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I have! The rears are very active throughout, creating a highly immersive and detailed soundstage with a LOT of bass. It sounds great for the most part. The mastering is a little odd on the quieter cues - Through The Surveillance Monitor for example - they sound *much* too loud in some cases and room noise is clearly audible. I question the wisdom of releasing this as an SACD rather than a Blu-ray audio. In my view it would have made more sense to present the 24/48 5.1 PCM audio on BR audio.

For anyone interested in the cue list, please see below. Cue# Title OST Track 1M0R INTRO 1 1M1 THE ARRIVAL 1 1M2 HOGARTH ON BIKE 2 1M5/6 MONSTER BRAIN -- 1M7/8 IN THE FOREST 3 1M9 THE GIANT WAKES 4 1M10 HOGARTH IN THE CAR -- 1MX DUCK & COVER 23 (Bonus) 2M1 STING FOR FBI MAN -- 2M2 BACK IN THE WOODS 5 2M3 SHUT OFF SWITCH -- 2M4 “ROCK...TREE” -- 2M4A CAT AND MOUSE 6 2M5 TRAIN WRECK 7 2M6/7 MAGIC REBUILD 8 2M8 HAND UNDER FOOT -- 2M9 “CHEW YOUR FOOD” 9 2M9A AMERIKA 10 2M10 GREAT RIDE 10 3M1 “OH NO, HIDE!” 11 3M3R “DID YOU HEAR THAT?” 12 3M4R “HE CAN STAY” -- 3M6 EATING ART 13 3M8 SPACE CAR 14 4M1R “SOULS DON’T DIE” 15 4M2/3 IN THE BARN/CONTEST OF WILLS 16 4M4 ARMY ARRIVES 17 4M4A ANNIE & DEAN 18 4M5 “I’M SUPERMAN” -- 4M6 BIG GUY EYES 19 5M1R GIANT IS DISCOVERED 20 5M2R TRANSFORMER 21 5M2A KENT STOPPED 21 5M3R GOODBYE 22 5M6R MAGIC END 23 1M0 INTRO (EARLY VERSION) -- 1MX DUCK & COVER (EARLY VERSION) -- 3M3 DEAN & BONGO (UNUSED) -- 3M4 “HE CAN STAY” (EARLY VERSION) -- 4M1 “SOULS DON’T DIE” (EARLY VERSION) -- 4M4A ANNIE & DEAN (EARLY VERSION) -- 4M5 “I’M SUPERMAN” (EARLY VERSION) -- 5M1 GIANT IS DISCOVERED (EARLY VERSION) -- 5M2 TRANSFORMER (EARLY VERSION) -- 5M3 GOODBYE (EARLY VERSION) -- 5M4 BUY THE FARM (UNUSED) -- 5M5 HOGARTH LEAVES (UNUSED) -- 5M6 PUTTIN’ MYSELF TOGETHER (UNUSED) -- "--" means not on the OST You will notice some cues are named differently from the OST (and even from each other in new/old versions). These are taken directly from the cue sheet/manuscript. Also of note is that the OST track named "Hand Under Foot" is called "Chew Your Food" in the manuscript, whilst the manuscript cue with that title is not on the OST (this is the scene where Hogarth is saying Grace at the dinner table). I will be sharing a playlist on my YouTube channel which contains playback of the cues not present on the OST, which will remain active until an expanded OST is released.

I will never understand thinking Donner's Superman is the best superhero film. But hey, I'm happy you're happy.

*takes another bite of popcorn*

Honestly I haven't seen the second in so long. You're probably right about it being needed first. I'm not going to argue with anyone who wants more Poledouris. Only those who want less

And I would probably have blindly gone for the Blu version in that case, because I can play it on my regular players, and I can rip it as well.

It's Hiccup Confronts Drago if you're still wondering what it is

Geez, if only they had more of his music lying around to release... how frustrating for the geniuses at Disney Records

There are at least, some six recordings of the Tuba Concerto, opposed to just three of the Violin Concerto and two of the Cello Concerto and Trumpet Concerto (if memory serves, the Detroit Symphony recording of the Trumpet remains unreleased).

A few observations.... this soundtrack never really clicked for me, partly because somehow I never saw the film (and still haven't), and mainly because the soundtrack album was kind of awful. I hated the pop songs, and the "new agey" cues bored me to death, so I never gave it many plays. Now I have a completely new appreciation for the score, and I daresay for me it has leapfrogged over many other JW scores of that era to near the top. The new album is revelatory. I am still bored by the new age tracks, and have dropped them from my playlist, and without them and the pop songs this is a great listen. Not a huge fan of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," but mercifully that is mainly limited to the alternate end titles which is otherwise excellent.

