The Ages) are, I think, as good a pair of headliner thermes as anything Barry was writing in this second coming period. Not especially different in terms of style, I agree. Not better. But as good as. They were extremely well composed, very lyrical and, well, to me at least, really quite seductive. And, as Barry does, he weaves those themes throughout the score.
Best Man, set in that orchestration apart from the song, is right up there with Body Heat and Remembering Chet, in terms of being bluesy. (Listening guide: track 3, 4)
Wisdom, when purely orchestral, is knocking right on the door of Barry's other lyrical love theme powerhouses of the era including All Time High. (Listening guide: track 25)
And then there 's the "little bird" theme, one of those typical Barry ostinatos that subtly escapes resolution each time it repeats, thereby drawing you in for it's grand brass statements. (Listening guide: track 7, but also second half of track 1.)
I find the "Sardo" (guide: track 1, but especially track 16) and "Sardo's Men" (track 1) theme really quite addictive. This is the different one. This is the principal 'jeopardy' theme. It's simple but very deep sounding and ominous. Okay, it partially recycles a theme from My Sister's Keeper (the 'underlay' is the same as the recurring 'panic' music from MSK, just played slower.) But it is very effective in my opinion.
I find the 'action' pieces to be really quite engaging too. Remember: Barry never wrote action music like the rest of Hollywood. Rather than go fast and noisy, his music stands back, stays lucid and simply moves to a higher energy level, which basically means higher octaves, sharp staccato statements and bigger sound. But I LIKE that. I've never got on with hurry-hurry, chattery, lurches-left-and-right music. But y'know what? Even though Barry isn't a hurry-hurry composer, the 'action' pieces here are hardly static. They do have a pace and rhythm. (Listening gude: 22)
There are various places which are not exactly thematic, but where he makes the kind of grand statements we love John Barry for. There's that big, cavernous John Barry strings-and-brass sweep (track 17, latter part). There are Bondian statements (track 11, 21 and, in a different way, but especially, track 23)
And then there's that joyous 10-minute finale track (24) which is a potpourri of ALL the above.
I have always adored the way John Barry makes the settings and drama larger than life but makes the characters within it intimate. It's one of his defining fortés. It's certainly the defining forté or Out Of Africa and Dances With Wolves and he does it again here.
In short ...
Multiple themes, all very typical, well-composed, good Barry 1980s-era themes in my opinion.
Multiple moods - mysticism, love, jeopardy, action
Rich in typical Barry sound - which means if you like Barry's sound, it's here
Even shorter still ...
If you like what Barry was doing in that particular era of his work, in terms of how he was writing themes and the kinds of statements he was using, well he's doing it all here and doing it well, I think.
Okay, it didn't fit in the movie and Colombier's score is brilliant in it's own way. But as someone who regards things like Somewhere In Time, Body Heat and Out Of Africa as his favourite 'kind' of film music, The Golden Child is a wonderful score which continues those traditions.
I've had the score pretty much on a continuous loop for a week. I can't get enough of it.
Just my opinion, of course, but I did want to speak up for it.
Cheers
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This is,in fact,the last John Barry score
Just curious: why do you say "last"?
The Living Daylights and Dances With Wolves (not to mention Chaplin, Playing By Heart, etc) don't count because ... ?
P.S. Agree about the picture on disc 2!
Cheers
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