The Phantom Menace is the best Star Wars score.

[BLUMENKOHL 1,068]

I just broke 3-month music fast with a back-to-back real-world chronological listen to all 9 Star Wars Scores. They're all great, but three of them stand out as faultless, and one is on another plane in its totality. 

 

Star Wars is a breath away from perfection. It is only let down by its 1977 mixing and simplicity. 

 

The Force Awakens is a breath and the hair of a fine feline away from perfection. It's too dark and claustrophobic at times to make it an enjoyable experience. 

 

The Phantom Menace is perfection. Crisp is the word that comes to mind. The mix is sublime. The music is expansive but not so much that it feels disjointed. It's true to science fiction, dark where it needs to be, and brimming with energy and creativity. You feel like you're on a galactic adventure with this one. This is what I would take to a deserted island with me. 

 

The remaining six suffer from rambling incoherence at times. They are too ambitious, too unfocused, and start to move away from being Star Wars. If you just listen to the first of each trilogy, you get the best Star War musical experience. The three have exceptional continuity with each other (mix/mastering aside).  They feel more cohesive together than they do with their respective trilogies. Thematically you basically get all the highlights of the 9 movies. 

 

That is all.

[Chen G. 3,948]

Its up there, but no.

 

I still find the score to the original Star Wars the best of the lot. It would take a lot indeed to top the score that introduced audiences to Binary Sunset!

 

41 minutes ago, BLUMENKOHL said:

They feel more cohesive together than they do with their respective trilogies. Thematically you basically get all the highlights of the 9 movies. 

 

No. There's still a lot of important thematic material not explored in just those three scores, and of course since then Williams had taken...lets call them extracurricular pieces -The Adventures of Han and Galaxy's Edge - which are also part of his body of work for this series.

[Smaug The Iron 512]

57 minutes ago, BLUMENKOHL said:

Thematically you basically get all the highlights of the 9 movies. 

Big Imperial March statement? Yoda's Theme? Luke and Leia? Ewoks? Rose's Theme? Across the Stars? Battle of the Heros? Rise of Skywalker (the two themes)? 

[Bellosh 3,403]

See at times I feel this way about Revenge of the Sith topping Empire for me.

 

But it never happens.

 

The Phantom Menace is a masterpiece though.

[Chen G. 3,948]

51 minutes ago, Smaug The Iron said:

Big Imperial March statement? Yoda's Theme? Luke and Leia? Ewoks? Rose's Theme? Across the Stars? Battle of the Heros? Rise of Skywalker

 

Not big statements, but the Imperial March and Yoda's theme are in there, alright.

 

There are still many important themes missing. You couldn't concievably create a comprehensive overture to the series using just those three scores.

[Romão 2,274]

I alternate between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace as my favorite Star Wars score. It's definitely the one that feels most expansive, although some may say it lacks the dramatic highlights of ESB and ROTJ

[Bespin 8,480]

The first movie of each trilogy...

 

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