Hi everyone, Today we get into some of the darkness of the score. It's then followed by one of the only blatantly happy moments with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Hope you enjoy cues 5 and 6: The Unbreakable Vow and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!

I'd watch Harrison Ford in anything anyway but I want anything that gets John Williams to write a ST era Indy score to go with the PT era Kingdom and the OT era originals. Indy deserves to have a score in all three periods as well as Star Wars. If that requires an 80-year old Indy then the production can go with god.

I love the first 2, but I can't call them part of the greats. There's still some generic-sounding moments, and you can still feel the modern Hollywood / Zimmer influence here and there. I legitimately think the 3rd film's music is one of the greats however. The choral work is gorgeous, the new themes are better than ever with the most elaborate harmonies of the series, to my knowledge, and the old ones are used so well and so precisely. When "The Vikings Have Their Tea" comes in by "Once There Were Dragons" after being absent for the whole film, I got the same feeling of warm nostalgia as when The Shire theme came in, in its fuller statements in "The Fellowship Reunited". You can really tell that working with Williams affected Powell's composition style in that film.

I'm not really a scholar of JW's pre-Jaws work, and from how the eras are separated, I always kind of thought Jaws was somewhat of a big out of nowhere change. Cowboys is pretty different and could have be an anomaly as far as I knew, Long Goodbye is its own thing, the Disaster scores don't seem like my kind of thing, and recently I didn't get many other chances or impetus to check others out. Images made me realise Jaws wasn't "the one where JW was great now", an out of nowhere lightning strike, it's more like the ultimate culmination of his gradual growth and evolution in that era. SW is much more of a direction shift.

Just received my copy - what an extraordinary score. Although I am a fan of JW, I don’t necessarily buy every release - especially the crazy money ones - but this was worth it. As music for a disturbing and tragic film, it couldn’t be more fitting. The fact that he gives us a really hummable main theme is just gravy on top. I was tickled to hear that the main theme was the temp track for Jaws’ opening credits - must play the one over the other and see how it works. L Mark

I never noticed.

And your names start with "J" -- mea culpa, attributing something to you which you did not say. Yavar

We do look alike.

That's exactly what happened, sorry -- I mixed you up with JTWfan77. My apologies! Yavar

One and two, yes. With three I can't connect for some reason. The orchestrations and the general sound is much more mature but the music itself doesn't grab me like the other two.

Oh, sorry! Maybe here? From 2:11 till the end

I am sure he did but like classical composers, who I am sure would not have wanted their student scores performed, once he is dead all of his work becomes vital to understanding him as an artist, imo. While he was alive, of course respect his wishes but now I think for archival purposes we should have it all. I feel this way about any composer's work. And I know that's how Goldsmith felt but composers aren't fans of themselves. We are.

Gary Owen is the tune that Pete whistles when he flies. It's at the beginning of the film and then notably when he's teaching Ted how to fly.

Thank god there's an isolated track on the Blu-ray. Karol

Ok, we can debate whether some humans can hear the difference between 16 bit CD quality and a 24 bit SACD. I know plenty who can, given the right playback equipment and when it comes to orchestral/choral music in particular. But what about the fact that CDs can only be in mono or stereo, whereas SACD can play losslessly in 5.1 surround sound? You think only a bat can tell the difference between that and stereo? If you can't tell the difference between SACD and CD, that's fine. But don't act like audiophiles the world over are dupes falling for a fad or something. That's not the case at all. Yavar

Yeah but why say you want an expanded Free Willy (snicker) more than an expansion of Free Willy 2 which has so much less released? PM me your email address and I'll change you mind. Yavar

Cool! If you do one as a podcast I’ll tune in! No offense, but you must not know his two Free Willy scores all that well. I just relistened to my two complete film rips. The first Free Willy has a virtually perfect half hour score album extracted — literally ALL of the highlights are on it. What’s left is largely the more fragmentary cues and less orchestral cues. If the complete score gets released most people will say “meh” like they did with the expanded Hunt for Red October. Trust me. (Or don’t, and I’ll send you my film rip!) As a Poledouris obsessive I would buy an expansion OF COURSE, but I honestly think this is a case where less is more. Now Free Willy 2 on the other hand is a completely different animal! The soundtrack album only had three cues (a bit over 10 minutes) of the score. And unlike the first score, this one is over an hour of consistently sweeping orchestral/acoustic thematic material. All the themes from the original film return, plus some new ones, and everything gets a ton more development this time around. The original Free Willy was a great score on album but if we’re talking all of the music in their respective films, Free Willy 2 leaves it in the dust. I want an expansion of it even more than Les Miserables, which is my #1 favorite Poledouris of all time (sorry Conan and Troopers). Les Miserables at least plays great as an album already (yeah the suite thing is annoying but I almost always want to listen to the full album anyway). Free Willy 2 got a pathetic 10.5 minutes released. Of all the Poledouris scores that made it to album in some form (I.e. not totally unreleased) it is easily the most in need of expansion at this point. Yavar

