Trope

I love this score, and this album of this score. 
 
Personally I take out the two Newlyn tracks and "Willow's Theme", and what's left is an incredibly well-paced album that flows well and gets me hooked into wanting to hear the whole thing every time.  I'm so happy the 1988 stereo mixes were preserved and we can finally hear all this after all these years! 
 
 

Oh I don't think it's up there with Mancina's best work, nor the very best of the animated action/adventure genre, but it's still very good, and certainly among the very best of scores being made in the year 2022, and that's good enough for me to be pretty excited about it!

I'd say that THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, THE MISSION, CINEMA PARADISO, THE LEGEND OF 1900, and THE UNTOUCHABLES, would all be on that list.

The only place LLL posts expected restock arrivals ahead of time is the Film Score Monthly Forums. 
 
https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/userposts.cfm?user=La La Land Records
 
When things arrive back in stock, they often make a Facebook post about it
 
https://www.facebook.com/lalalandrecords/

Who said everyone has to sound like John Williams? How many times do we have to say that we are fine with people who don't sound like John Williams for virtually every other Star Wars show but this one? I mean, what about "This show is basically Episode 3.5" do you not get? This wasn't just some other random Star Wars show, it was marketed heavily with PT music, it was set right between ROTS and ANH, it featured the return of multiple PT actors, and it was extremely important to the overall saga story. Why should things like Battlefront and Fallen Order get scores performed by the LSO that are written to sound just like JW's Star Wars universe, but not a show like this? Aside from Ross' contributions, even a lot of music in The Clone Wars, Rebels, Bad Batch, Visions, etc. has sounded closer to JW than this show.
 
You seem to think that anybody who disliked Holt's score for Kenobi, has a problem with letting "a few other composers have their moment"... even though many of us are fine with—and even enjoy—scores like Ludwig Gorransson's Mando, Shirley's Boba Fett, and are looking forward to Britell's Andor. Those scores don't need to sound anything like JW, and I haven't said a word against them. So why are you acting as though we're all a bunch of JW purists, who can't handle any Star Wars music that doesn't sound like JW? This "let a few other composers have their moment" is getting old and sounds like a strawman.
 
Sorry if I am coming across as harsh, but I just don't get what is so difficult about noticing that this particular show is different from the others, and noticing that the people who are critical of the music in this, aren't in fact opposed to other composers having their moment. And it's not just people here at JWFan who feel like this; you don't have to look far online to find plenty of people who wish this show had a more classic Star Wars sound. I'm fine with literally every other show sounding like whatever style its composer wants it to sound like, so why is it such an outrageous thing for me to want just this one show to sound like JW's Star Wars? I don't think that's unreasonable at all.

She's certainly pulled back the curtain on the nightmarish reality creatives face in the modern film/TV industry.
 
These shows are just products, content for a streaming service. Designed by committee and supervised by corporates without a creative bone in their bodies.
 
As more context comes to light, it's hard not to feel sympathy for Holt. The final product clearly wasn't her vision for the score. Maybe that's why she's giving so many interviews; refocusing the blame from angry fans to the corporate system that created this mess?

I listened to CD 1 last night and it was a great listening experience. As someone with very little knowledge about this film or its score, I found the harmonic and thematic constructions bore a much closer resemblance to those frequently heard in classical music, especially when compared to other "successful" Horner scores (i.e. Titanic, Braveheart, Legends of the Fall, etc.), which are generally more cinematic, melodramatic and filmic (in a good way). Perhaps that's why this score works so well as purely as an aural experience. I also really liked the vibrant mix, it was very immersive.
 
I agree with others that the two Nelwyns tracks might have been better placed as bonus tracks at the end of the album, given their source-like quality. I was also surprised by how much shakuhachi there was throughout. And I also didn't find the aforementioned pitch-bending issues on "The Sled Ride" took me out of the music when they came around - I feel like I noticed them more because I knew where they were, rather than any sudden and obvious degradation in sound quality. Looking forward to hearing the rest of the music on CD 2.

She is giving a heck lot of interviews… one would think that shewould like to play a low profile…
 
anyway if chow prevented her from doing a williamesque soundtrack, thats very sad because she might have provided a decent score. Maybe only williams theme would have been necessary and no other rescoring. I feel sad for her now. Probably it was not her fault.
 
hope that chow doesnt get more works in the sw universe.

Then you are in for a Treat !  Enjoy it.
 
