Josh500

Just realized I haven't posted my answer to the question
 
The Sand Pebbles (Intrada)
Papillon (Quartet)
Alien (Intrada)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (La La Land)
Poltergeist (Rhino)
The Secret of Nimh (Intrada)
Psycho II (Intrada)
Under Fire (FSM)
Legend (Silva Screen)
Hoosiers (Intrada)
Link (La La Land)
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (Intrada)
Dennis the Menace (La La Land)
Star Trek: First Contact (GNP Crescendo)
Star Trek: Insurrection (GNP Crescendo)
The Mummy (Decca)
Star Trek: Nemesis (Varese Sarabande) [the original OST, don't own the expansion]
 
17

I keep all my CDs.  Doesn't matter if a future version makes it completely obsolete.

At this point it would be helpful to get rid of some, just for space reasons, but I don't think I could do that.
 
 
Most of them have had new releases during the past few years, but I'm still completely missing The Swarm, and Air Force One, Small Soldiers and Mulan are only represented as CDRs (with expanded releases of everything coming out these days, I don't see the point in seeking out the original albums).
 
 
They're 20cm deep actually, which is why they're so perfect for CDs/DVDs/Blu-rays, compared to the 28cm Billys. Also, unlike Billy, they have continuous holes for placing the shelf boards, so you don't have to awkwardly make some middle rows higher or drill holes yourself. There is, or was, also a 40cm deep version. The entire series has gone out of and slightly differently back in production over the years here, changed colours etc., and might be dead again now (haven't checked recently, since I've run out of space to put new shelves anyway). But I guess that varies from country to country.
 
 
I certainly wouldn't sell this one:
 

 
That's also missing from the photo, by the way, because it was part of a (temporarily) aborted attempt to nicely display my signed CDs, which means they're piled in a different shelf at the moment where you don't really see them at all...

66 albums.
 
Karol

Around 50 or so if you count both regular and expanded versions of the same scores.

I couldn't agree more. The Potter scores display a "magic" command of harmony and orchestration from JW. Think of the Prologue from HP1. Those chords playing when Dumbledore switches off all the lights are worth of Debussy or Stravinsky in their top form, and I have always wondered how the hell could he even conceive those sounds. The cue playing when the students reach Hogwarts is masterful in the preparation and resolution of the climax. The ending of the "Mirror Scene" cue that plays when Harry confronts Voldemort is literally terrifying and extremely elaborated, it strangely reminds me of the coda from the first Ballade by Chopin, but this is much more scary (sadly the film mix does not allow to appreciate all the details, which are evident from the recording alone). "Leaving Hogwarts" makes you feel sorry for Harry even if you don't care at all about the story. 
 
Not to mention the greatness of Azkaban (all the dementor stuff, all the middle-age-sounding stuff, a great Quidditch piece, the time-travelling cues...). Not to mention the beautiful cues that he wrote for Chamber of Secrets (even the suite alone is great - but he actually wrote much more than that, right?  ). 
 
I mean, the LOTR scores are great and they were surely an amazing feat, but from the point of view of harmony and orchestration they are relatively simple. This is not a defect in itself. But I also look for more originality in these matters, and that's why I prefer the Potters. The symphony from LOTR is more than enough for me compared to the scores, while I definitely cannot say this with respect to the HP suites vs. the complete scores, where almost every cue is essential.
 
 
 

I own 66 albums. It's always the most complete version (except Poltergeist II).
 
I didn't want to copy the photo for the fourth time, but HOLY SHIT. As I see you always keep every release. Are there any releases you missed?
 
The main scores that are left are:
 
Papillon
The Wind and the Lion
The Boys From Brazil
First Blood
Under Fire
Legend
Explorers
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
The Russia House
The Shadow
and at least 40 other scores...
 
My personal hidden gems are:
 
Inchon
Night Crossing
Extreme Prejudice

I think so, yes. Just as with Williams, the 90s was my favourite decade for Goldsmith (as far as soundtrack albums are concerned). I'm not denying there's a fair bit of 'formative years' influence going on in that evaluation.

We've had a few 'top list threads' with Goldsmith in the past. Here's one, for example:
 
Created by yourself, even! As usual, I have to separate between score-in-movies and soundtrack albums when I give out recommendations. I did that in that thread too, and I don't think my evaluation has changed much since then:
 
SCORE-IN-MOVIES:
 
1. Alien
2. Planet of the Apes
3. Star Trek: TMP
4. Basic Instinct
5. First Blood
 
SOUNDTRACK ALBUMS (the original releases in all cases, of course):
 
1. The Mummy
2. The Last Run
3. Mulan
4. The Final Conflict
5. Under Fire
 
...or something like that. Except for the no. 1 spots in each list, these change continually.

