artguy360

I'm not old enough to have experienced the ROTJ OST when it was first released but as an album now I find it lacks too many of the great moments from the whole score to make for a satisfying listening experience. I appreciate the sound quality though and how some of the tracks are edited to represent big cinematic moments like Into the Trap. I also dislike it when OSTs present the film music wildly out of order.

The big dramatic moments with new original are the best parts of the entire score. Big, blaring moments like The Spark, Holdo's Sacrifice, Lesson One, and The Last Jedi give me a sense of JW really letting lose and the sound mix letting the music lead the drama.

Then again, the way the TPM OST is arranged annoys the hell out of me. Just looking how different cues are arranged and named puts me off the whole thing.

Easy pass for me. There's just too much music missing. If any, I may pick up TPM because I think the OST has a few short bits of music that aren't anywhere else. I seem to recall a solo voice during one of the bad guy tracks.

Having listened to the whole score a few times now, I really appreciate and enjoy the workout and new variations TFA themes get. In particular there is some nice statements of Kylo Ren's theme with the Snoke guttural chorus behind it during the Snoke Revisited stuff. Then there are a number of fantastic renditions of Rey's Theme during Lesson One, Rey's Journey, and the omitted Lesson Three to name a few. Of course, March of the Resistance has a number of interesting new renditions with some nice jaunty interpretations. But overall the score still doesn't top TFA, with the lack of top-tier new musical material being the main issue. It's especially disappointing that there is no standout action cue in the entire score (the Falthiers is fun but not much more). TFA produced I Can Fly Anything, Follow Me and The Falcon, and Scherzo for X-Wings.

Not the reveal I was hoping for. Oh well. I'll wait patiently for remastered complete score releases.

I like the OST version of the End Credits over the film version even though the film version features longer unedited pieces of music. I just don't care for including so much music from The Battle of Crait. The OST version is more of a quick medley than a suite but it works to represent the major themes and moments from the film without so many minutes of pure action music.

From TFA my top 5, ignoring first and last would be: 1. Rey's Theme - the defining theme of the sequel trilogy, musically complex with multiple interlocking musical ideas, and a really good fit for the character. 2. March of the Resistance - a fun, new militaristic theme that fits comfortably in the SW oeuvre while sounding fresh enough to not edge into parody. 3. Scherzo for X-Wings - a cool concert arrangement of exciting action set piece music that incorporates the main titles theme. 4. Follow Me and The Falcon from the FYC album. Cheating a bit, but these two tracks combined make for a much more satisfying action set piece than how they're broken up on the OST. 5. Torn Apart - pitch perfect scoring that goes from hesitant, to tender, to hopeful, to dramatic shock and pain. I don't have a top 5 for TLJ yet.

Although I'm not a very big fan of The Rebellion is Reborn, the final ending thrust is fantastic. The warm statement of Rose's theme into the final rush of music makes for one of the better endings of a JW concert arrangement in recent scores.

Without ranking specific scores and without IX yet, the prequels are better scores but the sequels are far better films. TPM is a very special score. It has a richness, a complexity, a delicate touch, and a bombastic energy that no Star Wars score has matched since. AOTC is a far lesser score but with a killer new theme. I find TLJ lacking from this particular perspective. TFA is a lot of fun and I love all the new themes and how deftly JW mixes them into the existing SW musical landscape. I think IX will decide how I feel about the sequel trilogy as a whole. ROTS is a score with some really rich passages but the new main theme is event specific and a lot of the music sounds like first pass stuff without the refinement I hear in TPM.

Some pretty cool small moments in the complete score. I'm surprised the big Holdo desperation motif that plays between her and Leia was left off the OST. That to me is one of the major highlights of the score.

So far the unreleased music is nice but no amazing highlights. The underscore reminds me a lot of the ROTS underscore with some fairly simply orchestrated variations on themes and motifs heard elsewhere in the score. The high strings that play over the top of the quote of the Emperor's Theme is a cool addition I didn't notice in theaters.

More clips from the complete score are up on Youtube in good quality probably from the isolated score track:

I've always disliked the OST and I think the presentation of the music has actively harmed my enjoyment of the score.

Pretty awesome! Now we'll be able to hear every second of every note.

Maybe it's a temp score carry over march!

Nice interview. I'm glad JW had a generous amount of time to work on the score. I just wish I liked the results more.

I find it interesting though. It sounds like their performances are mixed live but what it really sounds like is listening to a completely unmixed performance which is neat.

They tend to give a fuller orchestral sound to their JW re-recordings conpared to the OST tracks but also lose the thread in the process. Some of their Harry Potter stuff is really off, with the balance completely thrown off or stilted performances that lose the expression of the originals. Still lots of good stuff in there as well.

The City of Prague Philharmonic has some really rich, orchestrally beautiful renditions of many JW OST album tracks but I'm not sure yet if I prefer any over their original recordings. But this thread has put the thought in my head and now I'm basically listening to their entire JW collection with a closer ear.

Gloria Cheng was already playing on JW scores? From her past interview, I thought she first worked with JW on Tintin for Snowy's Theme.

It's recognizable SW music so it was used to say "this is Star Wars everyone!" That's it

Yeah this is not an interview or even conversation about The Last Jedi.

Jim is not digging into the music at all. They have barely discussed the score. It's always good to hear JW do an interview, but this one has revealed nothing about the music so far.

Ugh why did Jim feed JW the same boring line about writing with pencil and paper? JW's spoken on this subject so many times already. Edit: JW pretty much confirmed that he wants Ep 9 to be his last SW score. He said "9 will be quite enough for me, and Disney will probably want to take it further." And JW doesn't believe what Kylo Ren said about Rey's parents. He hopes Ep 9 will reveal who her parents really are.