Wow! So many awesome suggestions! Thanx everyone! Knew I could count on this board! I see I have a lot of movies to watch now! I always need to watch the movies / tvshows before I listen to the score as I most likely wont feel "connected" to it if I dont know whats happening in the scenes I listen to, lol! But I need movie suggestions as well, so this is gold!
However, it's fairly heavy on his recent material, and skips a lot of the earlier 'essentials'.
Personally, Burwell has always been very on/off to me. Some things I like very much, other things I can't really stomach. My alltime favourite is ROB ROY -- a must-have.
Otherwise, just scour this thread. Of course, the problem with asking about general recommendations like this, is that you'll end up having Burwell's entire filmography mentioned at some point, and then you're none the wiser....
Surprised no one has mentioned it yet - maybe it's because it's not really representative of the Burwell sound* - but IN BRUGES is absolutely gorgeous. Great movie, too.
* I didn't realize it was Burwell until the end credits, and only then did I notice the very subtle telltale chord progressions in the under strings.
I still listen a lot to Burwell. He's now one of my favorite composers!
According to my last.fm profile, the 10 albums I've played the most are:
Goodbye Christopher Robin (absolute favorite by him. Possibly my favorite movie score of all time) Carol The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Wonderstruck Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri And The Band Played On Conspiracy Theory Mildred Pierce The Morning Show The Alamo
Is it just me or is Carter Burwell very under-represented amongst the "complete" score releases and possibly even ANY score released? Someone was posting about S1MONE, which got me thinking about other Burwell scores that I haven't heard much of.
I don't know how complete ROB ROY is, but that's a great score that I don't hear much about.
I also just heard samples from CONSPIRACY THEORY and they're great - the score release is really lacking though.
THE JACKAL I don't think has ever been released at all as far as I can tell.
MERCURY RISING was in collaboration with John Barry and only has a minor release.
A GOOFY MOVIE, HUDSUCKER PROXY, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER... all under-released or never-released.
Is it just me or is Carter Burwell very under-represented amongst the "complete" score releases and possibly even ANY score released? Someone was posting about S1MONE, which got me thinking about other Burwell scores that I haven't heard much of.
I don't know how complete ROB ROY is, but that's a great score that I don't hear much about.
I also just heard samples from CONSPIRACY THEORY and they're great - the score release is really lacking though.
THE JACKAL I don't think has ever been released at all as far as I can tell.
MERCURY RISING was in collaboration with John Barry and only has a minor release.
A GOOFY MOVIE, HUDSUCKER PROXY, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER... all under-released or never-released.
I think his score for Buffy The Vampire Slayer (movie) is complete on the LLL set.
Other scores that were released complete are the unused score for Kiss The Girls and Psycho III - which was a grail for me as I mentioned in my 2019 post in this thread.
Other than those I can not remember other expanded Burwell scores, but I don’t think there’s much missing from some albums like Wonderstruck, Three Billboards and Buster Scruggs.
The Twilights score releases also seem to cover all the highlights (although my CDs for the last two films are now presenting issues with digital pops and skipping in some tracks - pressed CDs that stayed most of the time in their cases as I had ripped them to iTunes upon purchasing)
I think his score for Buffy The Vampire Slayer (movie) is complete on the LLL set.
Thanks for that info, I had no idea it was on that release! I tend to ignore those releases because they are "selections from" instead of the full TV show. But hiding away in that little corner was the original Buffy Movie!!! Heck yeah!!!
I would love an expanded CONSPIRACY THEORY! So much great stuff missing on the OST!
Yes! CONSPIRACY THEORY is a great score as well. I'm surprised barely any music from it has been released at all.
Is it just me or is Carter Burwell very under-represented amongst the "complete" score releases and possibly even ANY score released? Someone was posting about S1MONE, which got me thinking about other Burwell scores that I haven't heard much of.
I don't know how complete ROB ROY is, but that's a great score that I don't hear much about.
I also just heard samples from CONSPIRACY THEORY and they're great - the score release is really lacking though.
THE JACKAL I don't think has ever been released at all as far as I can tell.
MERCURY RISING was in collaboration with John Barry and only has a minor release.
A GOOFY MOVIE, HUDSUCKER PROXY, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER... all under-released or never-released.
I recently rewatched Rob Roy and I don't believe anything essential was missing from the original release. I wouldn't call Mercury Rising a collaboration between Barry and Burwell. Burwell was brought in late to replace a few Barry cues. The original soundtrack is your typical 90's Varese album. I would love to hear the Burwell tracks. Burwell is also the type of composer who scores his films sparsely, so in some cases there just isn't a whole lot more music.
But other than that agreed, Burwell hasn't received much love from the specialty labels so far. There are several scores of him that I would love to see get an expanded or official release. Burwell's scores for The Jackal and Fear are two of biggest Holy Grails. The General's Daughter and Conspiracy Theory could use an expansions. Even though he has consistently worked for four decades now, I think Burwell just isn't that popular.
Thanks to this thread, I watched the film again last night - love it more with every watch, an unusually light and utterly profanity free David Mamet suspense/crime film. But also probably a lot chillier than many people would enjoy.
Burwell's music fits perfectly. Unreleased except for the theme on the compilation Carter Burwell - Music for Film
Burwell's scores for The Jackal and Fear are two of biggest Holy Grails. The General's Daughter and Conspiracy Theory could use an expansions. Even though he has consistently worked for four decades now, I think Burwell just isn't that popular.
Yeah, I think a lot of his big films with the Coen Brothers were ones where the score itself wasn’t a primary focal point, often it was more the pop/rock songs within them. Coen Brothers films are also very visual and all the little details are interesting so you’re kind of getting more from the film anyways. Same with the films for Charlie Kaufman, those are just weird and so are Burwell’s scores.
I think what makes him fascinating is all his weird instrumentation and rhythms which make him a truly unique experimenter in music, way more than most other composers. However I do think that has a tendency to hurt his music and keep it from sounding melodically pleasing or satisfying. ROB ROY is kind of a good example actually - epic film, great sequences, really easy to create a nice, easy, lyrical and epic score. Burwell does it with a few tracks, but he quickly moves in the more abstract direction of odd rhythms, stark instrumental solos that don’t follow a primary melody, and even a main theme that doesn’t really get developed a lot. Compare it to BRAVEHEART, which is thematically consistent throughout and I think that’s a great way to highlight why he may not be popular.
But that’s kind of why I like his stuff. He’s like a less melodic Bruno Coulais, way more experimental than composers who claim to be and he always has an interesting POV. I think more people would like his stuff if the films showcased the music more.
