BuySoundtrax Re-Releasing David Arnold's Godzilla On October 17th, 2012

[Jay 38,660]

Next you'll need Stargate and Tomorrow Never Dies!

[nightscape94 965]

I was looking into Stargate because I really dug the overture, and the quality is on par with ID4, but it's near impossible to find in the expanded version.  Checked moviemusic and ebay and got nothing.  It's way too pricey on Amazon marketplace.

 

I'm not entirely sure how this music got past me.

 

Based on what I've heard so far in his 90s output, this guy should have been the next "it" composer.  The talent is unreal in what I've been listening to (and his orchestrating partner Nicholas Dodd has done terrifically as well).  Not sure why his career didn't skyrocket after this period.  Now I'm extremely interested to find out what he would have done with The Patriot had he gone beyond the demo stage.

 

 

[Romão 2,311]

There's not much extra music on that one anyway, you'll be fine with the original release. The Ra theme is still my favorite thing from that score

[Jay 38,660]

Agreed - The OST for Stargate is fine. The DE Varese put out wasn't complete anyway; a real 2CD complete will probably come out at some point in the future.

[nightscape94 965]

I'll put it on the list.

 

[Unlucky Bastard 8,414]

I didn't like the sound quality on the DE anyway. Way too hot for me.

[John Dutton 7,166]

This is one of the best releases ever. Complete score, alternates, unreleased OST. 3 discs for like $25!

[nightscape94 965]

On 9/27/2012 at 5:18 PM, Jay said:

1. Tomorrow Never Dies

2. Independence Day

 

 

28 minutes ago, Nick Tatopoulos's Beret said:

This is one of the best releases ever. Complete score, alternates, unreleased OST. 3 discs for like $25!

 

Is the OST just pulled from the material from the other discs, or does it contain concert re-recorded versions of cues?

[John Dutton 7,166]

On 9/27/2012 at 8:06 PM, Nick Tatopoulos's Beret said:

I had this years ago and sold it. Might get it again.

 

Yes, I sold my autographed copy from the original LLL pre-order. It's something I regret, but what can you do? I remember a member here gave me a second copy of the LLL release. Was it one of you guys?

 

The album on disc 3 has no unique recordings as far I can tell.

[Unlucky Bastard 8,414]

It has some unique edits or fadeouts, but nothing substantial. The main title is different to the film version.

[Jay 38,660]

11 hours ago, nightscape94 said:

 

 

Ask me another day and I'd put ID4 before TND.  Basically they are tied for 4, both 5 star masterpiece scores.

 

11 hours ago, nightscape94 said:

Is the OST just pulled from the material from the other discs, or does it contain concert re-recorded versions of cues?

 

It's the score album he put together when he thought Sony would put it out, but then didn't, so its nice to hear how he wanted the music presented.  There could be tiny bits and bobs that aren't necessarily on the complete presentation, but nothing major - no album-only concert arrangements or anything like that.

[mstrox 6,765]

I can't really get behind Tomorrow Never Dies, or Arnold's other Bond scores.  They're fine, but nothing that thrills me.  I do love Arnold's mid-to-late 1990s work otherwise, though, including ID4, Godzilla, and Stargate.  His later day stuff I can take or leave.  I did really like The Musketeer from the early 2000s, as forgettable as the movie itself was.

[nightscape94 965]

Wasn't his Narnia score supposed to be pretty good?

[Unlucky Bastard 8,414]

3 hours ago, nightscape94 said:

Wasn't his Narnia score supposed to be pretty good?

 

It is good, but the album is horrendously long with too many short tracks.

[Jay 38,660]

I couldn't get into his Narnia score..... I prefer Casino Royale and Sherlock

[Unlucky Bastard 8,414]

Even the CR album could use a trim.

[Jurassic Shark 12,745]

On 9/27/2012 at 10:44 AM, crocodile said:

My favourite David Arnold score. Of course I'm buying it.

Karol

 

Really? I found it such a letdown after ID4 and Stargate.

[Thor 8,035]

You should listen to the original promo programme! It's not quite on the level of ID4 or STARGATE, but pretty damn close.

[Jurassic Shark 12,745]

I've been thinking about maybe getting the BSX release just for that! The LLL is waaay to long for me.

[Thor 8,035]

Do it! Or contact me privately.

[Jurassic Shark 12,745]

Just now, Thor said:

Or contact me privately.

 

Consider it done!

[John Dutton 7,166]

Great score 

[Jurassic Shark 12,745]

Meh.

[crocodile 8,359]

It's a plague. First Thor, then Gruesome Son of a Bitch, The Big Man, publicist....Bruce Marshall...and now you @Jurassic Shark? This Thorid-19 is getting out of control!

