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John Powell's SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY (2018) - Deluxe Edition 2020 / Intrada 2-CD edition October 31, 2023


crocodile

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Is it just me, or can anyone else just about hear Han's and then Qi'ra's theme in the low brass in Mimban battle at 0:27-ish? I think that's an awesome moment either way.

 

Also, re: that brass motif from earlier, I heard it in these places:

 

Bunk/Proxima 1:10

Card Room 0:24 (tenuous)

Oksana Floren, yadda yadda yadda 1:03

Extra Deluxe Mine Mission 5:42

 

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25 minutes ago, Anthony said:

You know what? I haven't been this excited about a new album in ages. Bless you, John Powell!

 

Just imagine the frenzy of excitement if expansions for all nine JW SW scores drop like this! :P

 

I'm so impressed with the availability of the score. On the dot of midnight on YouTube, music streaming services, digital music purchasing websites, etc.

 

12 minutes ago, Anthony said:

I found the choir quite irritating in the original mix, but here it sounds exactly as it should - an aggressive, threatening, other-wordly sound. 

 

Ditto! I never liked that choir in the OST mix for whatever reason. Just sounded irritatingly high-pitched and heavily processed to my ears. It seems whatever processing Powell used for the OST has been stripped away for this mix, the choral elements sound like a natural recording now!

 

Might just be my ears, but it seems the percussive elements have been dallied down a touch as well.

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8 minutes ago, Bofur01 said:

Also, re: that brass motif from earlier, I heard it in these places:

 

Bunk/Proxima 1:10

Card Room 0:24 (tenuous)

Oksana Floren, yadda yadda yadda 1:03

Extra Deluxe Mine Mission 5:42

 

 

Fantastic! I'm not hearing it in Card Room, but the other three are slam dunks.

 

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I think the overloud Powell Drum Sound (TM) is definitely dialed down in the new mix, they don't drown out everything else as much as before IMO

 

OK I'm on the Stormtrooper Karaoke track now... wtf is this all about again?

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Here's something incredibly minor I noticed.


When he revealed the tracklist on October 20th, track 13 was called "Walk To Dryden".  Now that the album's out, all the sites selling it so far call it "Walk To Dryden's".

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Family Stories is just ridiculously, RIDICULOUSLY good.

 

It's all worth it, just to have this track:

 

I could run a commentary on every second of this track and all its beautiful details; pure magic from start to finish.

 

Cues like this are the reason I love film music!

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4 minutes ago, Jay said:

OK I'm on the Stormtrooper Karaoke track now... wtf is this all about again?

 

Not up to it yet, but it's just a second yacht party source cue. Another Chicken In The Pot.

 

1 minute ago, Jay said:

Here's something incredibly minor I noticed.


When he revealed the tracklist on October 20th, track 13 was called "Walk To Dryden".  Now that the album's out, all the sites selling it so far call it "Walk To Dryden's".

 

I always thought the tracklist contained the error and Walk To Dryden's was what was on the sheets. Glad it's now corrected. :)

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1 minute ago, Arpy said:

Which?

 

Just go to whatever store you prefer to purchase digital music from.  Since it's already Friday where you are, it'll be there.  If it's not, try another store.

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3 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

Just go to whatever store you prefer to purchase digital music from.  Since it's already Friday where you are, it'll be there.  If it's not, try another store.

I've never purchased digital music before. I have no idea where to buy it, a google search brings up iTunes. 

 

EDIT: I didn't see @crumbs post.

Thankyou!

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4 minutes ago, Arpy said:

I've never purchased digital music before. I have no idea where to buy it, a google search brings up iTunes. 

 

EDIT: I didn't see @crumbs post.

Thankyou!

 

Worth keeping in mind that it'll be available to purchase on many more websites once the US ticks over to Nov 20, so if you want to price compare then you can hold off until later today.

 

I don't think there's any issue purchasing from HDTracks if you're based in Australia, for example (but I have no idea it'll work out any cheaper, there's no indication of US pricing on this release).

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12 minutes ago, Arpy said:

I've never purchased digital music before. I have no idea where to buy it, a google search brings up iTunes. 

 

I'm not an Australian expert so I can't be specific help to you, but here are a dozen sites that one can buy digital music from

 

https://www.hdtracks.com/

https://www.7digital.com/

https://www.qobuz.com/

https://www.prostudiomasters.com/

https://store.acousticsounds.com/

https://tidal.com/

https://music.apple.com/

https://www.amazon.com/

 

You can also simply stream it for free on Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Youtube, etc

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Forgot about iTunes. It's available for purchase there too.

 

Capture.JPG

 

I assume that's $29.99 for compressed music though; it doesn't say Apple Lossless anywhere.

 

No listing on Amazon Australia unfortunately (I guess you can purchase digital music via Amazon US though, unless they geoblock it).

 

$40 AUD for the standard FLAC version via ZDigital seems reasonable to me. That's about on-par with your average new Intrada/LLL expansion (before shipping).

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I'm really liking the rhythmic guitar work in this score!  Right now I'm on Okana Floren, yadda yadda yadda and it sounds so cool, it was cool in Card Room too.

 

Oh wow, that little Luke's Theme statement tucked into Okana Floren, yadda yadda yadda is cool!

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3 minutes ago, SilverTrumpet said:

 

Was this suspected to be a Williams track?

