| World War Z: Music from the Motion Picture | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | June 18, 2013 | |||
| Recorded | 2012–2013 | |||
| Studio | Abbey Road Studios British Grove Studios | |||
| Genre | Film score | |||
| Length | 44:09 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Marco Beltrami chronology | ||||
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World War Z: Music from the Motion Picture is the score album to the 2013 film of the same name directed by Marc Forster. Featuring original score composed by Marco Beltrami, the album featuring 11-tracks were released by Warner Bros. Records on June 18, 2013. [1]
In December 2011, Marco Beltrami was hired to write the score for World War Z. [2] Beltrami read the first script for the film and was blown away with the footages he saw, as it was "a unique take on the whole zombie thing. The whole notion of them being like a force of nature, and how they swarm and all that, and I thought it would have neat music applications and I just thought it would be a blast to work on." [3] When he first saw the film, post the Philadelphia sequence, the screen cuts to black, and the Emergency Alert System's (EAS) iconic siren tone is being heard, [4] which he felt as a fundamental harmonic structure for the score. He further used sounds from the peccary, a feral pig native to southwestern North America, to underscore the film's focus on zombie's teeth as a motif through the film, which was suggested by Tommy Lee Jones. He brought several peccary skulls and recorded and played them in collaboration with professional percussionists, where the sounds have been covered up by orchestral percussion but stands up to create tension for the film. [5] [6] [7]
Beltrami discussed with editor Matt Cheese about ideas on putting cues throughout the edit, and had closely worked with Paramount Music's executive producer Randy Spendlove where music editor John Finklea helped in cutting the cues and musical pieces to fix the atmosphere of the film. He felt that "one of the things, score-wise, that I thought was important was being able to have a lot of quick, off-beat, odd-metered rhythms, because that type of stuff seems to provide a real unsettling feeling in the audience when they are watching it because it’s something you have a hard time grasping on to." [3]
The score was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London and featured a large ensemble orchestra recording most of the pieces, along with a smaller group at British Grove Studios, where he would record some of the "chamber, intimate, gritty, rosin-on-the-bow type of stuff". [3] Since the film has faced several setbacks during the production with rewrites and reshoots being happened, the subsequent delays led Beltrami stepping away from the project for about a year, where he could complete scoring for The Wolverine (2013). He then wanted to significantly scrap the "harsh, dissonant and extremely aggressive" score, which Beltrami thought, as the studio executives felt that the score might push the film towards an R rating instead of the intended PG-13. [5]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Philadelphia" | 4:03 |
| 2. | "The Lane Family" | 2:47 |
| 3. | "Ninja Quiet" | 2:54 |
| 4. | "Searching for Clues" | 5:33 |
| 5. | "NJ Mart" | 4:01 |
| 6. | "Zombies in Coach" | 3:43 |
| 7. | "Hand Off!" | 2:49 |
| 8. | "No Teeth No Bite" | 3:25 |
| 9. | "The Salvation Gates" | 4:24 |
| 10. | "Wales" | 5:22 |
| 11. | "Like a River Around a Rock" | 5:08 |
| Total length: | 44:09 | |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Movie Wave |    |
| Filmtracks | |
Jonathan Broxton wrote "World War Z is full of innovation and creative thinking on Beltrami’s part, and in listening to the score you can’t help but be impressed at the way in which the score is structured, layered and presented to have the greatest horrific effect. As an actual enjoyable musical experience, however, your appreciation for the score will depend entirely on your tolerance for extended periods of atonal, aggressive, at times viciously dark writing. For all it's[ sic ] intellectual design and thoughtful approach to orchestration and texture, this is still a horror score through and through." [8] James Southall of Movie Wave wrote "The album doesn’t perhaps provide the obvious thrills of Beltrami’s most popular scores, but it feels like there’s something going on at a deeper level here, there’s a clear purpose to all the music and it's executed very well. At a shade under three quarters of an hour, the album’s the perfect length given the material – any longer and it would suffer the danger of the spell the composer so carefully casts simply becoming too much." [9]
Filmtracks.com wrote "World War Z is a frightfully generic tackling of the concept, even considering Beltrami's intelligent orchestral applications. There is very little narrative development in the work, and its textures and ambience seem recycled more often than not. As such, you get a work that bores you far more than it should, a disappointment in any "end of the world" context." [10] James Christopher Monger of AllMusic wrote "Beltrami utilized offbeat instrumentation throughout the soundtrack, even going so far as to base the main theme off of the harmonic structure of the United States Emergency Alert System siren." [11]
