Your favorite Indiana Jones ost?

[WilliamHorne97 16]

Personally mine is Temple of doom. Yes the movie may not be the best of the 4 , but in my opinion the soundtrack is! The dark themes of the score really set the tone of the movie. 'short round's theme'

'slave children's crusade' the love theme of Willie and Indy ( I think its a love theme? ) And the end credits , which put all of these amazing motifs into one 5 minute track

Whats your favorite guys??

Marion's theme from raiders is amazing though. LOVE IT!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

ToD definitely has the best sound quality of the OSTs. Dynamic and powerful. The missing music is a bummer but it's still an amazing 40 minutes of score.

The Raiders OST has some baffling micro edits but its overall arrangement is masterful and doesn't meander like the 2008 Concord.

[Thor 7,492]

LAST CRUSADE, without doubt. It's one brilliant setpiece after the other, gorgeously arranged. The other two are great too, no doubt, but RAIDERS is a little gritty and TEMPLE a little too "busy" in comparison. Interestingly, I never got the original Polydor RAIDERS. The expanded DCC release was the first one I got.

[crumbs 14,306]

The Last Crusade has the worst audio by far (it makes AI sound like Azkaban).

Temple of Doom has the best audio but the shortest duration.

Raiders is Raiders.

This is too hard!

[WilliamHorne97 16]

The Last Crusade has the worst audio by far (it makes AI sound like Azkaban).

Temple of Doom has the best audio but the shortest duration.

Raiders is Raiders.

This is too hard!

For me its no contest I love raiders as well though. 'In the jungle' always gets me pumped !

[crumbs 14,306]

On that basis, it has to be Raiders.

I'm assuming KOTCS will barely rate a mention here given that most of the interesting music isn't even on the OST (because we really needed to hear multiple re-recordings of The Raiders March padding out the OST, didn't we Angel Baby?), the recording is flat and the performances even flatter. Not to mention the music itself being thoroughly uninspired.

[WilliamHorne97 16]

On that basis, it has to be Raiders.

I'm assuming KOTCS will barely rate a mention here given that most of the interesting music isn't even on the OST (because we really needed to hear multiple re-recordings of The Raiders March padding out the OST, didn't we Angel Baby?), the recording is flat and the performances even flatter. Not to mention the music itself being thoroughly uninspired.

I hope Force Awakens doesn't do the same, but I doubt it will And yeah Kingdom just sounds boring and same old same old. The raiders theme was over used to the point it got boring to hear.

[Incanus 5,714]

I choose the under dog KotCS just because.

[crumbs 14,306]

Williams wrote a score that was about as inspired as the film he was writing for.

As long as Abrams delivered something worthy of the original trilogy, Williams will deliver a score miles better than KOTCS.

That said, I won't get my hopes up. JW seems pretty bored by action/adventure writing these days.

[Loert 2,511]

Temple of Doom, 1 GAZILLION percent!

While I'm a big fan of all Indy scores by Williams, Temple of Doom stands out to me as the most exciting, the most varied, the most fluid, and overall, the most fun. It's my favourite JW score actually. I always find myself returning to it.

If anybody ever were to ask me, "Show me the best action film music you've ever heard", I'd undoubtedly pull out this score.

It is a real shame, though, that the fairly-recent "expanded release" contains about 98% of all the music from the film, which means we will have to wait some 50 years to actually get all the material! The music that plays during Indy's possession, the percussion loop at the bridge, are all just as worthy of getting an official release!

[crumbs 14,306]

Not exactly 98%. There's at least 20-30 more minutes of unreleased cues, inserts and alternates from that score. Have to be grateful to Concord for what they did achieve (a 45 minute expansion is better than nothing) but, make no mistake, there remains so much music from that score that we've never heard before.

We didn't even know the film version of "To Pankot Palace" was so radically different to the original version.

[WilliamHorne97 16]

Temple of Doom, 1 GAZILLION percent!

While I'm a big fan of all Indy scores by Williams, Temple of Doom stands out to me as the most exciting, the most varied, the most fluid, and overall, the most fun. It's my favourite JW score actually. I always find myself returning to it.

