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Rey's theme begins with the same three notes that Kylo's main motif ends with.  But they never (as far as I know) overlap or intertwine in any meaningful way during "The Ways of the Force" or "A New Alliance."  I don't know if there's any way musically to capitalize on that, but it sure seems like there ought to be.  Somewhere in Williams' office, a bobblehead of Howard Shore is shaking its head in nerdy disappointment.

Rey's theme begins with the same three notes that Kylo's main motif ends with.  But they never (as far as I know) overlap or intertwine in any meaningful way during "The Ways of the Force" or "A New Alliance."  I don't know if there's any way musically to capitalize on that, but it sure seems like there ought to be.  Somewhere in Williams' office, a bobblehead of Howard Shore is shaking its head in nerdy disappointment.

Rey's theme begins with the same three notes that Kylo's main motif ends with.  But they never (as far as I know) overlap or intertwine in any meaningful way during "The Ways of the Force" or "A New Alliance."  I don't know if there's any way musically to capitalize on that, but it sure seems like there ought to be.  Somewhere in Williams' office, a bobblehead of Howard Shore is shaking its head in nerdy disappointment.

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Alright alright, don’t be creepy.

JWFan is a community so specifically obsessed with one man’s music, that it can become an endless series of driving wedges into thin cracks, if you know what I mean.  Differences of opinion that aren’t really that far apart or meaningful tend to get exaggerated and factional.  I guess it’s inevitable.

While I love the score to TLJ, I got the impression that Williams heart wasn’t in this one as much as TFA. I mean, combining unrelated themes into a single concert arrangement, a copy/paste end credits suite, less new themes/motifs and the reuse of existing music. I’m guessing the reuse of existing music wasn’t Williams idea, so I’ll give him a pass for that. Disney is all about nostalgia nowadays and understand that fans go crazy when they hear the original music verbatim. 

Herpes?
 

I actively dislike Battle of the Heroes too.
 
 
My autocorrect tried to type Battle of the Herpes just then btw, which says it all.

The characters and script are both ho-hum but the final act battle is got to be one of the finest in any SW films.
 
Karol

I think that TLJ score is the worst Star Wars score, but that is only because the other scores are so brilliantly amazing. The score still stands well on its own, and I would call it a good score overall.
 
I agree with the main criticism that the Force Theme was trivialized, and I do agree that a march for the First Order would have been a very powerful and welcome musical statement, as the Imperial March was in TESB.
 
What I personally wanted (and I know I am at a risk of sounding stupid) is a theme for the Porgs. I know that this was mentioned ironically during the score discussion, but I am totally serious. I kinda miss the musical playfulness of the Ewok Parade, or the scenes with Jar Jar. The scores have all gotten so serious, emotional, and dark. You always need some comic relief. I felt that the screenplay botched the humour, but at least they tried to do something in that regard. With music, it doesn't seem like they even tried much. Sure, Canto Bight exists, but it's more of a short-lived Cantina Band analogue. I actually want a fully fledged theme with concert arrangement potential.

Death Star Wars
 
1977: Death Star
1980: -
1983 Death Star II
1999 Droid Command Ship, it's like poetry
2002 Death Star plans
2005 Death Star being built
2015 Another Death Star
2016 Death Star revisited
2017 Death Star laser ram.
2019 Death Star Star Destroyers
 

I'd add ten statements of the Force theme, on banjo.

I like the score as is and it flows very well in the complete form. The recording is quite good as well.
 
What I'd "change" is have two concert suites instead of one for those two themes. The Rebellion Is Reborn is an exceptionally awkward piece of music.
 
And I'd remove a statement or two of the Force theme...or three...or four... or five...or six. Like any iconic theme, it is at its best when used sparingly.
 
Karol

You misunderstand me. I don't presume to know the story behind every scoring choice here, and my goal isn't to point fingers between the composer and the director. All we can really judge is the end result of their collaboration - and of course that's extremely subjective. Passages that sound natural and coherent to you may strike other listeners differently. That's the nature of music.
 
To clarify my position, though, a few things. Firstly, I'm talking about the film score as it was written and recorded; the fact that the OT and PT scores also suffered heavy editing is a non sequitur.
 
Secondly, the fact that Williams directly quotes past films' concert suites in major ways (Yoda's theme, Leia's theme for her flight to safety, Rey's theme for her following Luke) is really unusual. I can't think of another Williams score that does that. I can't help imagining someone sitting in a room, assembling the temp track, seeing an album track called "Princess Leia's Theme", and thinking, "Perfect, let's use that for her big moment!"
 