Pete Simons of Synchrotones wrote "The score bumps and grinds along, building tension; and as such it’s hard to describe it as a ‘pleasant’ experience. Having said that, it's as cleverly written as anything Beltrami has done. It contains two subtle themes that make a few (if only a few) appearances and the action music is genuinely exciting; though I wouldn't have minded hearing a few more thematic cues on this album. The large orchestral performance (and its recording) is crisp and the percussion provides a genuine drive to the whole affair. It just goes to show that you don't need a hundred drummers to make an impact. It also goes to show you don't need a battery of synthesizers to make those ostinato strings sound interesting. Beltrami infuses some well-chosen synthesizer sounds into his score, but it is the clarity and sheer force of the orchestra that makes this score truly exciting." [12]
Credits adapted from AllMusic. [13]
Marco Beltrami is an American composer of film and television scores. He has worked in a number of genres, including horror, action, science fiction, Western, and superhero.
Live Free or Die Hard: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film score soundtrack to the 2007 film Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth instalment in the Die Hard film series. The film score is composed by Marco Beltrami who incorporates the compositions by Michael Kamen for the predecessors. The soundtrack was released under the Varèse Sarabande label on July 2, 2007.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a soundtrack album for the 2015 film, Mad Max: Fury Road, composed by Tom Holkenborg a.k.a. Junkie XL. It was released on 12 May 2015 through WaterTower Music.
Logan: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the score album to the 2017 film of the same name, featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine. It is the tenth installment in the X-Men film series and the third and final installment in the Wolverine trilogy following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013). The film is directed by James Mangold, and featured musical score composed by Marco Beltrami, having previously worked together in the predecessor.
The Wolverine (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2013 superhero film of the same name, directed by James Mangold. Featuring the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, the film is the sixth installment in the X-Men film series, the second installment in the trilogy of Wolverine films after X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and a spin-off/sequel to X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). The film's musical score is composed by Marco Beltrami, who previously scored Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma (2007).
Fantastic Four (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2015 film Fantastic Four. Directed by Josh Trank, the film is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team of the same name, and is a reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise. The musical score is composed by Marco Beltrami and Philip Glass, and the album was released in digital and physical formats on August 7, 2015 by Sony Classical Records, coinciding the film's release. It was also released in two-disc vinyl sets on August 10. Apart from featuring Beltrami and Glass' score, it also featured an original song "Another Body" performed by El-P and a single "Fantastic" performed by RM and Mandy Ventrice. The latter was only used for promotional purposes for the South Korean theatrical release, and is not featured in the film or the soundtrack.
Snowpiercer: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the album consisting of the original score composed by Marco Beltrami, for the Bong Joon-ho directorial Snowpiercer (2013). The album was published by CJ E&M Music, and released in South Korea on 21 August 2013, followed by an international release on 9 September. The soundtrack for the North American release, was distributed by Varèse Sarabande, and saw an official release on 11 June 2014.
Kung Fu Panda 3 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album to the 2016 film Kung Fu Panda 3, the third instalment in the Kung Fu Panda franchise and the sequel to Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011). The film score is composed by Hans Zimmer, who scored the previous instalments with John Powell, but the latter did not return for the third instalment, thereby Zimmer being credited as the sole composer for the franchise. The album was released by Sony Classical Records on January 29, 2016, to positive critical response.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the soundtrack for the 2021 American superhero film Venom: Let There Be Carnage directed by Andy Serkis, featuring the Marvel Comics character Venom, the second installment in Sony's Spider-Man Universe and the sequel to Venom (2018), features an original score composed by Marco Beltrami and a series of songs in the film. After previously writing a single for the first film, Eminem was revealed to write the song "Last One Standing", in collaboration with Skylar Grey, Polo G, and Mozzy. The single was released on September 30, 2021.