I have the IKEA Ivar model myself. IKEA for the win! (sorry, don't know why the picture appears lying down):
 

In this case, I counted "items", e.g. I counted the 20th Century Fox box set as 1. And "about" because there's always a bunch of CDs scattered about my flat, and a few of those are bound to be Goldsmiths.

However many JG CDs I own, it's never enough.

He'd say I'm mad!
 
 
I'm going to have to go through them, but ones that immediately spring to mind are Leviathan, Warlock, Criminal Law, Mr Baseball, Not Without My Daughter, Star Trek V, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Under Fire, Psycho II, Poltergeist II, Coma, The Final Conflict, Gremlins, Explorers, The 'Burbs, Lionheart, The Russia House, The River Wild, The Shadow (absolute must have).

Potter of course. 
 
Shore got obviously greater story and images to work with and Fotr is brilliant. The other two boring as hell.
 
It would be very interesting to hear these in upside down universe, johns take of LOTR and howards Potter!!
 

Legend, Supergirl and Planet Of The Apes.

I've got about 21 CDs, but at one point I had about 60. I've sold or traded off many over the years.
 
In digital file format, I have 57 albums including the 21 above. So in this context, back to almost 60 again.

Uh oh, this is beginning to sound like a case of "If you don't like it, then you just haven't understood it"...!!!
 
Ultimately, each score has something to offer that the other does not. I think it's pretty much certain that LOTR is the more profound work, not least because of how extensively Shore integrated all the characters and places in the story into the score, and the numerous subtleties in the thematic presentations and transformations. But it doesn't have the colourful orchestrations of the Harry Potter scores, or the variety in style, to give two examples. So a lot of it falls down to what's important to the listener. For example, I don't fall head over heels for "subtlety" in music. I can appreciate it when a composer begins "Happy Motif #2" in the flute only to cleverly interject "Evil Motif #5" in the oboe at the midway point, or when they change one note in the leitmotif to suggest another motif... But what's most important to me is whether the music sounds "good" to my ears. And by "good", I think most of all of harmonic control, melodic lucidity, and clarity of counterpoint and instrumentation (how I perceive it). Not the manipulation of motifs per se. Having listened through the LOTR scores a couple of times, there are moments in there that I absolutely adore, but in general it's not a soundscape that I find that appealing. The fact that one can discover 200 different leitmotifs in there means little to me, if I don't buy the sound of the music in the first place. I much prefer the glimmering, glistening soundscape of Harry Potter. And by the way, Wagner, whose usage of leitmotifs inspired Shore's writing (and many other film composers'...) is one of my favourite classical composers not merely because he used leitmotifs in such an advanced way, but because I absolutely dig his music, note for note.

None of your business! Go to sleep! 
Well, there's no accounting for taste, is there? 

But Star Wars is better than Star Trek!

Definitely. Josh, just watch the fucking movies already!
 
Didn't Chris Tilton have some adverse criticism of Fellowship of the Ring's score? That hack!

In this instance you need the context of the films to really "get it."

I know the 3 Harry Potter scores written by JW by heart.
 
On the other hand, I don't know the LOTR soundtracks at all. I haven't even seen the movies.
 
That's why I'm thinking of starting now... Better late than never.

I've been listening to LOTR on a regular basis for 16 years
 
FOTR is far and away my favorite of the three.

Both score trilogies are full of strong, memorable, very good themes.

Both score trilogies fit their films very well.  John Williams gave those Potter films the exact right magic touch they deserved, really helped sell the sometimes shoddy special effects and thinner plots of the earlier entries.

Howard Shore's work on LOTR is just a masterpiece.  Its a fully realized musical world with orchestral colors for each culture and location and memorable themes that connect you to the characters and change as they do, and even as they arrive in other places.  He wrote amazing, emotional music too, as the films have many more emotional moments than the earlier Potter films do.  There's a reason we have an entire subforum dedicated to discusses his masterwork.

How many different versions of E.T soundtracks do you really need in your lifetime? 
 
This would be my fourth.... And yeah, I as an audiophile will probably get this remastered edition.