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

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

The demons aren't puppets!

[PrayodiBA 517]

Well anyway, Back then, he didnt know the truth  pity ( who's father's favourite son?)

 

---

I still hate it nonetheless, that on my first viewing on theatre, i could easily , just easily, remember Giacchino's music on R1 but not on this one.

[crocodile 7,973]

John Williams' Han's theme (well, two of them) suite has that quality of an old TV show title montage sequence (thin A-Team or something like that). I'm not sure if that's good or bad but it works for this particular "scam of the week" type of movie we got.

 

Karol

[PrayodiBA 517]

--

anyway

 

I really like this heroic statement of chewie's theme:

 

i mean it becomes powell's trope

 

he did it in Ferdinand (2017):

 

Before that, he did it in Pan (2015):

 

but before that, he did in Mars Needs Moms (2011):

 

And before that in Horton Hears A Who (2008) 00:01 - 00:12

 

 

 i know nothing about music theory, but what makes all of them feel the same? is it the progression, the layering, the tune? ._.

 

 

 

[Arpy 4,145]

Oh shit, it must be Powell's...style.

[Ollie 1,059]

Amazon update, mine will arrive Tuesday due to Memorial Day Holiday.

 

you may return to your thread.

[Obi 404]

Hope Duel of the Fates will be in the FYC...

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

The music was great in the film. I had listened to the OST before hand so I knew what to expect. I was quite upset when I noticed some folks in the theatre grimacing when the awesome gang theme and choir showed up. It's different, but I absolutely love it and it's originality. The theme is referred to frequently, but it's so great and different every time that it's impossible to claim that Powell overused it. It was very nice. I love this score.

[Luke Skywalker 1,791]

12 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I really like how JP resurrected the ANH Star Destroyer music for Reminiscence Therapy. It's a fun inclusion along with most of the other OT material in that cue.  

You mean the more commonly called 'Death Star Motif'? It was ressurected by GIacchino in Rogue one so here is just "re-used"

[crocodile 7,973]

So Williams copied Giacchino in TLJ?

 

Karol

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Giacchino wrote Rose's theme, and Williams adapted it into the DNA of his score.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

I mean, for all we know, Williams saw Giacchino as a threat. He could see the potential for Giacchino to become the king of Star Wars, and so his direction to let new composers do their own thing is a vehicle to divide and conquer.

 

Giacchino really was the next John Williams, until the last John Williams caught on!

[DarthDementous 1,059]

I love this moment, recalls the Ewok Celebration track and the bouncy brass of the Prequels. pure Star Wars.
 

I'm also growing exceptionally attached to Chewbacca's theme, humming it almost as much as Han's theme. both get some fantastic development and variations in the score.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

 

1 minute ago, Blumenkohl said:

I mean, for all we know, Williams saw Giacchino as a threat. He could see the potential for Giacchino to become the king of Star Wars, and so his direction to let new composers do their own thing is a vehicle to divide and conquer.

 

Giacchino really was the next John Williams, until the last John Williams caught on!

 

Ridiculous notion! I demand that you be banned!

 

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

Just now, Stefancos said:

Ridiculous notion! I demand that you be banned!

 

 

If only I were so fortunate. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

You should read your PM's!

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

3 minutes ago, Blumenkohl said:

I mean, for all we know, Williams saw Giacchino as a threat. He could see the potential for Giacchino to become the king of Star Wars, and so his direction to let new composers do their own thing is a vehicle to divide and conquer.

 

Giacchino really was the next John Williams, until the last John Williams caught on!

This forum sure as heck seems to feel threatened by Giacchino's presence! 

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

2 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

You should read your PM's!

 

Done.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Uncool bro!

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

 

Rock on dude.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

6 hours ago, crocodile said:

John Williams' Han's theme (well, two of them) suite has that quality of an old TV show title montage sequence (thin A-Team or something like that). I'm not sure if that's good or bad but it works for this particular "scam of the week" type of movie we got.

 

Karol

I noticed that too, maybe it's the more straight-forward structure of it?   The leaner orchestrations also give it the vibe of a smaller TV orchestra.

