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A brief post to contrast with my ridiculously long, honest & well-meaning but mainly misguided & hastily-formed opinion post from 2005: JW has yet to peak. Will it be for Episode VIII? Episode IX? Indy V? Ready Player One??? (Last one doubtful).... The man continues to refine his craft with every film score and concert work. Stylistically, it may be different from the classic era that so many of us love and appreciate, but it is and continues to be further refined nonetheless. It is such a gift and privilege to us and to the world at large that he continues to share his amazing gift almost 60 years after the debut of his first feature film score. Quoted from the "other" thread..............well said and something for us all to bear in mind.

Through "John Carter", I believe the only time concert arrangements were recorded was when they were intended to be used in the end credits. Afte John Carter he took a year sabbatical from feature film scoring to spend time with his family, and when he return, he seemed to have brought a new process with it: Writing suites first, then taking elements of those suites to be used as themes in the score. Now, that might have actually been what happened for John Carter as well, and they thought recording those suites would be a good idea to form an end credits from, I don't know. But before John Carter it didn't seem to really be done, and post-sabbatical he seems to do it for all his scores... well, for most of them anyway (with no recording sessions leak for a lot of his recent scores, we don't know all the details). Star Trek Into Darkness - he definitely wrote "Ode To Harrison" and "Ode to Vengeance" first as suites, and used material in the first for Khan, and material in the second for Marcus in the film cues Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Not sure, but might have been back to his old style. There's a 9 minute track called "Planet of the End Credits", but I have no idea if that was an early suite, or an arrangement by someone on his team of the themes he used in the score Jupiter Ascending - An odd duck in not only his filmography but film scoring practices in general, as most of the score was written and recorded before filming began, and they later edited picture to it Tomorrowland - No idea if he wrote suites for this or not. I'd kill for a complete release or session leak, as its my favorite Giacchino score! Jurassic World - It seems he wrote an 14 minute suite first, with all the new themes in it, and those were then used in the film cues Inside Out - No idea without a session leak or complete release Zootopia - No idea without a session leak or complete release Star Trek Beyond - It seems clear now he wrote new theme suites for new themes, and then used those in the film cues Doctor Strange - No idea without a session leak or complete release Rogue One - Seems like he did theme suites first, but he could have done those after to beef up the OST, who knows

Isn't that sort of great in this day and age? It happened to me with TFA and I think the experience was all the better for it.

DISC TWO 1. Franklin, My Dear (2:50) Strange way to start a CD! I wonder if they just put the disc break at the literal half-way point timewise, with no thought towards logical musical act breaks? I dunno. Heck, ending CD1 after this track would have made a lot more sense..... 2. Transporting Good Time (3:43) Nothing unique or special in this track, but it is a nice one, with nice solemn renditions of the main theme, more horn solos, etc. 3. Krall Work And No Play (:37) Another fairly straightforward little suspense cue 4. A Lesson in Vulcan Mineralogy (5:17) Man do I love the Franklin theme in this track!! 5. The Cost Of Abronath (2:35) Woah! Some really cool choir in this track!! Awesome! 6. MotorCycles Of Relief (3:18) Still not my favorite action track of the score 7. Mocking Jaylah (3:27) A better action track! 8. Jaylah House Rock (3:18) Pretty good action then suspense cue 9. Bright Lights Big Velocity (Part 1) (:57) Main Ostinato gets a little workout 10. Bright Lights Big Velocity (Part 2) (2:59) Kind of the same territory as Jaylah House Rock. Not essential 11. Spock Speaks Hive (3:10) Action intensifies, some good pounding drums here 12. Crash Decisions (3:16) Still one of the best cues of the year! 13. Krall-y Krall-y Oxen Free (4:23) Never been an important track in the score 14. Shutdown Happens (4:35) Ditto 15. The Root Of Krall Evil (1:31) Now that's more like it - fun little action ditty 16. Cater-Krall In Zero G (2:17) Not much to say about this one 17. The Dreaded Rear Admiral (2:02) Wow, REALLY nice variation of the Yorktown theme to open the track!! Woah, then a GREAT version of Courage's original ST theme. This track is a true highlight of the whole score! Too bad it has such a silly name 18. Par-tay For The Course (2:46) Still such a wonderful wrap up track! 19. Space, The Final Frontier / Main On Ends (2:42) No @Gistech, this doesn't crossfrade from the previous cue. This entire track is what you'd expect based on the previous 2 films (there could be subtle differences I didn't pick up on of course). It has a clean ending, doesn't crossfade to anything 20. Jaylah’s Theme (2:36) Well, this is a nice enough theme, doesn't seem to be used much in the film though.... must pay closer attention 21. Yorktown Theme (4:32) Great track A real highlight that should have been on the OST 22. Star Trek Main Theme* (3:44) No surprises here either I don't think, maybe more choir than usual? 23. Krall Things Being Equal (4:25) Definitely a concert arrangement of Krall's theme. Pretty good! I would have swapped this track and the previous in order though... weird placement for it here.