 

Karol

[Jurassic Shark 12,745]

But the complete score is so boring! It doesn't even have one memorable theme.

[Unlucky Bastard 8,414]

Only needs the two tracks on the song album.

[Jurassic Shark 12,745]

Even that tends to be too much!

[Jay 38,660]

Wowzers!

 

I recently picked up this edition, and took the shrinkwrap off yesterday.  I listened to the unreleased score album in the car yesterday commuting to work.

 

My first thoughts were, over and and again, : wow!  How have I neglected this score for 23 years?  It's really good!  I loved the scene-setting music, the emotional music, the suspense music, and I REALLY liked the action music with the (Lost World inspired?) drum programs.  There's so much fun and interesting music here, and I really shouldn't be surprised considering this was right after Stargate and ID4 and Tomorrow Never Dies and right before The World Is Not Enough, and those are 4 of my favorite scores of all time.

 

However, especially as the album went on, I also had these thoughts often: Wow, this is REALLY similar to Independence Day.  Like, not just one or two or three minor bits that were like a bit from ID4, but many, many, many bits, that were VERY similar.  Huh.  I hadn't remembered that to be the case.

That wasn't enough to turn me back off from the score again, though, I overall really liked the album!  I am going to listen to the score album again, before I dig into the complete score presentation on the first 2 discs.

[scallenger 499]

This is part of my holy trinity of David Arnold scores (tied with ID4 and The World Is Not Enough). I am glad you finally gave it a listen! It's often too buried by SFX in the film and heavily edited at times to have been properly appreciated without listening to it on its own (that, and many people hate this film or don't like it enough to ever re-watch and be reminded of how good the music in it is). Why it never got a proper album release (beyond a promo) until LLL first released the complete score, I have no idea. I also "upgraded" to this BuySoundtrax version years ago for the additional alternates and the unreleased promo album (which I believe has its own alternate for a track in there as well); giving me nostalgia from having found the promo in watery 128k MP3s on Napster back in the old internet days haha. His selections for the promo album were really good choices, but the complete score has some incredible additional tracks throughout, making the complete score clearly the best way to listen despite its girth.

 

Yeah it is curious Arnold made the score so percussion heavy, and given it came out the year after Lost World I think you are right in assuming he was inspired by the same choice haha. Arnold uses percussion in similarly intense ways at times (like that bit where it escalates with the brass right before the "Taxi Chase" begins? holy crap!). It's an AMAZING score to drive to, by the way.

[Jay 38,660]

Oh sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I'd never heard the score before at all.  I saw the film the in theaters on opening day and heard the score there, and had the two score cuts on the song OST since that came out.

 

I remember when the score album that never came out was leaked, and listened to it then, and I bought the LLL album the day it came out and listened to that.

 

It's simply that the score never fully "clicked" with me.  After one listen to Stargate, ID4, and TND, they were all instant classics to me, I could immediately hum their themes and have listened to them repeatedly ever since.  Godzilla and The World Is Not Enough however didn't have that effect on me.  This is why I probably never bothered to pick up the BSX edition of Godzilla until recently.

 

The TWINE expansion completely changed my mind on that score and now I love it as much as those first 3 big Arnold scores, heck maybe even love TWINE more than TND.  

 

So we'll see if the same happens with Godzilla!

[scallenger 499]

Ahh I see. Well that is still good the score finally clicked with you! I feel like it is more of mood-setter than something more in your face with its themes, like ID4. I mean, it has some nice themes in it, but you're right that they don't really stick with you like some of his other scores. But I don't know what it is, the score just has this intense life to it, nearly all the way through; it's a wild good time.

[Jay 38,660]

So last night I read through the booklets of the LLL edition and the BSX edition.

I was kind of disappointed by both; They are both so short!  Only really cover the bare basics, then are over.  Barely any talk about the actual music, nothing close to a track by track or attempting to indicate what's different about the alternates.

 

The LLL notes are definitely better than the BSX notes - Goldwasser writes a much more interesting, and longer essay about the production of the film and has more about the music.  David Hirsch's notes for the BSX are incredibly short, just 4 pages, and cover much of the same ground without much new.

 

Both editions feature art design by Mark Banning, and both get the job done without having anything special about them. Again the LLL design is better (and is printed on better paper).  The back cover of the BSX in particular is quite hard to read, the font is so small.

 

 

Neil Bulk has done such a great job going through Arnold scores so far with DAD, TWINE, and Stargate, it'd be great if Godzilla is done-over from scratch by him.  I think there's some alternate bits on the score album that still don't have representation in the alternates section, so it'd be nice to get the unedited full alts those bits were pulled from for the score album.

