Shuffleboard 5

1. "Think For Yourself" by The Beatles from Rubber Soul

I'm preemptively ducking. The Beatles are only okay to me.

*ducks*

But seriously. They were indeed responsible for ushering in the rock era we're living in 40 or 50 years later, but their music sounds eerily similar to the 5,000 other songs by them.

I've never heard this one and it's been sitting dormant in my iTunes library for a few months. But, it's not bad. It's a catchy song, the harmonies are impeccable, and the fuzz guitar in the right channel only adds some excitement to the otherwise formulaic three-minute-or-less Beatles song.

Meh.

2. "Hostile Negotiations" by Michael Giacchino from LOST Season 4 Soundtrack

The music of LOST is a huge part of what has made the show so successful. Giacchino, who has worked with J.J. Abrams on many things (Star Trek, Cloverfield, Mission: Impossible 3), treats LOST like another movie, and the score is immensely rich because of it. He's able to carry themes and hooks for characters across multiple seasons, keep the same creepy vibe, and build unbelievable tension.

This track shows off some low brass and strings, creating said tension in the beginning, and then builds to higher strings playing one of the sadder island themes, as onscreen Keamy kills Ben's daughter Alex.

Overall, it's a great background tension builder, and that's what Giacchino excels at.

3. "The First Ambush & Remembering The Wilderness" by John Williams from The Patriot

The obligatory John Williams track of the post. What can I say, he's my homeboy!

I wasn't the biggest fan of The Patriot's score (the movie was outstanding). It felt a little flat. But the "creepy" theme that accompanies Jason Isaac's great character William Tavington (the guy you love to hate), is certainly the most striking theme from the score. It's eerie and sad, with plenty of unnerving statelyness to it that fits the evil character.

The rest of the track is interesting because it illustrates Williams' shift from his bombastic days of Star Wars and Indiana Jones to his current mellower and ensemble-style days of Catch Me If You Can and Minority Report.

Because it includes the great creepy theme, it's still entertaining.

4. "Tonight" by Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim from West Side Story

Ah, West Side Story. We did this for our high school musical production in 2004, my junior year. It was such a huge undertaking, what with the massive set and extremely dark story, that the high school took a break from doing serious musicals for a few years after it.

This is one of the classics from it. Maria and Tony sing of their (rather recently founded as of this song) love, in one of the most well-known Broadway tunes of all time.

The orchestra is second-to-none (I played saxophone it our production), and the excellent musicians really shine. The vocals, obviously, are outstanding, and you can almost hear the unexplainable longing and yearning in their voices.

Really well-done song.

5. "RAY Escapes" by Harry Gregson-Williams from Metal Gear Solid 2

My roommate junior year of college had a PS3. He also had a few random PS2 games, and Metal Gear Solid 2 was one of them. I played through half of it before he sold it, but I was throughly impressed with the cinematic nature of the game. And the music was outstanding! I was quite surprised to learn that it was done by Narnia scorer Gregson-Williams, who also wrote the great "The Number 23" score.

It's dark, it's creepy, with Blade Runner-esque electronic hints. It most definitely fits the gritty technoviolent world of Metal Gear.

This score is surprisingly good.