Richard Penna

I think your last point is key. IMO the only thing a label like them has to do is high quality audio. Attractive packaging is nice to have and highly subjective in its quality and expectations.

It's certainly different perspectives and I respect that you and others put significant stock in the quality of the liners and artwork. I'd prefer effort were put into the highest quality mastering of the music and not needing to overly worry about designing and approving an elaborate booklet.

Comments on lack of cleaning up an archival marketing image are one thing, but complaining that they are lazy for keeping the same booklet design for a reissue? Knowing that approvals are one of the most problematic and time consuming elements, and that a reissue like this can be a good revenue stream for something more costly coming up? (imagine the last few releases have helped fund The Patriot....) Some major perspective needed here.

The ripping begins.... I'm #349

Oh that definitely happens sometimes, yes. I'd suggest that it's a bit of a minority of cases though that a full, intended score works great for listening, right out of the box, context-free.

I'd have thought the opposite would result from your above point. Once you disconnect the score from the film, and particularly for those who haven't seen the film, a huge sequence may suddenly feel disconnected and too abstract, whereas if you cut that down to the main areas of interest (i.e. primary ideas, thematic statements, etc) then it often plays far better in isolation. You can't play a film in your head if you've never seen it, and even the best composers will rarely produce music that's interesting in isolation for the entire film.

I'm going to agree with Thor on one element here - a curated album made in whatever way the composer wants should be available, if that's what they want. In many cases that's the ideal way to understand and process a score. But it should be accompanied by the complete score. No ifs, no buts, no waiting a few years to "allow listeners to appreciate the curated representation of the work". That way those who like the album are happy, and those who watch the film and instantly love the score can instantly buy the entire thing.

Hell yeah, if I knew an artist sufficiently well I'd have no problem telling them what their fans actually want to buy. It's not showing them disrespect or offense - you're telling them how much their music is loved. It baffles me when composers don't want to release a score for whatever reason and get annoyed when fans ask about it or ask for more music than they put on an album. I've seen evidence of TV composers going out of their way to stop unauthorized copies spreading of something that was never released. IMHO if you're composing for anything but you don't think people should need/want to listen outside of the medium... stop composing.

I agree but with a much more subsetted basis - there's no question that Williams was the perfect composer for the big franchises - SW, Indy, Potter, Jurassic. Career-best stuff in all of these. Maybe less so some of the later SW films where the filmic material went downhill and perhaps a younger, more enthusiastic composer might've found something fresher to add. (I'd have loved Powell scoring the sequels) Where I'd suggest more healthy debate is non-franchise, standalone films, and I compare something like The Terminal where his jazzy roots and general romantic approach was just right for the film, with perhaps WotW where I wonder if something a bit more modern, by a composer who can do more interesting textural work (perhaps using electronics more), might've lent the film a bit more oomph. I find the action cues in that score a bit messy. As for a film I wish Williams had done? Actually, given what we got for the last few Potter movies and my general 'so-so' view on Desplat, in retrospect, a Williams-send off could've been fun.

Pretty easily... I look at a composer writing a 3 hour score for an epic adventure/fantasy, and unless things go really well, at some point they're going to find time working against them and needing to write 5-6 minutes of music every day. And maybe the director asks for score in places where maybe it doesn't really need it - add both of those things and you can easily end up with a masterpiece of a score where perhaps 10% of that material doesn't really excite as much when heard standalone. In response to the OP, one that comes to mind is JNH's King Kong. Howard made a brilliant OST with most of the major highlights and the complete score really doesn't add anything notable for me aside from a few cues. Also Naked Gun - I have Varese's initial album and LLL's set, and it didn't take me very long to condense the two into a very compact EP that Thor would be proud of.

(a) How do you know they didn't and he just declined? You literally just said the PJ movie looked atrocious. (b) <Unpopular opinion alert> Williams isn't the right composer for every project - a director deciding they want to go with someone else is not a thing that should be frowned upon. Scott's going all over the place with his music choices now depending on what he thinks an individual film needs, rather than a rosy tinted view that one composer can deliver the perfect score no matter what the material is.

Quite a few leaps and assumptions there. If a composer is really up against it for time or resources, the film still needs the score regardless of what he produces. Even if there were no such constraints, this is not an overly prominent score and I can easily see there being some creative reason why he doesn't feel it represents his best abilities as a composer. Given the number of composer interviews where even later on in their career they've been nervous about presenting material to the director and hoping it's what they wanted, there's no way Williams is immune to worrying if his music is good enough.

I saw a clip once with some extremely sparse scoring (here) - very percussion based. The main theme as presented on one of the JW/SS compilations is nice but I suspect that for most of us that's all we really need. More a release for historical reasons than notable musical value imo.

I'm assuming that if Powell wanted more than 20 minutes out there he's already had that fight, but the idea that a length limit for a music release in 2024 is even a topic of discussion indicates someone in their marketing department has terrible priorities. Even if they're releasing a CD, no one's going to confuse that with a digital album credited to someone they've never heard of.

Actually that's a good point - the Doctor's mantra in all the shows I've seen is to resolve conflicts by diplomacy; killing or injuring an alien/antagonist being only a last resort. In Smith's first episode he just warns the big eye thing that earth is protected and to just leave. The problem is when that's pointed out and people get upset for some reason.