Tom Guernsey

Happy to pay if he promises not to come back… maybe take Elon with him. Make a day of it.

It does kinda feel like the availability of inexpensive/free audio software that only a few years ago would likely have been the preserve of professional music producers etc is something of a double edged sword (like so much tech which so quickly moves from hideously expensive to practically free in a very short space of time). I don’t consider myself a super picky/trained audiophile but neither would I consider myself someone who doesn’t hear obvious issues with recordings or performances but sometimes the issues raised on these releases almost have everyone straining to hear them. I’m not denying that they exist or that for some they are painfully obvious but even the most egregiously offending mixing/recording/mastering/editing errors are often only a small step away from something that sounds perfectly fine. I’ve listened to this release several times now and honestly haven’t noticed any issues with it (even looking out for those that have been flagged). Perhaps ignorance is bliss… I also repeat my comments that LLL, Intrada, Quartet etc etc do an amazingly high quality job given their likely budgets. It could be that all of these releases were left to people like D****y and we all know what an absolute clusterfuck they can make of it.

Exactly. Plus when I’m listening to the score as presented I’m not bothered if it’s actually an alternate. I can get that info in the liner notes.

One of my weird metadata quirks is that for the film presentation of an expanded score I never put if it’s a film or some alternate version in the track name. The track titles for the main body of the score are always just the track title, unless there’s a really good reason for include them. I do occasionally wonder if maybe I should put them if it’s a different version, but I like the tidiness of having the film presentation with just the actual track titles and leave putting designations for tracks in the bonus track section.

I’m definitely not a “ugh Giacchino” kinda guy but having seen the trailer for this the other day (looks quite fun, might see it!), I looked up on IMDb and saw Randy Newman was listed. I thought it might be too good to be true as it seemed like an ideal film for him to score, albeit not entirely dissimilar to monsters, Inc. Ah well it should be jolly enough.

Usually the releases indicates where there are different versions of cues between the expanded programme and the OST. As Jay says, there are only a couple of minor changes on JP although worth nothing that Incident at Isla Nubla on the OST combines two cues (the actual opening cue with the raptor arriving in a cage and the later scene where the Rex chases the jeep down the road). Otherwise it’s pretty similar. But say for Star Trek V there are some album edits where a few bars have been cut out for a more enjoyable listening experience on disc but it’s nice to have the choice.

For soundtracks it’s always the year of the film even if it’s a new recording or an expanded release. I feel that’s the most useful date. For classical it’s usually the year the album was released but I’m not that fussy as I care less about year for that. For musicals it’s the year of that particular cast recording. Don’t delete the duplicates too rashly but perhaps just consider deleting those you don’t play or don’t like. I found I had some versions of certain works I bought years ago that I don’t enjoy so much or are perhaps older Naxos releases when their output was a bit more variable! However my advice on metadata is to just pick a particular composer and tidy up all of their listings. I enjoy tidying my library but it does definitely become tiresome after a while but if I can get an entire composer’s output all neatly up to date in my current preferred style it’s much more satisfying than just grinding through everything!

Ah for sure I understand that. Especially with favourite works and some new, very well reviewed version comes out and the arduous decision of whether I really need another version of whatever it is. I usually cave in eventually if only because I buy most of my classical digitally (thank you Presto) and it’s either relatively inexpensive anyway or on sale and an absolute bargain! So the arduous decision becomes an easy one but it does mean I have multiple versions of certain works and probably have never listened to some of those versions to make a meaningful judgement as to whether I like them more or less than my favoured recording. I just kinda go with it. Data storage is cheap and maybe one day I’ll listen to them all. Maybe.

I feel your pain and have developed my own rules for how I apply metadata to my classical collection. It doesn’t really follow how anyone does it through any of the metadata databases or only digital stores. I use the basics and edit to my own preferences. Maybe I’m quite a sad person (no comments) but I actually enjoy faffing about on my computer tidying up my music library. Sometimes I go through an entire composer and update anything that is either (somehow) wrong or maybe has albums which use an older style which I’ve since changed. I guess it’s a bit like someone going through their vinyls sorting their collection but digitally. I find it quite therapeutic.

Most enjoyable if slightly curious programming choices (more below!). Playing by the orchestra and ASM were excellent and quite a few additional pieces from ASM, notably Across the Stars, The Long Goodbye, Helena’s Theme and Schindler’s List. ASM made a few remarks around the encores (one after the first half and the other three after the programmed pieces in the second) notably that she felt JW’s 2nd Violin Concerto was the most important of the last 100 years. Quite a claim! I must admit that I still find it hard going and I can’t imagine the average JW fan would be that interested if it were written by someone else. Still she’s clearly a passionate advocate of the work and seems to relish playing it as well as the score excerpt arrangements. She teased the arrangement of Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra but didn’t play it alas! Curiously, ASM played the three programmed items then three encores at the start of the second half and then the orchestra played the suite from (L) Bernstein’s On the Waterfront which felt like an odd appendage to the rest of the programme. Quite a few people left before it and many left during the final applause which I doubt would have been the case had ASM played at the end of the second half. Otherwise a fine and well attended concert. Sadly any hopes that JW would put in a surprise appearance did not materialise!

