Custom Soundtrack Covers

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At World's End (Extended)- Hans Zimmer

"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" might have angered many viewers (understandably so), but you can't deny that the score for the third film is the peak of its symphonic glory (and unfortunately there wasn't a lot of it to begin with). However, it features a new haunting leitmotif, and makes for a good closure on the franchise, ending with a much more grandiose musical movement compared to the primitive clunky first outing. I drew many ideas from listening to this - and the second score; even though the movies are the polar opposites of their soundtracks. For an unofficial Expanded version, I felt a more fancy-looking cover would suit it better. Since I was organizing my iTunes library.

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Dead Man's Chest (Extended)- Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer has always been quite the hermit when it comes to releasing complete or expansive versions of his 'Remote Control Productions' scores. In the case of "Pirates" probably even more so. As far as I'm concerned, "Pirates of the Caribbean" has firm thematic groundwork, but not a whole lot of growth or identity. As such, the only two scores I like are the two 'prime' sequels: "Dead Man's Chest" and "At World's End". Both of those have some form of exploration to them and some enjoyable cues - therefore I had the 'extended' versions of both scores, and felt a more fancy-looking cover would suit it better.

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Treasure Planet - James Newton Howard

The score for "Treasure Planet" has always been a very quality listening experience; from the strong bombastic cues, to the sentimental viola lead. James Newton Howard, in my opinion, wrote a very defining piece which I will consider one of his major works so far. This custom cover is nothing more than just a more spaceous and quiet image as opposed to the similar actual cover for the official release. But I like the textless version, as it gives off a more mysterious and romantic feeling while listening. I always liked pictures that only hint at what the story will entail with a strong sense of dramatic wonder.

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The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Howard Shore

for the 2001-released commercial album which contained an unfortunate hour-long runtime to an over-2-hour long score. However, the cover for the original film's soundtrack release are somehwat of a nostalgic treasure for me, and every time I see them (especially the cover of the four hobbits) I get reminded of grand adventurous times. However, as per request, I decided to complete the theatrical trilogy wth this custom cover.

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My Neighbors The Yamadas - Akiko Yano

A really good soundtrack to a very cute and funny movie from Studio Ghibli. I really like this "score" which was pretty much mostly upbeat jazzy music by pianist and all-around jolly lady, Akiko Yano. I made this cover because I felt the official one was a bit too striking and loud. Especially when seen in an iTunes library. So I went simple and took a screenshot and expanded the top.

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Frozen - Christophe Beck, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez

A new animated musical from Walt Disney Studios with score by Christophe Beck and some rather nice songs by Kristen and Robert Lopez who did a pretty good job overall, and I frankly really liked listening to it; though I will say I wish the songs had more of an authentic nordic cling to them, and some songs (particularly 'Let it Go') had some very out-of-place musical interludes. Regardless, I made an alternate album cover based on a painting I did while listening to the Norwegian-Language version.

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Back To The Future - Alan Silvestri

Three of Silvestri's greatest scores are, without a doubt, the Back to the Future trilogy. As mentioned, a friend asked me if it were possible to do a cover for the soundtrack based on the character George McFly's best-selling novel, "A Match Made In Space". Took a while, but in the end I think I was generally succesful. It's hilarious, and that's that.

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Avengers: Complete Score - Alan Silvestri

While I can't say I'm a huge fan of Alan Silvestri's entire library of works, considering there's a few things he would have been better at had he not resorted to many of his musical cliches, I think he's a very very capable movie composer and did some fantastic scores. Avengers is not bad, and I had to check out the complete album recently, and saw that the album cover was hideos, so I had to change that by making a more dirty used box-like package design.

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Episode I Spoof Cover - John Williams

I couldn't help it. I had a discussion with friends on how sometimes you can have a CD cover with the most unimportant characters on the cover, so someone mentioned I try my hand in making inappropriate ones instead of fixing ones I thought were too goofy (like Evan Almighty). Here is one of them.

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Imagined Oceans - Karl Jenkins

Not a soundtrack, but very, very soundtrack-like. A 1998 album written by composer Karl Jenkins, and a source of much inspiration for a movie project I like thinking of and slowly building things with. I decided to do a simple-redesign to modernize the cover and using a double-ocean effect with a strange symbol in the background. Picture sources from these two.

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Dragonheart: A New Beginning - Mark McKenzie

the first Dragonheart film is a milestone of my youth, and I still enjoy the film watching it now (cheesy lines aside). It's also often overlooked as one of the first CG breakthroughs in character inclusion. The sequel is a huge step down (as if the VHS-only release didn't tell you), but the music is amazingly on the level of the first score by Randy Edelman. I couldn't find a good cover for this soundtrack online, so I resorted to finding a DVD cover of the film (Which relates to the story a lot more - what's up with the original cover with that Draco Maquette? So random.) and reformatting it to Soundtrack-Mode.

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Tangled - Alan Menken

"Tangled" had the most obnoxious (and untruthful) marketing I've seen in years, which made me skip the theatrical run of the movie - after it came out on video, I realized it was nowhere near what the commercials and trailers conveyed (let alone that it was a musical). With that said, the original soundtrack cover reflects that abysmal marketing gimmick "with attituuuude", and I don't think staring at their "oh yeah, we're bad" glares while listening to the music is pleasant either. Also, I refuse to call this movie "Tangled" (as it was a very sporadic change due to box office fears). Might as well call "Aladdin" "Princed" or "The Lion King" "Framed" with that thinking. The music and songs are good in this, by the way.

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King Kong: Recording Sessions - James Newton Howard

I have stumbled upon one of those fantastic treats, where you can get the entire score to a film (plus many alternate takes and extras), and in the best consumer quality possible. It happened with King Kong, and while I have to make a cover for myself, I tried making it look a bit more fancy. Like a package. I like those. Anyway, I'm happy that even the Max Steiner bits made it into this collection as well.

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Ratatouille: Cast & Crew Soundtrack - Michael Giacchino

this is a more "poshy" looking album cover for the rare "Ratatouille Cast & Crew" soundtrack that was given to, obviously, the cast and crew of the Pixar film. I wanted to give it a more classy "restauranty" image than the one normally associated with this compilation.

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The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams (Audiobook)

please excuse the crude and horribly-looking detail on this picture, I just made it as a placeholder for iTunes to go with the other three Audiobook covers I made before. I will get back to this and make it look better soon.

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Jurassic Park III: Complete Score - Don Davis

I love the first "Jurassic Park", I like the second, I hate the third. Maybe hate is a strong word, but I try not to watch it whenever possible (on marathon sessions with friends to name one), and I was not a fan of the score either. However, listening to the "Complete" version, there's a lot to like about it. Most of the good parts of Don Davis's composition has been cut out in the official release, and there's plenty of unheard uses of the themes by John Williams. Therefore, I highly recommend finding the complete soundtrack of this mediocre (and somewhat juvenile) film. It's probably the best thing about it.

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Jurassic Park: Complete Recordings - John Williams

From a bootleg album containing almost all (if not all) of the score written for the 1993 film, Jurassic Park. I wanted to design this cover to break out of the norm (Which is the traditional red/yellow JP logo) and try making it feel more like it came from a part of InGen's facilities. A kind of modern design, with a goldenish title with a steel-like finish. I think it works well as a "Definitive" album cover for the complete score.