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Jerry Goldsmith's US Marshals (2020 Varese Deluxe Edition)


Jay

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Eh, they flow together fine, without long silence in between or anything. I don’t need cues combined, personally. This just better allows me to edit out cues I don’t want in my playlist.

 

The important thing is the sound is good and there are some new cues that really do add stuff the old album lacked. Curious what you think of that “new” theme in those three cues, once you hear them. I only wish the whole score sounded more like them.

 

Yavar

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10 hours ago, Brundlefly said:

I didn't even order it, but I already know that I'll give it the same sequencing treatment that Chain Reaction and Executive Decision got directly by Varese Sarabande. I mean, why the hell didn't they join a few cues?!

 

Looks like a pretty chopped up finale. I'm sure, that could have been two tracks!

 

When labels join cues (and occasionally re-order them for listening) they get yelled at because people have to open up their editors to change things.

 

So then they get yelled at for presenting things completely C&C....  they can't win.

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20 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

When labels join cues (and occasionally re-order them for listening) they get yelled at because people have to open up their editors to change things.

 

So then they get yelled at for presenting things completely C&C....  they can't win.

They shouldn't care about yelling, they should care about how to achieve the best presentation possible.

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Quote

A Rambo-ish side motif for Wesley Snipes (derived from the Gerard material somewhat, it's not that essential due to its mostly only second-long interpolation) 

 

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1 hour ago, Brundlefly said:

@publicist, any thoughts about the remaster and the presentation of this new edition?

 

It's not an album, of course, but considering most people use these things only to make their own edit that's ok. The remaster is AFO level, meaning it's not dramatically different but a bit clearer. The booming sound of the original couldn't be upped, anyway. So it's not strictly necessary, but again, if you're into this kind of no-nonsense action by the action composer par excellence, do it.

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My friend Jens who co-founded The Goldsmith Odyssey with me counts this as one of his personal favorite Goldsmith scores (I think it may be largely due to nostalgia as Jerry’s 90s action work was kinda his first love). He cherishes the entire thing, amazingly...but yet also made a 50 minute version (even combining cues non-chronologically and editing within cues at times) that makes the whole thing a much better listening experience than either the DE or the 29 minute original album.

 

Again, I’m a guy who 99% of the time thinks Goldsmith scores in particular play best in complete and chronological form... but this is a rare time when I don’t feel that way, even though if Varese had left off even a single cue, it would have turned out to be somebody’s favorite, so they did the right thing releasing it like they did.

 

Yavar

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I agree. But unlike you I really love a lot of the McNeely cues, where to me it sounds like he was channeling 70s Jerry.

 

Of the supposedly “big four” Jerry 90s action scores (none of which were ever among my favorites), IMO:

Chain Reaction > Executive Decision > > Air Force One > > > U.S. Marshals

 

Varese’s DE of Chain Reaction is excellent, a real pleasant surprise to me. I found their Executive Decision a slight disappointment since I’d already heard an excellent SonicAdventure Remastered edition from the recording sessions which I still think is better (and it also features one important alternate version that Varese omitted from their edition).

 

Now I eagerly await DEs of scores like Medicine Man, Love Field, Matinee, Mom and Dad Save the World, and of course THE OTHER.

 

Yavar

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6 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:

Chain Reaction > Executive Decision > > Air Force One

I agree with that, but I have yet to decide, where to place U.S. Marshals, after hearing the expansion.

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7 hours ago, publicist said:

What does it matter? 

Are you really wondering out loud about the relevance of a JWFan member's preferences or do you just show your indifference off?

 

I'm just agog to see how much U.S. Marshals will rise or fall in my appreciation, after I will have listened to the complete score.

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Finally started listening to this and... anybody else notice volume fluctuations?  Like within the same track the volume will go up and down and not in a natural way.

 

The new guys handling catalog titles at Varese aren't doing as good of a job as Neil or Mike do, which is a bummer since Varese has exclusive rights to so many great scores.

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39 minutes ago, Jay said:

The new guys handling catalog titles at Varese aren't doing as good of a job as Neil or Mike do, which is a bummer since Varese has exclusive rights to so many great scores.

Varese was doing so well the last couple of years. Why couldn't they at least do well one more year in order to avoid the bootleg quality of the Deluxe Editions of both Air Force One and U.S. Marshals.

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I just got this and just listened to this:

 

The Score:

Wow, I didn't know how synth-heavy this was. Lots of atmospheric cues that are more sound design than composition. Now I know, why many fans call it a throw-back to the eighties. The motif that @Yavar Moradi has mentioned is indeed as interesting as it is underdeveloped.

 

The Deluxe Edition:

I'm very sure this doesn't deserve to be called "The Deluxe Edition". The fade-in or fade-out of many cues is very sloppy (I think that is what @Jay was referring to) and full of artifacts from the orchestra. One of the track markers is set wrong, so that the beginning of cue is bleeding from one to another track. Whereas Chain Reaction and Executive Decision were meticulously compiled and arranged to create a great listening experience despite featuring the complete score, this one is just one cue after another, like the stop-and-go in a traffic jam. Don't get me started on the catastrophe that is the cover art. Varese Sarabande has given us so many great releases over the past years and this is not one of them!

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You need two hours and a wave editor to improve all the sloppy fade-ins and fade-outs, to correct the track markers and pauses between the tracks, to diminish sonic artifacts and volume dips and to re-arrange the tracks in a listening friendly way...

 

...and voilà you have a up-to-standard program that doesn't differ from the other Deluxe Editions. I swear to god, you wouldn't spot a single difference:

 

  1. The Set Down 1:30
  2. Nuggets and Bullets 1:50
  3. Prison Plane / Broken Glasses 1:32
  4. Zip Gun / Almost Down 3:09
  5. Sinking Plane 4:24
  6. Consider Him Dangerous / At Knife Point 1:02
  7. The Pen 1:29
  8. Heading for the Swamp 2:27
  9. Swamp Search 6:05
  10. Listen to Me 1:25
  11. Take It All / The Humidor 2:01
  12. The Gym / Dead in the Shower 2:19
  13. Eyes on the City 4:52
  14. Got You / Airport Locker 2:23
  15. The Consultate 0:59
  16. Following Chen 5:58
  17. Cemetary Watch / Across the Cemetary 2:29
  18. Funeral Ambush 2:02
  19. The Front Gate 2:29
  20. Up the Stairs 2:13
  21. Into the Building 1:07
  22. Turn Around / Mark and Royce Fight 2:29
  23. We Lost Him 1:43
  24. The Wrapper / The Great Sam 1:40
  25. Ship Fight 1:19
  26. Mark's Wounded / The Glock / Trying to Escape 2:12
  27. Free to Go 2:40
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  • 1 month later...
On 4/21/2020 at 12:02 PM, Brundlefly said:

Whereas Chain Reaction and Executive Decision were meticulously compiled and arranged to create a great listening experience despite featuring the complete score

 

I'm not sure if it was also the case with Chain Reaction, but Executive Decision DE was blighted by brickwalling which unfortunately negated everything good about the sequencing.

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8 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

I'm not sure if it was the also the case with Chain Reaction, but Executive Decision DE was blighted by brickwalling which unfortunately negates everything good about the sequencing.

 

Ugh that is so Varese these days.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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