Fanfare for a Festive Occasion (1980) This is an important work as it is the first concert overture written by Williams, a form that he would be called upon to revisit often in the following in his capacity as arguably the premier composer-conductor in the American public eye. Williams gets the form very right, packing rousing motion and technique in a brief package. It is interesting to hear how this piece both anticipates and differs from the overtures to come. It was written for the Boston Civic Orchestra, receiving its first release all the way in 2011 with The Bay Brass.

Still listening to Always (now available from La-La Land Records!) But I took a nice break to spin The Rocketeer. They make a nice pair. I think today I'll listen to Memphis Belle (George Fenton). Good day for propellers. And I'll wonder as always why on earth the Harry Connick Jr. version of Danny Boy isn't on there.

Wow, that's a gorgeous album...

You know what, I never really thought of Powell's music as swashbuckling. The only example off top of my head that feels like it would be this: Karol

Me? Nah. Him? Yes. Fans? Professional take, yes.

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In the future all film music will sound like Ross' keyboard from Friends:

That's... actually a very astute observation.

The Personal History of David Copperfield by Christopher Willis. Just like The Death of Stalin a heavily classically-influenced score. Itis beautifully crafted from start to finish. I only wish it had a bit of a stronger throughline. I remember it felt very scattered, just like the film. And while it makes some sense within the story a bit more of a narrative spine would have helped. Karol

Bespin's Summer Blockbusters Part VIII

I consider it one of the very best trilogy of scores (composed by the same dude) of the century, alongside Williams' Prequels and Shore's LOTR. Also, The Hidden World was (by far) my favorite score of 2019.

Yep.

Over the past few days, I've been working on an editing guide for the Firefly soundtrack release. As you may know, the Firefly soundtrack album features many tracks consisting of smaller cues that have been thrown together from different episodes and containing material related to different characters. This makes for a rather unhinged listening experience. Thankfully, I'm not the first person to attempt this, so I've been using this website for reference. Most of what's on there is accurate, but there were a few omissions and mistakes. So now that I've gone through every piece of music and checked all the corresponding scenes at the website linked above, I'm left with five pieces of music I can't place. Can you? It would be a great help! They are: 4a. Whitefall (0:00 - 0:36) 11a. Leaving (0:00 - 0:10) 11c. Caper [part 2] (1:17 - 1:54) 13a. In My Bunk [part 1] (0:00 - 0:24) 19a. Boarding the Serenity (0:00 - 0:39) Everything else is accounted for. I hope you guys can help me out! Once all tracks are in place, I'll post the complete editing guide!

Well, the love theme certainly sounds golden age and also some of the swashbuckling sort of action bits. I think it’s pretty clear John Williams was thinking of the golden age when he wrote The Adventures of Han, the suite that a lot of Powell’s score is based on.

It arrived!!!

How about trumpet concerto? I quite like Hooten's release from last year. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P3WK6SZ?pf_rd_r=MGZJV09FKNHMB22AC010&pf_rd_p=5ae2c7f8-e0c6-4f35-9071-dc3240e894a8&pd_rd_r=a2d40952-d56b-4ac8-b3a1-80fae44dab9f&pd_rd_w=VtcjI&pd_rd_wg=7oByk&ref_=pd_gw_unk

And, inexplicably, I received a second copy. I thought this was supposed to be inlay only? Anything wrong with the discs? Anyone wants to buy a rare OOP copy of the rejected score by Jerry Lionheart for $1000? Karol

Pleeeease tell us more! Was there anything especially interesting the orchestration? Or maybe a prominent part for some instrument in the orchestra? Any scrap of information is gold right now

Speaking of Cue titles...I just learnt that "Keeping up with the Joneses" and "Eye to Eye" are english idioms!

I think it is fair to say that the whole project is a disappointment and pointless. The 1994 masterpiece reigns, both film and soundtrack. Just stick with that.