Please, please actually call this album "An Album Called Leroy: Adventures in Faking This." Or at least one of the two halves.

All 3 possibilities have the most of the ring.

Remember that composers hardly have the last say in what they're doing. Some of my best work has been rejected immediately, and some of my worst has been lovingly embraced by the director. Even a guy with Zimmer's renown has to answer to the director and the producers. Do you really think that the board of WB would take any chances with their main summer blockbuster?

Besides, I don't think you're listening hard enough. I'd say he got away with a whole lot that most composers couldn't do on a big movie like this. Sure, the action moments are "action-y"--what else is he going to do? But the rest of the film is pretty damn creative.

Agreed that any of those guys could have done a better job (Desplat is, in my opinion, the best A-list composer right now--except for Mr. Williams, of course).

FTFY.

Saw it last night at midnight (IMAX 3D).

My god, it was brilliant. I loved it. Absolutely loved it.

And Zimmer's score was really fantastic. There's a clear homage to Williams' theme, but it's completely original and very moving.

Fair point. Though, many of the problems with the story are (thankfully) taken care of because this prequel was already written.

By "staying consistent," don't you mean "it's completely opposite?" The thing that I loved about LOTR is how gritty and real it was. I can lose myself in those movies because, oddly enough, makeup and miniatures (err, big-iatures) make for a deeper cinematic experience than CGI. The Hobbit looks like a video game, and I'm completely aware that I'm watching an actor reacting to a green screen.

It's Star Wars all over again.

Styles exist because certain combinations of sounds worked in concert with certain ideals in the heads of the styles' originators at the time of said style's conception. Therefore thinking specifically about styles is the best way to either have a very clear idea of the song from the beginning, or to write yourself into a wall. Unfortunately it's usually the latter.

Also:

What you're saying and how you say it are inseparable. Obvious example: the general idea of "I love this girl and she doesn't love me back" has been stated countless times in countless songs, but the way one says it is what keeps it fresh. Not that you don't know this, but it's worth repeating.

Ah, yes, of course. It was DIF at the time, and there's just too many acronyms (by exactly 1) now: FIYH and WAYDM.

Oh my god I could talk about LOTR all damn day.

I'd have to double-check, but as we 1) aren't selling it/making money off of it, 2) aren't actually using any parts of the film other than to say "we're checking this movie out today, watch it with us," and/or 3) using another entity's likeness (as DI--I mean, FIYH so coldly found out), then there's no copyright infringement.

But let's say none of that's a problem and I decided that this podcast will include the pause/rewind stuff.

That would take a long time. Your podcast is already +/- 2 hours without all of that. In a linear format, the time is fine. But when you're stopping, rewinding, pausing to talk, and going again, you could add some serious, serious time. Especially if you've already seen the movie--you'd find yourself 2 hours in but only halfway through the movie, and I guarantee people who could antsy.

Maybe this sort of thing would make a better blog?

Yes. YES.

You know what? I might just...you know...do that. I could already talk about, like, a hundred scores/movies, and analyzing others would give me an excuse to do just that...

Teague...podcast via Skype? Somehow?

Edit: You know what, you've got me thinking. There's one huge problem that a scoring podcast taking one movie at a time faces. And that's the fact that to really analyze it and see what's going on, like what you're talking about, you've got to really listen and watch a few times--especially if you aren't a musician. The big "hey here's the giant main theme!" moments are easy, but I guarantee you can't hum what's going on when Ben Kenobi is giving Luke his father's lightsaber. Moments like that are where the real meat of a score is, and because 90% of big budget feature films are scored really well, you don't notice 90% of a film's music at all. It just fits right into the drama and right into your subconscious. As it should.

So we'd have to pause and rewind and stuff if we want there to be an actual discussion and for the people at home to follow it. Doing the "aaannd hit play...now" format would fall apart. I think.

Ah, the ol' switcherHolden.