 

Yes, at least the last section which transitions into the end credits (the Rebel Fanfare/Han material).

 

Definitely not the first half or so, which is surely Powell.

 

Hey @Jay, you had a spreadsheet in the works for this release vs the OST didn't you?

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2 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Hey @Jay, you had a spreadsheet in the works for this release vs the OST didn't you?

 

On 10/20/2020 at 1:35 PM, Jay said:

 

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3 minutes ago, SilverTrumpet said:

I think it's safe to say at this point that the tracks listed as Williams are cues composed by Williams, not just something like crediting him when his themes are used, right?

 

Yeah, I think that's a safe bet now. Plenty of tracks don't list Williams but contain his themes.

 

Which probably means Parting Ways is indeed a Williams cue, as widely suspected (and that credit isn't merely a courtesy for usage of Duel of the Fates in Maul's Call).

 

I think the 'Hyperspace' cue (Family Stories) was widely suspected to be a Williams composition as well, and that's backed up now.

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I was totally convinced Parting Ways was. Train Heist uses the Imperial motif from ANH, no Williams. Then you have L3 and the Millennium Falcon that uses the big statement of the main theme for the reveal, that's another one just off the top of my head.

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4 minutes ago, SilverTrumpet said:

I was totally convinced Parting Ways was. Train Heist uses the Imperial motif from ANH, no Williams. Then you have L3 and the Millennium Falcon that uses the big statement of the main theme for the reveal, that's another one just off the top of my head.

 

And it seems 1M8 is a wholly Williams cue, with no involvement from Powell at all. Pretty cool (albeit brief!)

 

The credit for Meet Han is interesting, I wonder what section Williams wrote there? The section with the main title would make sense (he probably had PTSD from Giacchino's main title in Rogue One :lol:)

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2 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

So Powell recorded Williams' compositions during the London scoring sessions? Why not use the demos recorded at LA and conducted by Williams, if the goal is to use his compositions anyway?

 

They were under strict rules preventing them from using those LA recordings, for legal reasons.

 

Probably a union agreement in exchange for reduced fees or something (totally guessing, Powell didn't elaborate).

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The LA recordings were just demos.  They didn't do take after take to work out every performance issue.


The score for the film was entirely recorded with the LSO in London.

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Thanks for that spreadsheet @Jay

 

I'm sure someone will work out the various film inserts/alternates exclusive to this album. The ending of Train Heist springs to mind (plus Chicken in the Pot male/female duet).

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3 hours ago, crocodile said:

So Williams gets a credit on 7 tracks. That probably answers our questions.

 

Karol

 

Eh, I don’t think so. Seems to me they just listed “John Williams” for the main tracks where his music from the other films is reprised.

 

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

The LA recordings were just demos.  They didn't do take after take to work out every performance issue.


The score for the film was entirely recorded with the LSO in London.

 

Not quite the LSO; it was a London studio orchestra (which of course featured some players from the LSO).

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11 minutes ago, Manakin Skywalker said:

Train Heist is missing the film insert at 2:45. :(

 

Indeed it is, although the album presentation is better. I imagine it would have been noticibly choppy if the insert was included.

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Finished. Holy crap do I love this.

 

More collected thoughts might be coming tomorrow after I bought it and relistened with no distractions. The only disappointing parts are that I like the male part in Chicken in the Pot even less than I thought and that the credits are just an edit of what we already heard beside the fantastic energetic intro recording. Everything else ranges from "nice" or "heh" to "oh, it's better here" to "WOOOOOOOOOW".

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Where is everyone listening to this right now? I looked back, but I must have missed it. 

 

I'm so excited! I've bought plenty of digital music before, but this may mark my first HD buy.

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2 hours ago, Anthony said:

Bunk/Proxima - The entire Proxima scene was scored, but only the intro is used in the film. The unsued part contains the first appearance of the Marauder’s theme.

 

I'm gonna question you again, Anthony, sorry.

 

Do you mean the main Enfys Nest theme on low woodwinds? I hear Han's in there at 1:42, but it does sounds really similar to Enfys' theme. Then later in the same track, at 2:29, there's that low strings ostinato reprised in Enfys' stand-off.

 

Considering where the Proxima cue would have been in the film, that ostinato would have played only twice, when Han is trying to bluff his way out of a scrape. Could it then be classified as a motif?

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1 minute ago, Bofur01 said:

 

I'm gonna question you again, Anthony, sorry.

 

Do you mean the main Enfys Nest theme on low woodwinds? I hear Han's in there at 1:42, but it sounds really like Enfys' theme, and then later at 2:29, that low strings ostinato from Enfys' stand-off.

 

Considering where the Proxima cue would have been in the film, that ostinato would have played only twice, when Han is trying to bluff his way out of a scrape. Could it then be classified as a motif?

 

You're absolutely right! It's Han's theme but played on that low woodwind that the Marauder's theme is played on later on. It would make no sense for it to be the Marauder's theme in the Proxima scene. Sneaky orchestration tricked me! :D

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I did notice just now on Instagram he did reply to someone asking about the film edits and said that some of the "small bits and patches" weren't edited in, since basically this was meant to represent all of the music as written.

 

I'm still super excited to finally listen to this later today when I have time!! :D

 

I was going to wait until the Hi-Res version releases in the US, but screw it!

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