CGI Herb Spencer.

Did you know that, in the case of John Williams and for movies only, it takes an average of 25 years for an Expanded album to be released after the first release of the OST? The average deviation is 8 years. I've calculated it! The shortest where: Phantom Menace (1 year!), Return of the Jedi (10 years) & Home Alone 2 (10 years). The longest where: Fitzwilly (46 years), Not With My Wife, You Don't (45 years), Tom Sawyer (42 years) & How to Steal a Million (42 years). Some people will think that I made this because I was bored. TRUE! IT'S BECAUSE I STILL WAIT FOR MY JP SET!!!!

It will remain one of life's great mysteries. Can't be too upset -- with luck, he'll be writing 3 scores back-to-back-to-back over the next 12 months. We're very lucky to be getting that.

Please refrain from resurrecting old threads like this if you do not have anything relevant to add to the discussion or if the discussion clearly has run its course and you just wanted to do it for the sake of a completely useless joke. Cordially -Mikko-

That feeling when your physics teacher is playing Christmas radio during class and Somewhere in My Memory comes on. Surprisingly, it happened today! (yes, I know I've already used this GIF today)

A fan has graciously made high res digital covers that look just like the real ones Source & more alternate covers: https://hqcovers.net/2013/11/07/jurassic-park-by-john-williams-2/ https://hqcovers.net/2013/11/11/the-lost-world-jurassic-park-by-john-williams/

I live in constant fear that "Not With My Wife You Don't, Volume 3" will come out, and I'll miss it!

Alpha, Charlie, Tango, do you copy? We are delivering the package to Mikko Ojala's house. Over.

He played the iconic character: Drunken Rohan Man #3.

It may be frowned upon by some, but I love it when composers include suites (either end credits or these separate theme summaries) because I always listen to them first when I'm approaching an OST for the first time. I find it's a good way to get acquainted with the composer's approach and they help guide me through the actual score cues. So of course when I bought the Jurassic World soundtrack, I skipped straight to track 20 and I remember thinking, "If this is all he's brought to the table in terms of new melodies, I am very disappointed." I later warmed up to the suspense material he used to start the suite off, but it didn't make an impression on me at first. ::shrug:: Just a dumb decision, IMO, to leave your big sweeping new theme off the track called "Jurassic World Suite."

I always thought Sky Battle front DH1 sounded like Williams. Not as good as Williams but in the right track.

As we appear to be the two on the forum who love this score the most, we need to keep making a concerted effort to mention how great it is and how it's MG's best as often as is reasonable. Our powers combined, we can turn conventional wisdom to our will!! What was interesting about that one is that it didn't include the "As the Jurassic World Turns" melody, which I would consider his big, new theme for the franchise.

I wish he'd live-stream the recording sessions on Facebook like a normal person.

Perhaps somewhat strangely, this isn't how it works. I've often pondered about this in my own work, as well as in the work of my colleagues, and the time invested and the quality of the piece in question simply do not correlate. Some of the greatest works of all time were written very quickly, while lesser works by the same composers were the fruits of years of laborious effort. True, there are certain pieces that simply require more time to manifest themselves in terms of ink and pages, due to the amount and complexity of information. But by and large, the only correlation between time spent writing and the quality of writing, is on a more global scale of the individual writer's experience in terms of craftsmanship. Obviously, having lots of time to invest in a work is always a luxury, as it does allow you to take a step back from time to time and look at things from a bird's eye perspective, and theoretically, it offers the chance to spend more hours exploring your material. What tends to happen when we write under pressure (assuming we're experienced enough to be able to do so), is that craft takes over; choices we'd otherwise mull over and endlessly scrutinize, are made almost instinctively. What we tend to reveal, is the basics of our aesthetic practice, our private clichés, if you like. But surprisingly often, sheer panic opens the gate to a kind of "core energy" that may lead us to make daring and inspired choices, despite the circumstances (other composers will know what I'm talking about). My point is that the quality of your writing is primarily contingent on your talent and technique, no matter what schedule you're on.

I remember seeing an interview with JW where he was asked what he considers to be his best score and he said something along the lines of he always hopes his next one will be

My set arrived! a few surface scratches on the front but nothing too noticeable.

