Filmtracks: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Geoff Zanelli/Various)

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Written 7/1/17

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Buy it... if you've been hesitant to tolerate Hans Zimmer and crew's overly-processed, bass-heavy pirate music in the past, Geoff Zanelli steering the franchise's music towards a more dynamic, symphonic tone.

Avoid it... if you expect this new team of ghostwriters to solve all the ills caused by Zimmer in the past, an excess of forced thematic references and lingering mixing issues countering some strong new themes for this entry.

Zanelli

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: (Geoff Zanelli/Various) The Jerry Bruckheimer juggernaut of a franchise based upon the popular Disneyland attraction lumbers into its fifth entry in 2017, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales attempting to reboot the franchise's storyline as to capture the original magic of the initial 2003 entry. The concept was in peril after a mediocre showing for On Stranger Tides in 2011, and two years of post-production hell awaited the much delayed Dead Men Tell No Tales. While the grosses from these films, not to mention critical response, keep diminishing with each continuing project, it's clear that the 2017 film seeks to reinvest in the original characters and ships of the franchise. While new, cursed villains, Spanish Captain Salazar and his undead crew, seek to destroy the beloved Jack Sparrow, the franchise's secondary characters are joined by a new heroine, Carina Smyth, in an alliance to find the mythological trident to release all the various curses plaguing them. With the reintroduction of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, and the development of a younger generation of characters ripe for future films, Dead Men Tell No Tales hopes to be a transition to salvation for the concept on screen. The reintegration of so many prior characters and vessels posed an dilemma for the soundtrack for this film, the project still residing firmly in the domain of Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions, which, depending on how you look at the universe (and, mostly, how old you are), either destroyed or saved "pirate music" in general with the success of the 2003 score. Zimmer, who had confessed to being burnt out on this franchise, found himself unable to score the 2017 project due to scheduling conflicts (Dunkirk and, one could humorously say, all those infomercials selling himself as a professor), but that didn't stop the RC team from simply shifting the same group of core orchestrators over to a new gang of half a dozen or so yo-ho co-composers. Master arranger Geoff Zanelli has been present in this franchise since the start, toiling as the ghostwriter responsible for several of its secondary themes, and he is now elevated to lead composer with his own team of ghostwriters, none of whom receive front cover credit. Or back cover credit, for that matter. The usual small print applies.

All the procedural problems that plagued the collaborative compositional effort for the prior Pirates of the Caribbean scores continue to persist in Dead Men Tell No Tales, though at least they aren't as obnoxiously obvious as they were in the puzzling On Stranger Tides, a score nearly widely blasted by even franchise enthusiasts. Zanelli is a talented composer, known mostly for his Emmy-winning work on television, one seemingly more classically inclined than Zimmer and other ghostwriters on the RC team. His arrangement work involving the "William Tell Overture" for The Lone Ranger remains one of the most remarkable pieces of film music in the decade. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Zanelli is a solid choice to replace Zimmer as the main coordinator of a score in this franchise, for the loyalty to concept themes remains intact. In fact, the adherence to the prior musical identities is so staunch in Dead Men Tell No Tales that it's almost distractingly perfunctory. You hear different existing melodies reprised depending upon which ghostwriter is contributing a certain cue, and this score as a whole becomes a head-whipping exercise in trying to chase down all the inclusions. Most of these references are quite smart, really, as the composers do everything to address even hints, shadows, or, in this case, children, of prior concepts with snippets of secondary themes from the previous scores. The problem with this approach comes when Dead Men Tell No Tales is treated to its own trio of major new themes, one of which established to persist in future films, increasing the overall count of melodies to untenable levels as the team of ghostwriters continues to insist upon dropping references to all applicable identities wherever possible. Also of serious consideration is the "sound" of the franchise, dominated up until this score by the heavily processed, bass-heavy manipulation of organic performances to make them sound synthetic. Zimmer had written some strong themes in his first three scores only to annihilate their effectiveness by running them through amplifiers and other ridiculous means of boosting their masculinity. Enthusiasts of the Golden Age of swashbucklers who admire everything from The Sea Hawk to Cutthroat Island objected mostly to the pounding synthetic personality of these scores, and Zanelli throws a kink into that equation with Dead Men Tell No Tales.

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More intriguing about this fifth score in the franchise than its dizzying thematic attributions is Zanelli's attempt to perpetuate the score's core instrumental identity while ditched the heavy processing in favor of a more symphonic alternative. In the writing, orchestration, and recording of Dead Men Tell No Tales, you can hear a more dynamic soundscape trying to peek through the usual staccato brass figures and seemingly omnipresent lines for cello solo. He balances a duduk as the centerpiece of one of his themes with an enhanced percussion section that rips away almost constantly. Fortunately, like the absence of bass region clipping due to insane gain levels, the percussion is also placed a bit further back. For some listeners, though, any improvements in the soundscape here will be negated by the poor placement of everything else in the mix, including still-struggling winds. It's odd to consider that a score of this physical size could sound so poorly placed in the left and right channels, every instrumental contributor squashed together in one monolithic mass that gives the score the odd sound of a massive symphonic recording forced into a monaural tunnel. It's a great example of a franchise taking one big step forward (ditching the manipulation and overwhelming bass) and moving another step backwards (failing to really spread out the recording in the mix), a recipe for irritating both the fans and detractors of the franchise's music. The "arrangement factor" and blatant ripping of temp tracks is another issue to contend with here, the former already discussed in the possible over-spotting of themes. In the percussive lines of Dead Men Tell No Tales, you'll hear Tom Holkenborg emerge, especially in relation to Mad Max: Fury Road in "Kill the Sparrow." The snare tapping and chimes at then conclusion of two late cues will remind of Backdraft ballsy-ness. The most humorously awful temp track work of recent times exists at 6:08 into "El Matador del Mar," which takes upwards of a minute from Zimmer's "Barbarian Horde" and subsequent transitions in Gladiator, even down to the super-obvious double blasts of low brass. Do these ghostwriters believe that listeners won't notice such ridiculously transparent emulation? Indeed, some fans of the franchise will feel the same way about the beloved themes of the franchise that reappear, especially those from At World's End, which is universally considered the best of Zimmer and team's work in the concept. It's great to hear old themes, but not when they are forced without much grace into a new environment.