If anybody ever were to ask me, "Show me the best action film music you've ever heard", I'd undoubtedly pull out this score.

It is a real shame, though, that the fairly-recent "expanded release" contains about 98% of all the music from the film, which means we will have to wait some 50 years to actually get all the material! The music that plays during Indy's possession, the percussion loop at the bridge, are all just as worthy of getting an official release!

Couldn't of said it better! Every single track sounds unique in its own way. I love it!

[ricsim88 244]

Temple of Doom, 1 GAZILLION percent!

While I'm a big fan of all Indy scores by Williams, Temple of Doom stands out to me as the most exciting, the most varied, the most fluid, and overall, the most fun. It's my favourite JW score actually. I always find myself returning to it.

If anybody ever were to ask me, "Show me the best action film music you've ever heard", I'd undoubtedly pull out this score.

It is a real shame, though, that the fairly-recent "expanded release" contains about 98% of all the music from the film, which means we will have to wait some 50 years to actually get all the material! The music that plays during Indy's possession, the percussion loop at the bridge, are all just as worthy of getting an official release!

Couldn't of said it better! Every single track sounds unique in its own way. I love it!

Totally agree with both statements. That being said, Raiders with the LSO performing is pretty amazing too.

[ymenard 54]

Raiders was part of his gothical period, you can feel it in the orchestration under all that brass.

[filmmusic 1,826]

I have a hunch that the original poster doesn't really mean "ost" but "score".

I say that because I see posts about the quality of the osts or what material is included.

Can you clarify WilliamHorne?

[WilliamHorne97 16]

I have a hunch that the original poster doesn't really mean "ost" but "score".

I say that because I see posts about the quality of the osts or what material is included.

Can you clarify WilliamHorne?

Sorry guys I meant score haha. But I don't mind the discussion of the quality either

[Quintus 5,399]

Raiders, by a considerable margin. It's a holy trinity score for me, and South America 1936, In the Idol's Temple, Map Room: Dawn and Desert Chase are some of my favorite cues ever. It's a flawless score imo.

Temple of Doom is the JWFan favourite of course, but outside of a couple of legendary set pieces it's actually my least preferred of the three.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

All three are great albums, but I would probably consider Last Crusade the weakest due to its excessive length. Raiders is by far the best. Absolute perfection as a listening experience. The Temple of Doom album is underrated.

[Thor 7,492]

All three are great albums, but I would probably consider Last Crusade the weakest due to its excessive length. Raiders is by far the best. Absolute perfection as a listening experience. The Temple of Doom album is underrated.

LAST CRUSADE excessive in length? It's 59 minutes, and hardly a boring second among them. IMO, it beats the other two by a MILE. But I guess I'm the only one who feels that way...

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Thor you of all people should know that 59 minutes is way too long for a soundtrack album. Williams simply wasn't brutal enough in editing his music down to a tolerable length.

Raiders and Temple are near perfect OSTs.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Was the vinyl release of Last Crusade edited down due to the limitations of the format?

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

The 2008 set.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

All three are great albums, but I would probably consider Last Crusade the weakest due to its excessive length. Raiders is by far the best. Absolute perfection as a listening experience. The Temple of Doom album is underrated.

LAST CRUSADE excessive in length? It's 59 minutes, and hardly a boring second among them. IMO, it beats the other two by a MILE. But I guess I'm the only one who feels that way...

I do too.

[Jay 37,346]

If the original poster is asking about the whole score that Williams wrote, my favorite is Temple of Doom, followed by Last Crusade, then Raiders, then Crystal Skull.

If he's asking about the album program Williams put together, than Last Crusade definitely wins. Both Raiders and Temple miss too many highlights. Raiders features too much repeated music, with 3 minutes of the 6 minute march being repeated at the end. So only a little over a half hour out of the 80 minute score is included.

For Temple, the score is a 2 hour slam bang thrill ride. I love every second of it, I can listen to a complete and chronological presentation any time and not get sick of any of it. 40 minutes for the OST just wasn't enough, it deserved a 2LP like Star Wars, Superman, and Empire. The expanded Concord disc is nice but off-balanced; Adding back in all the missing action music but not enough of the other kinds of score cues, so its too action heavy. Adding in the additional cues from Disc 4 helps, but you really need the complete thing to experience it properly.