 

Thanks for confirming. My CD just arrived today, and you are right, there is some minor pitch bending noticeable on the spectrogram (around 6:28 and other areas). I'll have to sit down and listen to the album all the way through to see if that particular section sounds noticeably different from the music surrounding it. But I am very excited to have this expanded release of such a highly regarded Horner score - I'm completely unfamiliar with any of the music from Willow.

Thanks for confirming. My CD just arrived today, and you are right, there is some minor pitch bending noticeable on the spectrogram (around 6:28 and other areas). I'll have to sit down and listen to the album all the way through to see if that particular section sounds noticeably different from the music surrounding it. But I am very excited to have this expanded release of such a highly regarded Horner score - I'm completely unfamiliar with any of the music from Willow.

Nope, there are some degradation issues of some sort, I can confirm it as well. You can see it on the spectrogram as well. They are quite minor however, and can easily be mistaken for performance characteristics, so I can see why some people don't notice it.

I just realised it was silly to ask for a timecode as the Intrada samples don't have a playback scrolling option... Regardless, I honestly can't pick up anything that sounded off with the track sample (even with headphones on!). I believe you when you say there might be a mastering issue (I'm sure you're not hearing nothing), but I genuinely can't hear it. Perhaps it could just be some of the brass players' intonation not being 100% perfect?

I hope it is just me, for the benefit of the world…but i hope that i’m not losing my hearing … 🥺
 
check again when you have the cd

I saw the film. I think there’s the usual Gia trick here. Have an extremely simple theme with very simple progressions, play it often enough and even your grandma will remember it. Does it make it memorable? I am not sure.
 
 Is it something I feel compelled to finger on the piano. Not at all. It is “memorable” in the sense I can recognize it when it plays in the movie but does it illicit an iota or reaction from me? No. 
 
The theme has no meaning for me. It doesn’t set my heart a flutter. It doesn’t tell me anything about the scene or the moment. It comes on because there ought to be music and scores ought to have themes. It doesn’t represent to me any kind of music excellence.
 
 And this coming from a man who once was able to illicit a tsunami of tears from audiences by playing a few notes of his theme on the piano. Why - because that had meaning. I am not saying this needs to be like that but just saying - Gia is capable of wonder and excellence, he just doesn’t seem disposed to it in recent times.

Anyone else think the Mando main theme might be the most iconic TV theme of the decade? I think it is definitely instantly recognisable and memorable and therefore 'timeless'. A perfect example star wars music does not need to fit within the the John Williams mould to be successful
 
My main gripe with the Holt material is just that it isn't very good, in general, not that it isn't good star wars music 
 
Also I don't really see a problem with today's new composers trying to be inventive and unique (see success of Mando theme). Imagine if film music never evolved past its humble beginnings. We would be listening to the same kind of scores as people did 100 years ago! Composers like Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Gorranson, Clint Mansell, Vangelis even Zimmer and artists like Daft Punk have been pushing the envelope, successfully. If they are not successful I don't know what is
 
But with anything, there is a time and a place for new things, and the Kenobi show was not one of them

John Powell already scored Solo.
 
 
 

If I've learned anything from listening to JW it's that a melody is just a melody and can be transformed. Rewrite it, reharmonize it, reorchestrate it. The barest bones of Imperial March are literally just three intervals (dotted rhythms optional). You could maybe even get it down to two and still be instantly recognizable in context, the ascending P5 and descending m3. Fans will always debate if it's a crappy version or not but it's all anybody wants to hear a few times with Vader. 
 
Not even just talking about Holt specifically, I went through this shit for years with the Harry Potter movies and people saying the Williams themes were too inherently childish to be in the new scores. It's ridiculous....it's an unmusical objection, really. 

Well you've certainly coaxed that emotion out of some listeners.

https://www.nme.com/features/tv-interviews/obi-wan-kenobi-natalie-holt-interview-star-wars-3256392
Getting the job before Williams was even confirmed to be writing the main theme, Holt wanted to make sure her own approach felt as new as it did familiar – hinting at the classics while standing apart from them. “We didn’t want to lean into the original Star Wars music, but we wanted to lead towards it,” she explains. “Deborah Chow [director] wanted the score to feel sparer and more modern. We were ultimately doing something much more emotional and I wanted something that felt angrier and more wild. The famous ‘Imperial March’ is so militant and organised, and I wanted visceral. I wanted pure rage.”

I hope to God that Natalie doesn't read these tweets. This is exactly why I said the whole thing has been cruel and unfair to those involved. 
 
Yes, these mouth-breathers can't read but it can't be nice to see these responses.

People on twitter thanking Natalie Holt for cues written by William Ross...
 

Trigger warning!