Aside from newfound salvation for your subwoofers and relief from post-concussion protocols, the highlight of Zanelli's approach to Dead Men Tell No Tales is the trio of new themes for concepts introduced in this film. To his credit, the composer manages to make all three easily memorable, a technique that Zimmer has used to storm the mainstream for decades. The main new identity is a stunner, affording Carina Smyth with a romantic melody to rival the Turner and Swann "Marry Me" love theme from At World's End. It owes a few bars to Basil Poledouris' 1998 work for Les Misérables, but never mind that. Heard immediately at the outset of "Dead Men Tell No Tales," this theme takes a while to develop as the character asserts herself, hinted, for instance, at the end of "Shansa." Its major reveal comes in "The Brightest Star in the North," the full choral-aided rendition at 2:20 a highlight of the score. The focused performances of the idea in the final two cues are quite satisfying, the upbeat presentation in the middle of "Beyond My Beloved Horizon" featuring a quicker tempo, tapped light percussion rhythm, and pinpoint trumpet accents. Often mingling with Carina's theme is the one for the trident, generally representing the various curses of the sea with perhaps the most placements of any melody in the picture. This eerie idea is established in the first minute of "Dead Men Tell No Tales," the exotic sound of a duduk representing that other-worldly presence in several subsequent reprises, including the start of "She Needs the Sea." Less obvious hints of the theme exist in all but one of the first six tracks on the album, keenly connecting the other character themes together. The trident theme is extended to the action realm on brass at 1:56 in "The Power of the Sea" and for choir and percussion at 0:27 in "Treasure," where its alternation between major and minor-key resolutions conveys the wonder and evil of its presence. By comparison, the theme for the evil Salazar is rather straight forward, the closest element to Zimmer's previous droning for the franchise. Stomping in pure Zimmeresque bravado in "Salazar," this theme uses guitars and processed strings with slamming percussion to make it clear that this character is not redeemable. Even by "El Matador del Mar," the theme still hasn't matured much, adding more brass and choir but still pounding away with menace and a touch of Maximus Decimus Meridius. While ultimately a rather dull musical identity for Salazar, it's certainly effective and within the methodology of prior villains' themes in the franchise. Fortunately, its presence is not as prevalent as the other two, far superior new themes.

As for the bevy of returning themes in Dead Men Tell No Tales, there are positives and negatives. Some strong interpolations reside here, and there is definitely a benefit to hearing some of these ideas expressed more symphonically. Both the "He's a Pirate" franchise identity and "Marry Me" love theme have been marred in the past by Zimmer's extremely heavy post-processing, and they enjoy new life to an extent here. The "He's a Pirate" theme is all over the work, guiding the latter portions of "No Woman Has Ever Handled My Herschel" and reappearing in "Kill the Filthy Pirate, I'll Wait" and "El Matador del Mar" before opening "Beyond My Beloved Horizon" with the obligatory send-off. The "Marry Me" theme, meanwhile, is consolidated to the inevitable guilty-pleasure favorite of the score, "My Name is Barbossa," where its strings smartly join the "One Day" theme on horns to address familial connections. The "Jack Sparrow" action theme is also a frequent visitor, heard in "No Woman Has Ever Handled My Herschel," "Kill the Filthy Pirate, I'll Wait," "El Matador del Mar," "She Needs the Sea" and in victorious conclusion at the end of "My Name is Barbossa." The "Hoist the Colours" idea is revived a few times, notable as it informs the grand cue, "The Dying Gull," for Sparrow's new ship. A number of other cues are flush with lesser references, "She Needs the Sea," "I've Come with the Butcher's Bill," and "Treasure" the most obvious. (It should be noted that if "I've Come With the Butcher's Bill" sounds unique in tone, that's because ghostwriter Steve Mazzaro reportedly arranged that cue.) Sadly, some of the more notable thematic references in the film are not conveyed on the otherwise generous Disney album for Dead Men Tell No Tales, though the product does feature the primary highlights. The score as a whole is challenging to rate because Zanelli and the RC gang have solved some of the franchise's ills only to create other ones. There is no doubt that At World's End will remain the most alluring of the franchise for those not bothered by Zimmer's incessant bass enhancements and synthetic manipulation, for it features lasting compositional prowess. But if you remain an enthusiast of the "old" swashbuckling sound of soaring orchestral flightiness, and you disregarded the franchise after the truly wretched pair of Curse of the Black Pearl and Dead Man's Chest, then Dead Men Tell No Tales is a second chance waiting to entice you into Zimmer's new pirate sound with a softer touch. The last two tracks on the album, most specifically, along with "The Brightest Star in the North," may offer some redemption for tired ears. If only the collective RC crew could widen the soundscape of these recordings a bit further, there is hope that a more dynamic future for this franchise's music awaits. *** @Amazon.com: CD or Download

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