Crystal Skull likely had a poorly assembled album that included too much of the least interesting underscore and left out too much of the great action cues.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Williams knew back in 1984 that the 40+ minutes of nonstop action music in Temple of Doom could be best represented by "Slave Children's Crusade" and "The Mine Car Chase". He was right. Those are the standout cues. The rest of the cues are just endless bombastic leitmotif. Raiders March over and over and over again. But that's only a problem on the ROTLA OST, right Jason?

[Jay 37,346]

The action music in Temple of Doom is not just the math over and over again and you know it.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Short Round Helps and the bridge scene might have made the OST more satisfying for most listeners. But he had to make it fit on an LP, so something had to be axed.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Then the album would have had the same issue the 2008 CD had: an exhausting overabundance of action music. The OST has a perfect balance.

I have tons of issues with the Indiana Jones box set, a big one being that it's neither the OST or the complete score. It's an expanded version that falls somewhere in the middle, similar to the expansions that were done in the 90s. By 2008, that sort of thing was out of style. It's either OST or complete/chronological. Not some weird fucking hodgepodge.

[steb74 53]

LAST CRUSADE excessive in length? It's 59 minutes, and hardly a boring second among them. IMO, it beats the other two by a MILE. But I guess I'm the only one who feels that way...

I do too.

While it may not be my fav, it's certainly the favourite for many others .........Thor was just hoping to go against the grain of popular opinion.

Williams knew back in 1984 that the 40+ minutes of nonstop action music in Temple of Doom could be best represented by "Slave Children's Crusade" and "The Mine Car Chase". He was right. Those are the standout cues.

Not at all, Approaching The Stones was always a glaring omission!!

The rest of the cues are just endless bombastic leitmotif.

Trying to think of the quote by Harrison Ford(?) ..."You can type that shit George .........."

[Stempel 136]

Temple of Doom.

[nightscape94 965]

Best OST for me is Temple of Doom. Best score is Raiders.

[WilliamHorne97 16]

A lot of people like Temple of Doom. I'm happy

[JasonTHX 21]

Raiders. Than TOD. Crusade is my least favorite as the last 3 minutes just features a repeat of Sherzo For Motorcycle and it omitted some amazing music in favor of softer tracks such as Into the Catacombs and Penitent Man Will Pass. Raiders and Temple gave us wonderful original material in their end credits tracks by including great renditions of Marion's and Willie's themes. Crusade didn't do that.

[Quintus 5,399]

True, but I still find the end credits suite edit to be satisfying and perfectly acceptable as it is.

[WilliamHorne97 16]

Raiders. Than TOD. Crusade is my least favorite as the last 3 minutes just features a repeat of Sherzo For Motorcycle and it omitted some amazing music in favor of softer tracks such as Into the Catacombs and Penitent Man Will Pass. Raiders and Temple gave us wonderful original material in their end credits tracks by including great renditions of Marion's and Willie's themes. Crusade didn't do that.

I love both Marion's and Willie's themes. They're amazing!

[A. A. Ron 1,742]

All three are great albums, but I would probably consider Last Crusade the weakest due to its excessive length. Raiders is by far the best. Absolute perfection as a listening experience. The Temple of Doom album is underrated.

LAST CRUSADE excessive in length? It's 59 minutes, and hardly a boring second among them. IMO, it beats the other two by a MILE. But I guess I'm the only one who feels that way...

I do too.

^ I'm with Thor and TheGreyPilgrim on this one. Last Crusade is by far my most listened to Indy score and great as the extra tracks from the Concord are, the OST flows marvelously all the way through. TOD has my favorite End Credits suite/recording of the Raiders' March however.

[Jilal 569]

I definitely have a soft spot for RAIDERS. It unarguably has the most vintage Williams sound of the bunch - lovely, bizarre sounding avant-garde moments, quartal harmony and suspensions in a lot of the action scenes, unusual brass voicings (cool low tuba sonorities!) and a couple of awesome mini fanfares (e.g. 3:52 in The Basket Chase, 00:52 in The Desert Chase) as well as his trademark planing triads and classic militaristic sound in The Map Room: Dawn.

