James Newton Howard
Young, ambitious, and in need of development pretty well sums up James Newton Howard’s music. He very often finds a good melody and can’t quite get off of it and branch out. This, in my opinion reduces what I call the re-playability. Even in spite of this seemingly critical factor, his melodies are quite often breathtaking and very original. I have never firstly, heard any track that sounds alike with Howard’s music nor secondly, a score who’s melody sounds like another even within his own repertoire. All of his scores, yes, have the same sensitivity to them, but unlike even giants such as Williams, Zimmer and Shore, Howard’s all seem to have a distinct uniqueness to them which is always enjoyable. I am obviously not talking about song to song, but album to album.
His most famous scores include the titles, I am Legend (His best in my opinion), Defiance (performed by Joshua Bell), The Ring (1 and 2), Lady in the Water, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Village.
In regards to the Batman movies, Howard cowrote both of these scores with my favorite composer, Hans Zimmer who, oddly enough was Howards former mentor. Both student and teacher have put together award winning scores which are the cutting edge in the future of movie music. Their music make these movies what they are. (I will post further on these scores to give more detail).
For a little further insight into what I meant about this man’s music not being very re-playable, he hasn’t really mastered the art of hiding themes so that the listener doesn’t recognize he or she is listening to the same theme. Thus it isn’t a, “Oh this man’s music is so great!” rather it is more of a, “Oh, its this theme again.” Great themes nonetheless, using different rhythm, instruments and chord progressions seem to be his greatest weakness.
I would recommend I am Legend over all his other scores I’ve heard thus far. Most listeners who like entertaining and passionate music will probably like this soundtrack as well as some of his others. There are a couple of tracks which are very intense and would most likely get skipped by the majority of listeners, but there are quite a few piano/string tracks which are simple and elegant. The Batman duo I would only say young people would enjoy. Both, quite often have a heavy rock feel to them and The Dark Knight in particular has a very edgy and dark feeling to it.
I encourage you to search out Howard because once you find his beauty, his pieces seem to always leave the listener wanting more. Be prepared to find gold but bring a shovel because his gems are buried beneath a layer of immature melodic development. Cautious buying and good research are the most reliable treasure map with James Howard.
