Richard Penna

One of the action cues was sort of fun. I can't say the same about anything else in the sampling I did.

And some good samples there too. First Williams influence: does Encantado strongy remind anyone else of Luke and Leia?

I listened to that cue again and I'd disagree there. Aside from the fanfare (which I think we've agreed is wrong for the scene), the material before it strikes me as more out of the children's suite, and just meanders a bit for me. I've said this before, but I think this score represents what good tracking can do to a film - I reckon that even if you took the music stem, and without knowing the score like we do, you'd be hard-pressed to identify any moments that were tracked.

A lot of overthinking in this thread But I view 'masterpiece' in this context to be scores that, taken within JW's body of work, strike individuals as particularly inspired, opening up debate as to why person A thinks Score A is a masterpiece, but person B doesn't. Of course, a more casual JW fan like myself will be harder to please, hence why I felt that nothing he's done since 2011 strikes me as a masterpiece. More dedicated fans will find more to like, although I think it's easy to fall ino the 'trap' of well of course he's John Williams, so basically hi

I've never listened to 2 or 3 in any quantity - they're fantastic for individual set pieces and moments but they don't have the consistency in style and tone that the first score has. The same sort of goes for LotR as well - I have listened to the FotR CR during a car journey, but I'm not sure TTT/RotK would work as well.

Pretty impressive description (from 2:55) Not to get myself hyped in a rosy-tinted style but I can't wait for Friday

Interesting difference of opinion between JNHFan2000 and Thor on the score.... I hope I disagree with Thor (obviously). Great news about the suite!

Potter 1 and War Horse. The first Potter has an atmosphere, thematic richness and technical feel that the others just can't match. War Horse isn't a score I listen to these days, but again, its thematic richness and orchestration sets it towering above most of his other scores. I think in both cases that JW was particularly inspired by the films - in Potter's case it was a fresh concept, and we know he loves English music and would've found WH quite something as a canvas.

If someone is just a casual fan of the score, the OST is likely enough. As I've suggested before, there's nothing massively crucial missing from it. I find the OST lacking only because I know the film, and score within it, well, and hence the gaps stand out to me.

I'm largely apathetical towards the inclusion of the OST, but what it does do is remove any concern about whether a particular mix or version heard on the original album is found within the alternates. I'd expect that my resultant playlist will be the complete score, then perhaps four or five alternates or OST tracks, plus the first party source track.

No samples for me either - for those of us that want to hear the unreleased tracks from the main score, they didn't choose a very inspiring selection of tracks. The Elfman box feels like it was an attempt to expand the score slightly in a 'plays well' manner, but as this set indicates, it didn't come close to doing it properly.

All of the combined cues make sense - a lot of them run into each other in the film, and The Church Battle/Love Lost play as one piece of music in the film - the OST just chops the track in half. I did think when I saw the huge number of alternates that something must have gone less than ideal during post and/or scoring, i.e. things changing, and Burton or Elfman having issues with the music. Hopefully indeed the liners will go into this. I'm going to be nervous when I first play CD 2 track 2, hoping they've found all the correct takes, but it overall looks thoroughy co

Exactly what I thought when I first saw the topic name! You could expand this with the significant alternates using 2 discs, but an entire disc for alternates and the OST means it's basically impossible to omit anything. This is how you close the book on a score My primary hope is that whatever alternates/pickups went on in the film for the ending of the main titles (the choir doesn't match any version released/leaked thus far), and the walk through the village (the ending fanfare has the same issue), are reflected properly.

It was my very first CD soundtrack purchase (prior to that was just a collection of mp3s, so we're going back properly early). I have very few full Elfman albums actually - A Simple Plan being the only other one coming to mind.

I will, for once, vote for Williams: War Horse is amazing.