 

Also, the LLL notes (but not the BSX notes) mention that Arnold recorded a bunch of "toolkit" cues, short little things that could be tracked in where needed if the picture changed after he scored a scene.  A bonus track containing all the toolkit recordings would be a nice inclusion, especially since the notes indicate the final film does use toolkit recordings in it.

 

Maybe one day!  I'd imagine the BSX edition would have to go OOP first...

[scallenger 499]

Speaking of Godzilla, looks like there is a new re-release of the Godzilla David Arnold score from BuySoundtrax? Like before, it is a 3-CD set. But the Bonus Tracks on the page listing seem to have 2 NEW bonus tracks that wasn't on the previous 3-CD version? However, they aren't seen on the back cover. Could this be an error?

 

https://buysoundtrax.myshopify.com/products/godzilla-the-ultimate-edition-original-soundtrack-by-david-arnold-3-cd-set

 

New tracks are bolded by me:

 

BONUS TRACKS:
12. Logo #3 (0:19)
13. The Beginning (no choir) (3:34)
14. The Boat Gets It (alt.) (1:11)
15. Footprints / New York / Audrey (alt.) (0:51)
16. Evacuation (alt.) (2:43)
17. The Garden Gets It (alt.) (3:03)
18. Big G Goes To Monster Heaven (alt.) (4:32)
19. Godzilla (Solo Piano) (2:41)
20. Gojira (Album Version) (2:47)

[Jay 38,660]

It's the same old catalog number, so very likely a weird typo.

 

No idea how a typo like that happens, unless maybe that was the tracklist of an early version of the album, then then Arnold vetoed those tracks before the final released version.

[scallenger 499]

Interesting! I sent an email to clarify. We'll see what they say! But you're probably right. Damn, I want a piano demo haha.

[Andy 4,958]

If it’s different, you’re welcome. I bought their last old copy with a cracked up case about a month ago.

[HunterTech 1,138]

So me and @Stark have been discussing this anomaly, and discovered that if you purchased the score around at least February 2021, then chances are: you already have these tracks! And they're pretty much exactly what the titles say they are, so I guess we'll find out soon if this is another A.I. situation or not.

 

Given I would've recently gotten the "original tracklist" version from one of Lukas Kendall's several collector sales, I am a bit peeved that this now another BSX release where I bought it before a slightly more expanded release popped up (or at least was made aware of this being something that has happened).

[Jay 38,660]

I can't really follow what you're saying. Are you confirming that pressings exist with those tracks included, or not?

[HunterTech 1,138]

Yes, because that's the version of this release that he owns. I would've posted the tracks, but I wasn't sure if it'd be allowed publicly.

[Jay 38,660]

Does that pressing have the tracks listed on the back cover?

[HunterTech 1,138]

Nope. It's the same artwork as on the website, which meant whoever submitted them to whatever database Stark used had to make up titles for them.

[Jay 38,660]

What do you mean make them up? The titles are on the buysoundtrax website right?

[mstrox 6,765]

When he ripped it in 2021, the titles weren’t on BSX’s website.  The titles he has are slightly different.

[Andy 4,958]

I’m annoyed with this.  It’s killing my OCD 

[mstrox 6,765]

I had never bothered to pick up Godzilla, so I just ordered from BSX.  I’ll be the lab rat to see if those tracks are really on there.  You’ll find out in a week or twelve, depending on when BSX gets it to me.

[Jay 38,660]

I'm confused.  Are you guys saying that:

 

Starting around 2021 they started shipping out an old master, with no change in artwork

Sometime in 2024, they decided to change the tracklist on the website to reflect the wrong master they've been shipping for 3 years, but still not update the artwork in the release.

 

I between 2021 and 2024 people made up their own names for these 2 tracks.  And just now we learned the right names (because of the website update)

 

Is that what ya'll are saying?

[mstrox 6,765]

I can only talk about what I’ve seen @HunterTech and @Stark talk about on a Discord server, but I believe this is what’s up:

 

one has the BSX release (purchased 2/2021) that HAS those two tracks on it, despite what the back cover said.

 

one has the BSX release (date purchased??) that DOES NOT have those tracks on it, matching the back cover.

 

Now the website has been updated to mention those two tracks, despite the fact that the back cover appears unchanged.  This would be the first time that those two tracks have an “official” title, hence the reference to somebody making up titles for them in 2021.

[Andy 4,958]

I wish I could disconnect the part of my brain that makes me want to buy this again.  Am I the only one like that?

[Jay 38,660]

It feels like a score Neil would give a 100% complete definitive edition to through LLL, if buysoundtrax's rights ever expired

[Richard Penna 3,985]

3 CDs already, and the added tracks are logo music and a piano rendition on top of the existing alternates - hard to see what more there would be for another version.

 

I saw this years ago and it was great fun but strangely the music mostly kind of passed me by a bit, except maybe the death scene on the bridge.