In Defense of Hans: A Breakdown of Hans Zimmer's 2013

Love him or hate him, Hans Zimmer is having a hell of a year.  

He started off this year by scoring “The Bible” along with Lorne Balfe, and some help from his friend Lisa Gerrard (yea, the one from Hans’ Golden Globe award winning score for “Gladiator," among other projects).  I’ll admit, I didn’t watch this History Channel miniseries, but I have heard the soundtrack.  Yea - it’s very Zimmer-esque, which for me isn’t a bad thing at all.  Call me inexperienced, call me an amateur, call me what you want, but I wouldn’t mind a steady dose of Zimmer’s sound on the reg much as I wouldn’t mind a 2 hour supercut of Schmidt’s greatest hits from “New Girl.”  Plus let’s face it, he had a much bigger project on his mind: Man of Steel.

As he has done in almost every score recently, Hans looked to put something out with a bit of a different spin, some flare.  This time it was percussion.  I won’t go into a whole review of the score, but no one can deny the impact of the drum sequences.  For me, the trailer music had me hooked (no surprise there).  The theme taken from the last track on the album, "What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World?" (making a case for longest track title in history?) perfectly encapsulates all that Zimmer was trying to do with that score, and I think it was glorious.  Nice move to gather all those world-famous drummers together in the same room to record.  Maybe an in depth review of the Man of Steel score to come?

Then Hans moved over to score for the infamous flop “The Lone Ranger.”  It’s not that the score was bad, it just didn’t do it for me.  If he was going for the playful sound, a la Sherlock Holmes, I definitely heard it.  Maybe a bit too much.  And the whole western Ennio Morricone tribute was cute, but not Zimmer’s style.  Look, it’s still a score I would listen to, but it wasn’t memorable for me as his scores usually are.  "The Finale" track helps his cause with some William Tell Overture action.  I don’t know, maybe I haven’t given this one enough of a chance.

Then came “Rush.”  And WOW is all I can say.  What a job by Zimmer.  See, what I love about this (and about Zimmer for that matter) is how well he matches instrument sounds to genre of movie.  I will forever associate Formula 1 racing with those distorted guitar riffs.  And who knew throwing in a bass/cello combo (reminding me of Steve Jablonsky’s “Transformers” theme, I don't mind a little RCP influence) with the electric guitar in the opening track, "1976"would complement so well?  I guess my only knock on the album version is the addition of those classic rock songs from the movie in the middle of the score.  I want a steady dose of Hans and only Hans!

So where do we go from here?  As you can see, I’m a bit of a Hans Zimmer groupie.  I confess: I like almost anything the guy puts out.  And I’m not afraid to say it.  He’s my idol.

Let’s just say his epic year is bound to end with a bang in “12 Years a Slave.”  I simply cannot wait to see (hear) this one.

The Inaugural Post

If any of you are somewhat confused about what this blog is, .... well, first of all, if anyone is reading this and is confused about what this blog is... you're not alone.  I, myself, am confused.  You see, I've been a music lover for a long long time.  I've tried to take up 2 instruments at multiple times in my life, and, simply put, just never got to the point where I  could play.  I was one of those guys who could play 1 or 2 songs on piano, so I told girls I know how to play piano.  That way, if they tested me, I could come through.  Worked every time.  (Just go with it)

But it's not just music that I love, it's a specific type of music.  Yes, I do love most genres of music, bar a few.  No offense to those country lovers out there, but country music just doesn't do it for me.  And don't worry: I won't even have the audacity to mention that I like Taylor Swift as country music singer. Shoot, I basically just did.  Oops.

The music that really gets me going is film music.  Some call it film scores, some call it soundtracks.  Call it what you want, I really don't care.  It's the art of music in movies.

I'll have to extend credit to my big brother for getting me into film scores.  He used to listen to them and I did what all little brothers do when their big brothers do anything - I copied him.  For a while that was the extent of my illustrious film score listening career. But gradually (and I can't really put a finger on a specific time or film that did it for me) I got more and more into the music.  I started a film music pandora station to find new film music, started researching composers and their films.  I guess you could say I was officially inducted into film score fandom.  Let's call it the year 2005 at this point.

Fast forwarding to the end of my high school and beginning of college, my fanatics were getting pretty serious.  I was listening to the music of movies I hadn't even seen yet, I was even seeing movies because of the music in their trailers!  I had to do something about it.  So for years I tried - and failed - to learn how to play film themes on piano.  It was probably due to lack of consistent practice, I'll admit.  I applied to work at a music production company that only does film scores.  No experience = no dice.  And I was out of options.

So a few months ago my brother-in-law said "Hey Al, why don't you write a column in a newspaper to review film scores?"  What a great idea!  There's just 1 problem with that: no experience = no dice. Plus, I've never written anything for people to read in my life.

So here I am with the inaugural post on this blog, not even sure where the blog is going, and knowing that I don't need experience or awesome writing to post on this beautiful thing they call the internet.  Maybe I'll review new film scores every week, maybe I'll talk about old film scores I really love.  Maybe I won't have time to post anything else ever.  Who knows.  All I can say to you readers and myself is:
Stay Tuned.