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Much darker than I expected this to sound. Between this and the dark concert version of Jedi Steps, JW seems to be (refreshingly) delving into darker territory in his non-Spielberg works. Much prefer JW in this style; he can write the saccharine stuff in his sleep.

TOD is probably his best comedy too. His attempts at comedy have fallen off a cliff since, probably, Jurassic Park. KOTCS was wretchedly unfunny with its cringeworthy attempts at comedy; a big change from how natural it felt when injected into his earlier works (like TOD and TLC). I put that down to the Koepp factor though -- a thoroughly mediocre dialogue and comedy writer -- and the lack of a quality ghostwriter like Tom Stoppard doing a polish. His attempts at straight-up comedy have been miserable.

He seemingly directed the film by proxy, which is probably why it lacks that Spielbergian technical finesse of his other films from the era. I'm sure it would've been more polished if he envisioned the film as his own from start to finish.

I'm so excited to hear what source music Williams wrote for the casino. It looks ripe for some bizarre and inspired writing from him! What are the odds of another alien band? He obviously had something interesting in mind if he insisted on writing it (after passing the buck on TFA).

He didn't mention a 40 piece choir! All hope is lost!

100 piece orchestra, too. Was TFA that large?

Love it! Hopefully the music makes quite an impact in the mix.

Williams deployed an EMP at the rehearsal to stop any leaks.

Cardboard is good for the environment.

They also assist any orchestra members struggling with a difficult section of music, by clocking them over the head with a guitar until they satisfy Mr. Williams' demanding writing. On that note, it would be nice if TLJ had some really demanding and difficult string passages, ala Escape from Cloud City. TFA is heavy on the brass but ESB is equally memorable for its string writing.

I've got a sneaky feeling the Main Title from TLJ will come close to being the best, but few will top the prequel version. How I wish each film had its own recording though. Fucking Lucas.

It's clearly synth, obviously wouldn't be Williams. So far as I know, he doesn't have synth mockups of his sketches.

Absolute crap. McKean was brilliant!

He clearly just wrote it in an afternoon to get her to stop badgering him about writing something for her!

It's better than Rey of Light!

At least this doesn't invalidate the possibility of a proper expansion in the next few years; Jurassic Park's OST was remastered and expanded for the 20th Anniversary before Williams' camp offered the property to Matessino (and they're both Universal properties). Doesn't make economic sense to bundle in a newly created, complete LLL E.T. as a bonus with the new Blu-ray.

Either Williams really liked La La Land or there's quite a choral presence in this film. Assumed it might be a women's choir but seems not. Didn't he have a special group come in for the Snoke material in TFA? Possibly the same vocalists from WOTW?

Like an exciting scene where an office intern trips over while carrying a pile of documents?

Lazy indeed but it's only a bonus, so not surprised it's the existing OST.

I reckon TLJ will have an increased choir presence but nothing like the prequels (well, the first and third anyway - don't even remember AOTC having one). Then he'll go all out for IX, because it seems like the type of thing a populist director like Trev would ask for (especially knowing he'll need the music to compensate for mediocre directing). EDIT: whoops, forgot all the great microedited Emperor material in the finale track, and Yoda and the Younglings!

Did Williams write the scores for Star Wars Kinect?

Who says I haven't? I've demanded Main Title for The Papers involves a two hundred piece choir singing the weather forecast in yesterday's Washington Post, translated into Sanskrit.

Yeah, like the most subdued use of choir in Williams career? War of the Worlds had sparse choir too. With any luck Williams was just laying the groundwork with subtlety in TFA, fully intending to return to glorious choral extravagance as the new trilogy unfolds.

I'd rather the franchise died than hear another mediocre Giacchino interpretation of another Williams classic.

If Williams retires after Star Wars IX, no one could begrudge him. He owes us nothing at this stage and frankly it's incredible he's even writing Star Wars scores at 85. I'm certainly not holding my breath for him writing an Indiana Jones score at age 88. Frankly, Spielberg should scrap the whole film if he can't; Williams is as much a key ingredient to that series as Ford is (and Spielberg knows it, previously admitting he'd never make an Indiana Jones film without Ford, Kahn and Williams).