Incanus

I just read the liner notes and it took a while to find the short comment on the damaged cues on the back of the booklet, which just says Track 43, 48, 49 & 50 (CD1) were slightly damaged. In spite of our careful restoration, there are still some perceptible defects. The actual liners do not mention anything on the technical side. All in all about 5 minutes worth of music.

I just got my copy of The Piper and after the first listen I like it very much. Archetypical Christopher Young score where he meshes his classic orchestral horror histrionics with catchy melodic ideas in just the right combination. Jeff Bond's liner notes provide a fantastic analysis of the concerto and the film score suite contents which adds to the understanding of the structure and inspirations behind the music and thus actually adds to the listening experience as well. Looking forward to giving this several spins this week.

We listen to a lot of unimpressive music it seems.

Well that is both surprising and unfortunate. As you say it is such a shame that a relatively recent score like this has already suffered from damaged tapes/sources but these things can happen. And I too was wondering how the relatively short tracks would gel as a listening experience (Wiseman combined cues on the OST) but I am happy to hear that it doesn't impede the flow of the score.

I don't remember ever praising the RoP themes. The Rings of Power themes didn't do much for me alas. The scores as a whole left me rather unimpressed as well. The orchestrations kill most of the music for me. Much too modern stuff for my tastes. That is why I have been schtum about the scores for the series. If I don't have anything positive to say, I tend not to comment. I did enjoy the first God of War score although I dislike his sledgehammer like action music which often devolves into bashing drums and unisono brass in the classic RCP style. The more dramatic, thematic underscore was mostly excellent in that one. I couldn't stomach the even more modern (read Remote Control) styled sequel score for GoW Ragnarök. I am still waiting for my copy of Arsené Lupin. Hopefully it will arrive next week. Now that is a lovely fully orchestral score.

Unfortunately it didn't click with me. It is OK I guess. McCreary's music obviously tries so hard to be like Shore's in depth and scope but to my ears it sounds like a pale modernized imitation, a bit like the series itself. E.g. McCreary's rock & pop sensibilities sound so clumsy to me (those damn drum led crescendos). And of course the score is attached to that trainwreck of a blasphemy of a series which sort of further sullies the music in my mind as well.

Looks like a really nice release. If only I liked the music of the Rings of Power more I might have considered getting that set...

Well I am not exactly ecstatic about this piece of news. The only positive thing about this film would be a new Howard Shore score.

Apparently these short tracks do not have place in the main programme on some of these Intrada releases. They also relegated the shorter mainly synth tracks on Apollo 13 release to the bonus track section after the main programme of the score. And still retained one of Horner's previous edits on the Something Wicked This Way Comes release (The Library Pt. 2), because it apparently made sense musically.

Arsene Lupin? Yeah it is a fine full blooded orchestral action adventure score and one of Debbie Wiseman's best scores.

Crystal Spell is the Call of the Crystal on the OST (aka the concert arrangement) and it's original cue title is The Thirteen Visitors if I remember correctly. A nice programme of the classics with a couple of nice surprises thrown in.

25 years! Happy belated birthday to JWFAN and my warmest thanks to @Ricard for creating this place and all the great people here for making it this wonderful, vibrant community.

That was another great conversation from more of a fan perspective and having nice insights to the music and discussions on the music's relation to the film. I loved those personal stories relating to the first experiences with this music and how affecting it was back in 1991. Also just having JW fans geeking out on the magnificent music was great to hear. Very much a shared sentiment guys!

Well this 1st Hook episode was a thoroughly fascinating and engaging one. And it opened a window into the complexities of producing of these expanded/complete soundtrack releases in a very engaging way. I also loved the little asides touching on different releases, actually a lot of Williams and other scores, along the way from 2016 until the release of Hook Ultimate Edition. This release obviously felt like a culmination of something big to Mike as well. A long and circuitous journey finally complete. As a film score fan I felt deeply grateful after listening to this as hearing about the enormous amount of work and finessing involved in some of these releases made appreciate Mike Matessino's integrity and his work philosophy all the more. No point in doing things if you are not going to do them right. Yeah that just sounds like cynical repackaging of previous versions with minimum effort to get it out quickly for some extra bucks. Quite a few of the Deutsch soundtrack re-releases unfortunately followed this same philosophy.