The Giver (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album composed by Marco Beltrami for the 2014 film of the same name directed by Phillip Noyce. The album was released on August 12, 2014 by Sony Music and features 20 tracks from the score. It was preceded by a mix of songs from the film released into a separate 10-song soundtrack titled The Giver (Music Collection), on August 5, by Interscope Records, led by OneRepublic's original song "Ordinary Human" written for the film.
The Imitation Game (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album to the 2014 film of the same name. The film is scored by Alexandre Desplat who replaced the original composer Clint Mansell before the film's production commenced. The London Symphony Orchestra performed the original score that featured various instruments such as keyboards, clarinets, strings, arpeggio and bombe. The album was released on November 7, 2014 by Sony Music Entertainment. The album received critical acclaim and was nominated for several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Score but lost to The Grand Budapest Hotel, also composed by Desplat.
The Hurt Locker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2008 film of the same name. The film's original score is composed by Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, consisted of 12 cues from the film released as an album on June 23, 2009, by Lakeshore Records. The score received critical acclaim and won a nomination for Best Original Score at the 82nd Academy Awards. It marked Beltrami's second Academy Award-nomination after the critically acclaimed score for 3:10 to Yuma (2007).
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the score album to the 2011 film of the same name. The film's original score is composed by Alberto Iglesias and was released on 14 October 2011 by Silva Screen Records label. The music received positive reviews from critics, and Iglesias was nominated for Best Original Score category at the Academy Awards and British Academy Film Awards.
The music to the 1996 slasher film Scream directed by Wes Craven featured two albums released in order to promote the film. An original soundtrack to the film featuring several songs as heard in the film, released on December 17, 1996, by TVT Records. Marco Beltrami's score for the film was released along with Scream 2, in a double-disc album in July 1998. The soundtrack and score received acclaim from critics.
The music to the 2000 slasher film Scream 3, featured two albums to promote the film. The first one, consisted of an original soundtrack, released as Scream 3: The Album by Wind-up Records on January 25, 2000. It features 18 songs consisted largely of the metal genre by artists such as System of a Down, Slipknot, Powerman 5000, Full Devil Jacket, Godsmack, Sevendust, Incubus, Static-X and Coal Chamber, some of which are represented in the film. It was commercially successful, peaking at number 32 on the Billboard 200 charts, and also certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, signifying that the album achieved sales in excess of 500,000 units. The album was released on iTunes on February 1, 2012.
Scream 4: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Scream 4: Original Motion Picture Score are the soundtracks to the 2011 slasher film Scream 4, the fourth instalment in the Scream franchise and the sequel to Scream 3. The former is an original soundtrack consisting 12 songs performed by various artists mainly of the rock genre, such as Ida Maria, The Sounds and The Novocaines, and released on April 12, 2011, by Lakeshore Records, but was not successful as the previous instalment's soundtracks. The latter, is a score soundtrack consisting the original score composed by veteran franchise composer Marco Beltrami, released under the Varèse Sarabande label on April 19, 2011.
Scream (Music from the Motion Picture) is the soundtrack to the 2022 film Scream, the fifth instalment in the Scream franchise directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. The original score is composed by Brian Tyler, thereby replacing veteran franchise composer Marco Beltrami who contributed music for the first four instalments. The original score was released by Varèse Sarabande on January 7, 2022 and features 24 tracks running for over an hour. Unlike the previous instalments, a soundtrack for the songs featured in the film had not been released.
The Homesman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack to the 2014 film The Homesman directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who also starred in the lead role with Hilary Swank and Meryl Streep. The film's original score was composed by Marco Beltrami and released through Varèse Sarabande digitally on November 18, 2014 and physically on December 9.
A Good Day to Die Hard: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film score soundtrack to the 2013 film A Good Day to Die Hard, the fifth and final instalment in the Die Hard film series. Marco Beltrami composed the film score, his second film in the Die Hard series. The album was released under the Sony Classical Records label on February 12, 2013.
I, Robot is the film score soundtrack to the 2004 film I, Robot, directed by Alex Proyas starring Will Smith. The musical score is composed by Marco Beltrami and released under the Varèse Sarabande label on July 20, 2004.
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