Excited by the Octopussy and Live and Let Die expanded editions and got me thinking which of Barry’s other Bond scores have essentially decent, broadly complete releases*. As far as I know, Diamonds Are Forever, The Living Daylights, OHMSS, You Only Live Twice are largely complete and can be rearranged into film order and have pretty good sound. Thunderball has most of the music but the lengthy suites mean lots of it can’t be rearranged into film order. The others are incomplete. Comments and corrections welcome! *this is kinda based on the premise of how good the existing versions are if no further expansions were forthcoming rather than to nitpick over those expansions, few of which are ideal due to the weird requirement to start with the original Lp programme and put the new material at the end. Lucky many of us have digital music libraries that make putting the tracks in the right order relatively trivial.

Greetings from the Royal Festival Hall! Looking forward to this. Will report back after.

It very much is. I binged watched it in the last week it was on paramount but glad it’s found a new home.

It'll be "Kids! In! Space!" and they'll all be very special students... prodigies, if you will... they could call it something like "Star Trek: Exceptional Qualities" or something. Maybe make it CGI? Just stabbing in the dark with ideas here.

I must have had a brain freeze as I read that as "how Horner became so stupid in such a short space of time" and was, like, I know not everyone likes James Horner, but seriously... mean... and after what score did he become stupid?! (No answers on a postcard please).

Definitely my most disliked change is the ESB "bring me my shuttle" edit which adds nothing but totally ruins the flow of the original edit and, most egregiously, the music, which is wedded to that whole extended sequence as perfectly as any in the history of film. I don't mind the changed ending to Jedi, although Victory Celebration always reminded me of Road to Mandalay by Robbie Williams - not even joking. I think the similarity is fairly tangential almost certainly entirely coincidental, but now I can't un-hear it. My main issue with it, aside from it sounding even less compatible with the original score than the Ewok Celebration (neither of them are really connected to the rest of the score in any meaningful way) is that JW didn't write it to blend seamlessly with the end credits. Sure, Ewok Celebration has a sudden key shift, but it kinda works in a sudden, dramatic tonal shift kinda way. Victory Celebration just has a break and the credits start. JW is too good a composer not to have been able to write the new piece into the existing opening to the credits so it's baffling to me that he didn't. Although as I've said before, the best finale/credits blend is the original, without the brass fanfare blasts that started from Empire onwards.

It's a hard topic to respond to as there's either the scores which are straight off pastiche; Joel McNeely and Kevin Kaska are probably the closest, although Joel McN's more recent scores don't allude to JW quite so close as they used to (and are still great) to those composers who write in a detailed, symphonic, multi-thematic style which can be compared to JW, such as Bruce Broughton. My only thought about Young Sherlock Holmes is that the main thematic material just doesn't feel like it could have been written by JW so while the writing in general does definitely have that detailed, symphonic style, the themes definitely suggest a different composer. Good shout on Peter Boyer, I listened to one of his albums recently and it's fun hearing someone basically writing more like JW's Olympics style than his film music. If you can't get enough of that side of JW's music, the Boyer albums on Naxos are well worth a listen. He's recently written a work called Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue (low key eye roll) which I'm looking forward to hearing. Recently recorded in London I believe.

I like that he never (that I can recall/am aware of) reused the extended version of the danger motif he used for Kahn (which is a brilliant villain motif) so it remains unique to that score. Unlike when the Aliens are attacked by the Klingons…

The price of having gays on the forum. We have an even more significant preponderance for smut.

He should have hired one then* *insert appropriate “this is a joke” gif meme here

Eh. It’s a weak joke. Don’t sweat it.

Nope, it just looks like a typo.

I have literally no idea why but the third didn’t grab me when I first got it despite the fact that I very much enjoyed the new thematic material. I can’t pick between them these days. The first has more specific highlights but the second is more mature and well developed (and the best single action cue), while the third has the best new themes as well as plentiful highlights. I think I’m coming around to the view that they do improve along the series but we’re talking incremental degrees from a very high baseline.

I read that as dong lover. Oops.

Great score but I need to see the film again. I don’t really remember it now aside from that I enjoyed it. Walker’s theme is the first one I think of when I think of Batman. I love Elfman and Goldenthal’s but Walker’s seems to capture more grandeur and mystery somehow.