Thirdly, I wasn't trying to suggest that old recordings have been reused. When two pieces of recorded music are edited together, it can be hard to make the transition sound natural and musical. The benefit of completely re-recording such an "edit" is that you can sometimes write material that smooths out the transition. My position is that there are too many unnatural, unmusical transitions in the score that bear all the hallmarks of originating in an edited-together temp track from which Williams did not sufficiently stray - whoever's choice that was.
 
Side note: To be fair, I'm judging this score against the oeuvre of my favorite all-time composer, so I'm going to be harsh. I still like TLJ better than most of what's coming from other composers these days, and there are parts of it that I think are truly superb.

I voted for Reylo because I loved that word, but honestly the only thing I want to change in TLJ is the entire movie.

looks at the poll on top
 
Yep, you sure are the special snowflake!

It’ll honestly be pretty interesting to have two Abrams scores to compare to TLJ and make certain judgments about what really seems to distinguish 7/9 from 8, if anything. Or maybe ROS will have more in common with TLJ than TFA which would be interesting in itself. Also having it become clearer what separates each of the three, and what the commonalities are....not to mention just being able to start summing up the sequel music as a whole compared to the OT and prequels. The discussions will be gloriously obnoxious.

Goodbye Old Friend and Arrival on Utapau feature some amazing Force Theme variations!

I don't understand how even the Force theme became so by-the-numbers and uninteresting. I was listening to Episode III earlier and every instance of that theme is incredible from the militaristic opening to the rather haunting version heard when Vader is on the bridge. Something was definitely off with TLJ.

None of the options above. I simply feel as if the score is very sparse and lacks a strong narrative cohesiveness from start to finish. The Force Awakens was wrapped in Rey's Theme which went through many permutations from yearning and lonely - to fully fledged in the end i.e. a satisfying music journey. There isn't quite the same musical journey with The Last Jedi - on album or in the film, and perhaps it's the juggling act of the film dealing with the interplay between Rey and Luke, Luke and Kylo, Rey and Kylo, Finn and Rose - where I think we needed to see some musical growth - where's Finn's theme anyway? Kylo's material is given some thought, and only hints at a stronger theme to come but never quite reaches it.
 
Don't take this as a categorical hatred for the score, because I think it has some incredibly strong material and some nuggets of great Williams music, it was just a little disappointing. 

It is a solid SW score, but I find that it lacks a spark (sorry) that the others all have.  The little motifs and such are as good as it gets. The action music is extremely good (Battle of Crait is fantastic).  Rose's theme is very good, though it could have benefited from a full concert version on its own merits (such as using the Fathiers rendition).  It lacks a theme of epic greatness, which all of the others have.  Well, maybe ROTS lacks one, but the last reel of music is just so good it makes up for it.  
 
I hate the movie so much that it clouds my judgment a bit on the music, and the weird end credits chop-job does not help matters at all.

Ditch the temp track. That's the number one thing. There are sooooo many passages that simply quote previous films (or albums) verbatim, often with editorial choices from the temp track delivered with awkward literalness. There's a big difference between penning a new yet nostalgic rendition of Yoda's theme and...well, slamming the beginning and end of the concert suite together and calling it a day. Most of the individual instances of this are fine, but in aggregate they really hurt the score, especially the first time I saw the film. No other Star Wars score is like this.
 
The next thing is related - stop using the Force theme every 2 minutes, especially as an adagio horn solo over solemn strings. It's absolutely beautiful writing. Hearing it every other scene cheapens it.
 
Then we move on to the actual new material. I'm sorry, but I just do not like the wishy-washy underscore heard mostly in the Achoo (I've given up spelling the name) scenes. I also think there are a few too many instances of loud brass triads planing chromatically in the action music...it's a quintessentially Star Wars device, but it feels slightly overused here.
 
Things to keep: Canto Bight (glorious), Rose's theme (perfectly serviceable), the new theme for Luke in exile (sadly underused), a lot of the action music (great energy), The Spark (just wonderful from beginning to end), and the overall sound (not as dry and small as TFA - more Star Wars-y). There's probably more. I do like the score, in spite of its flaws. But boy, it would not get me excited for any hypothetical future Johnson/Williams collaborations.