I will never understand why Giacchino writes and records these great concert arrangements then doesn't put them on the OST!

JW scoring all the MCU would have been great too

Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis. I in pace mi fili. Say three Hail Towners and two Lord Williams' Prayers and contemplate on your sins.

Just back from seeing the film. I'm a Star Wars fan and I loved it. I also loved the score too! Giacchino really tries to imitate John style without doing the exact same thing and it works really well with the movie. I definitely disagree with people saying there's no memorable themes because there are: that Empire theme has been in my head since I left the cinema. Jyn's theme sounds pretty nice as well. I noticed the other theme which has that similar intro to 'Across the Stars' and I think it's perfectly apropriate for the character it's associated with (forgot the name of that 'force' guy). So yeah, I'm not disappointed at all, and I really look forward to getting my CD!

The two guys on Jehda get referred to as the "Guardians of the Whills" in the film but that's the only mention.

Official music credits, per the film's end credits!! Music by Michael Giacchino Score Produced by Michael Giacchino Music Editors Stephen M. Davis, MPSE • Warren Brown MPSE Music Score Preparation Booker White Orchestra Contractor Reggie Wilson Score Coordinator Jeff Kryka Vocal Contractor Bobbi Page Assistant to Mr. Giacchino David Coker Score Conducted by Tim Simonec Orchestrations by William Ross • Brad Dechter • Tim Simonec • Jeff Kryka • Chris Tilton • Herbert W. Spencer Scoring & Mixing Engineers Peter Cobbin • Joel Iwataki Score Recordist Vincent Cirilli Scoring Stage Engineer Greg Loskorn Scoring Stage Crew Greg Dennen • Dave Marquette • Adam Michalak Music Recorded at Sony Scoring Stage, Culver City, CA Music Mixed at Eastwood Scoring Stage, Warner Bros., CA

Saw the film this afternoon: it's good. I wasn't too fond of TFA -it even made me sick of Star Wars-, but Rogue One is a much more satisfying film and brings back some of the love. It feels like it's actually trying to tell a coherent story which ties in perfectly with Episode IV.

It's the end of the "Strange Days Ahead" track on the OST (from about 3:30-end).

Holy cow - my copy has already arrived in the mail! Wow!

There'll be people here who will read it especially now, they can't help themselves. Which is why, if it is a good movie, I will enjoy it that much more than they ever will.

I see you have made penance for your misguided behaviour and acquired one of the lost sheep to add to your CD flock. Good. Good. Praised be John Towner!

I like tomorrowland also. In fact its one of the typical cases in which i dont play the OST very often because it just makes me notice how much music is missing from the CD.

I don't know if I'd call it underrated (at least by the folks who are inclined to like Giacchino's music in the first place) but I certainly don't see as much enthusiasm as Jay and I have shown for it. If other people are as enthusiastic as we are, this is great news!

Sky battle is my favourite piece from Desplat's HP stuff. Simply because it can regularly fool me enough to believe Williams did them all.

To be perfectly frank, I don't think any of Giacchino's works really sound all that much WIlliams like at all, honestly. Desplat, however, nailed the Williams sound with Monuments Men.

Time to Bail out of this thread untill i see the film.

Yeah there is delicate playfulness to the cue and Williams brilliantly changes the tone of the theme from the very operatic into this little light and airy variation that of course continues the thematic strain of the island fanfare but also has a bit of excitement and humour as the people are boarding the cars and Alan is trying to avoid getting into the same vehicle as the over-eager dinosaur buff Tim. Interestingly now that we hear all the connecting little cues I feel they are all from the same cloth, like every time we take that minute or so from the actual characters the tone changes a bit. The stuff with Nedry and in the control room for example.

There's no way this can be as good as Giacchino's effort. He's the new Star Wars musical master now.

That is a neat one. Reminds me I should take a listen to it again.

I've seem the movie twice and listened to the score a lot but I still have no clue what Jaylah's theme is. Yorktown Theme has the potential to be a fantastic track. Hopefully it is not just a repeat of Night on the Yorktown.

Every great artist has different phases in his life and it's quite natural to prefer a specific period over another. However, if you look at JW's career more like a student than a fan, I think it's pretty astonishing to see how consistent the overall quality of his music has always been. As one very smart man once said, the work of a genius should not be critiqued, but only studied.

I think the first 10 film score CDs I ever bought were SW1-3, Indiana Jones 1-3, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Hook, and ET. Not a bad way to start!

Brilliant. Everything from the timpani roll, gong strike, harp gliss, and the the trumpets and flutes doubling the violins, the rolling cello arpeggios, the horn counterline, and the major seventh and minor ninth dissonances. Pure Barry.