...and loving it! My favorite so far is ROBIN HOOD. What do you guys recommend?
My absolute favorite is "Band of Brothers - such a beautiful score. I too love Don Juan DeMarco (the movie is so quirky). Of course, there's Mr. Holland's Opus and The Iron Giant - all wonderful.
Gotta go with Lethal Weapon and Die Hard, the two scores that got me interested in his work. Both are amazing, with blistering action cues as well as lots of in depth character writing.
Die Hard here as well. Not a huge Kamen fan but this score is the bomb. Maybe Event Horizon if I had to chose a runner up. Though it needs a better presentation.
I would recommend "Open Range" as it covers a lot of the melodic strengths of Kamen and is just so beautiful and heartfelt music. It also has some nods to his previous scores (including dead zone) but I think that's because he had to score it on short notice, replacing another composer;
Incidentally, X-men -another replacement score- also recycles a bit of Dead Zone with the school theme but I would recommend experiencing dead zone in the movie prior to listening to the album, same with his Die Hard score(s).
No one's mentioned The Three Musketeers or Last Action Hero. You should like Musketeers if you liked Robin Hood. Other than the theme in Robin Hood being better, I prefer Musketeers.
Bryan Adams Unplugged. I'm am defently not the bigest Bryan Adams-fan in the world. But Kamen's acoustic arrangement of I'm Ready is gorgeous!
I couldn't agree more. Everytime I hear it I keep hoping somehow that the stupid audience would keep quiet until the last chord fades into silence.
That piece, and the orchestra bit that he did on Kate Bush's "Moments Of Pleasure"... they neatly sum up how gifted the man is in less than 10 minutes.
Henry, here are my top 5 Kamen (I tend to prefer his melodic side on album, though his action scores are usually effective in-film):
1. The Iron Giant (just brilliant and beautiful) 2. Band of Brothers 3. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen 4. Don Juan de Marco 5. Open Range
I also like Robin Hood and Three Musketeers but not as much as these. And I'll second the recommendation for From the Earth to the Moon. Kamen and other composers wrote GREAT music for this miniseries and I hope LaLaLand puts out a box set of it for us sometime soon!
Kamen's Shining Through is one of his absolute greatest scores. A beautiful lyrical theme for piano and full orchestra in the classic Kamen sound, some haunting intimate moments throughout, then great suspense, and an intense climactic action. Really one of the purest Kamen scores.