 

Somebody should edit it to be the title sequence for a cheesy 80's spin-off show titled "Han and Chewie" or "Han Wars".

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Han & Chewie Funny Cartoon Show

[Holko 9,491]

So after growing to love Chicken in the Pot, it's not even the same in the movie - the second, higher pitched voice is replaced by a lower, male one! (or possibly just pitched down?) What the hell?

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

The OST is the lesbian version.

[ocelot 508]

11 hours ago, publicist said:

 

You honestly watch that stuff for 'entertainment'? Yikes.

Yes, I love them!

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

It's better than me watching Evil Ed because it's "fun".

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

14 minutes ago, ocelot said:

Yes, I love them!

 

They are not better than the SW films though. And Kennedy has a lot tougher job than Feige.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Yep, firing directors and collecting all that merchandise profits sure is hard work!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

For all we know those were all good decisions!

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Judging by the movie sweeping the box office and you guys worshiping Ron Howard's loving gift to the Star Wars fandom, I guess it was a good decision.  

 

[1977 1,743]

11 hours ago, Dragonspartax said:

This is exactly what I thought about the score. Your problems are identical to mine. The "RCP" percussion adds absolutely nothing (and as you said sounds like How to Train your Dragon) to what's going on and in fact covers up his work.

 

All that being said, I thought the soundtrack was fantastic without the RCP percussion as it sounds distinctly Star Wars and retains the tone and style of fast moving brass and strings perfectly. 

 

Agree with this 100%. Powell has the chops, he needs to take off his drum loop training wheels.

 

We need a multi-channel session leak so the electronics can be left off.

 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

John Williams could be a great composer if he just got rid of those damn trumpets!

Hopefully we get a session leak where all that annoying reliance on brass can be removed.

[1977 1,743]

Uh huh

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Kaseykockroach has the chops to be a great member of this forum, he just keeps relying on terrible puns! 

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

So who's for more SW movies scored by John Powell with a theme by Williams?

 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

I am!

I'd normally object to J. Williams contributing themes, but I really love what Powell did with it. He pretty much made it his own thing and played around with it like any composer would their own main theme. I don't like the Williams version as the orchestration and performance just sounds really stiff and bloated (almost TFA-ish in terms of how unpleasant the recording is), but really, in fairness, it's just a demo. A rough draft Williams did to give Powell a basic idea as to what he wanted. It'd be very different, certainly a bit more refined, if it was for the actual film. 

I just wish it wasn't on the album as it's space that would have been better left for more music from the actual score. I deleted it as soon as I could and don't need to hear it again.

[Loert 2,509]

13 minutes ago, kaseykockroach said:

I just wish it wasn't on the album as it's space that would have been better left for more music from the actual score. I deleted it as soon as I could and don't need to hear it again.

 

We're not friends anymore.

[Taikomochi 1,136]

Deleting Williams’ contribution is just a ridiculous and needlessly contrarian thing to do.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

 

(I don't know, to me, it's like the extras in a complete score CD. It's nice to hear them once, then I never bother to play a demo or "alternate" again)

[Taikomochi 1,136]

It doesn’t resemble a demo or an alternate

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

I'm sorry, but it does to me. I don't think it's bad and of course it's a fine solid theme. If it weren't a good theme, not even giving it to Jerry Goldsmith or Dimitri Tiomkin would be able to salvage it! My lack of enthusiasm for the Williams 'version' is merely its technical faults, which, again, makes sense, as it's not for the movie, it's for Powell and for intrigued fans to hear as a bonus. It'd be ridiculous to expect more refined orchestrations and a more spirited performance for something that's not going to be in the actual film.

[DominicCobb 194]

18 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

 

I think these count as little cameos:

 

 

 

Also the early Imperial March references, the major key "recruitment" version and then again with Han in battle is pretty overt.

 

I can't remember if there were any others but yeah, on the soundtrack "L3 & The Millennium Falcon" has the first big OT reference, I think.

 

One of my favorite little cameos is the Rebel fanfare here:

 

 

from 1:49-2:11

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Man, I always love hearing Powell's flute writing. 