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

Hard to say. Temple of Doom is by far the best-sounding, production-wise, but I still don't think any of the sequel scores come close to matching Raiders in writing, although the audio quality leave much to be desired.

[Cerebral Cortex 3,357]

All three are great albums, but I would probably consider Last Crusade the weakest due to its excessive length. Raiders is by far the best. Absolute perfection as a listening experience. The Temple of Doom album is underrated.

LAST CRUSADE excessive in length? It's 59 minutes, and hardly a boring second among them. IMO, it beats the other two by a MILE. But I guess I'm the only one who feels that way...

I do too.

^ I'm with Thor and TheGreyPilgrim on this one. Last Crusade is by far my most listened to Indy score and great as the extra tracks from the Concord are, the OST flows marvelously all the way through. TOD has my favorite End Credits suite/recording of the Raiders' March however.

You guys are my kind of people.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

Best music with the film: Raiders

Best ost is Temple, great sound, the studio players beat the LSO.

[crumbs 14,306]

I think we can all agree on the worst OST and the worst score of the 4.

I've assembled a far superior 80 minute playlist for KOTCS since the sessions got out.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Then the album would have had the same issue the 2008 CD had: an exhausting overabundance of action music. The OST has a perfect balance.

It has balance, but also feels rather anti-climactic. And I feel that ToD has the finest action music ever composed, so naturally I'd want it better represented. Instead of 40 minutes, it'd run at about 50 minutes, big deal.

It's like the Independence Day OST. Sure just about everything is "represented" in its 50 minute program, but then I feel a bit ripped off and dissatisfied that most of the score's rousing climax is left off and some alternate is featured instead.

Some scores are easy to trim down to 40-50 minutes but others like ToD and ID4 would be a nightmare to have to snip away if you get your jollies from stirring action music and fanfares.

That said, I can't get enough of the ToD OST for its superior sound quality. Also from 1984, I listened to the Gremlins OST from Geffen and found something disturbing. The OST sounds great and perfectly balanced, but there's a significant difference in sound quality to the FSM release. The end credits sounds fine on the Geffen, but the FSM sounds like they cranked up the bass a fair bit. Gotta get those subwoofers going!

Intrada's Explorers annoys me too. Nice to have some of that missing misic, but the sound is slightly "muted" or muffled compared to the Varese OST. I reckon my LP sounds the best. And the old album is better arranged.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

So, your ideal Temple of Doom album would be something like this:

Anything Goes

Fast Streets of Shanghai

Nocturnal Activities
Short Round's Theme

Children in Chains
Slalom on Mt. Humol
The Temple of Doom

Bug Tunnel and Death Trap
Slave Children's Crusade
Short Round Helps Out
The Mine Car Chase
The Broken Bridge/British Relief
Finale and End Credits

?

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

That'd be about it. Nothing more than that!

[crumbs 14,306]

Finale and End Credits (Complete) and not the half-assed split track Concord did. Clearly it was just too hard to include that extra 30 second bridge on the additional music disc.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

That was just asinine. They should never have left Williams' original album versions intact on that set. Expanded sets are not the time or the place for that shit, unless it's the Star Wars Anthology, which gets a pass for being perfect in every way.

[crumbs 14,306]

They had enough space left on the additional music disc to just append the complete end credits cue to Return to the Village. And because most of it was already on the TOD disc, there would've been barely any additional re-use fees apart from the missing Raiders March/Short Round's Theme bridge.

It was pure laziness that they mixed up the remastered unreleased cues with the tracks from the original album, rather than making a new presentation. Even worse that the entire sessions were digitised and remastered but only partially released.

Thanks for nothing, Laurent!

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

The Concord discs are like OST 2.0.

[Jediking12 1]

Raiders. The DCC release is fantastic. I think all of the Indy scores were pretty good. Although KOTCS I found the score a little boring and repetitive.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The Concord discs are like OST 2.0.

The box set versions are somewhere in between an OST and complete score, but it doesn't make for a good listening experience like the Star Wars Anthology.