[Will 2,215]

So I've given this a handful of complete listens by now (although I haven't yet seen the film, and don't know when I will).

 

It's a great score, at bottom. I agree with the naysayers here that the percussion loops are cringe-worthy on first listen. However, after more listens it feels completely natural. It just takes some getting used to. (A similar thing happened for me with Giacchino's Force theme variations in Rogue One -- initially the ending phrase sounded awful but over time I grew to love it.) 

 

Williams' concert piece is top notch. While the hero theme is perhaps a bit too close to Poe's theme, it does get some great variations (the high trumpet stuff is pretty fun and seems to have been designed with Powell in mind haha!) The searching theme is the real standout to me. It's an earworm and sounds like classic Williams. While it does get some good variations on album, I was a bit disappointed to find that the "You might want to buckle up, baby" cue from the pre-release clip doesn't seem to have been released (unless I'm missing it). 

 

The action writing here was indeed a bit overwhelming on first listen, but some of it really is terrific. E.g., "Corellia Chase" is quite swashbuckling at the beginning and contains a really fun brass segment:

 

 

And then that transition to the main SW theme is sublime and reminds me of JW's little Anakin's theme fanfare at the end of the podrace. Even better are the rising fanfares that follow, suddenly quieting to a beautiful violin note that fades out. It all feels wildly romantic, auguring the romantic spirit that will be truly unleashed later in the score. 

 

Before that, however, "Flying with Chewie" gives us that classic Powell pastoral "into the sunset" spirit, actually reminding me just a bit of Thomas Newman's Saving Mr. Banks. Then the romanticism kicks in for "Lando's Closet," a cue that knocked my socks off when I first heard it. By now I'll admit it's starting to sound a little stale because of too many listens haha, but the theme is just downright gorgeous. It appears KM even gave it his highest compliment -- insisting that it must have been ghost-written by JW because it was so good. 

 

"Reminiscence Therapy" is, as as its title suggests, pretty heavy on JW references, but I'd say they're all well done. It's a very entertaining cue. In particular, Powell's use of Chewie's theme to lead into the SW main theme and rebel fanfare (as seen in the Falcon pre-release clip) is utterly sublime. @TGP's description of this spot as "balletic" was, in my view, spot on. The best part is Powell's end bit of the Chewie's theme statement -- the low string swell with the harp gliss as the Falcon sways wildly. It's stunningly graceful and romantic, or, as I might call it, "epic." Hard to put into words why I like it so much but it's just so perfect. The only problem with this cue is that everything that follows it on the album is pretty underwhelming in comparison. 

 

"Break Out" also has a pretty frickin' awesome verson of Chewie's theme -- and there are all sorts of great, non-thematic short musical moments in this score (e.g. the fanfare at the end of "Marauders Arrive"). It is a little disappointing, however, that Powell's terrific themes did not get too many statements (at least on album). 

 

Some of you are probably wondering whether I think this was better or worse than Rogue One. I'd probably say slightly better, although Powell did get to build his score around some great new Williams material (on which the score relies very heavily) so that doesn't necessarily mean that Powell did a "better job" than Giacchino. Certainly, I thought Rogue One was a very good score, and I think this is too. I'd probably prefer to have a totally new composer (e.g. JNH) take a stab at the next spin-off just for the sake of variety, but Powell's work here is definitely superb. 

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

In the long run, there isn't much you can say with comparing this to Rogue One as while it's of course the same franchise, they're very different stories and genres. There are objective differences (Powell's score is way better orchestrated, recorded and performed by a few thousand kilometers), but a person enjoying Rogue One's musical narrative can still claim to be sane, I'd say.

[crocodile 7,973]

I like Rogue One for what it is.

 

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

What is it?

[John 2,032]

The only bad Star Wars score.

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

B-But, Kylo Jen Erso's theme gave me the feels!

 

[DominicCobb 194]

I'd definitely like to see another composer take the next non-Williams SW film, though if they do a sequel to Solo I really want Powell back. I'd rather SW not fall into the Marvel trap of "new composer, new themes for all the characters!"