James Horner’s HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS - 2022 La-La Land Records expanded edition

[1977 1,743]

On 10/11/2022 at 6:49 PM, crocodile said:

 

Karol

 

@crocodile random question: what colour is the spine? I'm building myself a custom back tray insert for my digital copy using the photo you posted above as a guideline.

[mstrox 6,651]

It’s green with a little picture of the Grinch at the bottom

[crocodile 8,020]

18 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

@crocodile random question: what colour is the spine? I'm building myself a custom back tray insert for my digital copy using the photo you posted above as a guideline.

 

Karol 

[1977 1,743]

10 hours ago, crocodile said:

 

Karol 

Excellent! Thanks.

 

Not at all how I imagined it LOL.

 

Guess a revisit is imminent.

 

[Trope 527]

Does anybody know why on all the new tracks (i.e. ones never before officially released) there's a nearly constant stream of high frequency clicks/distortion, particularly in the left channel? Were the recordings for this film stored on tape and deteriorated over time? And did the promo CD/bootlegs have the same issues? There's no information in the booklet about where the audio was sourced for this release.

 

I've attached a spectrogram screenshot of a particularly egregious example, from the track "Celebration Breakdown", where this distortion is actually audible. Also attached is a section from "The Grinch in School", where it can be seen that some high frequency bits have been removed altogether (I can only assume to mask any distortion). 

 

The only reason I found this out was because I listened to this release for the first time on headphones, and was afraid they might be broken. Then I checked the spectrogram...

[Jay 37,379]

Beginning today at NOON PST, this will be on sale for $15

 

http://secure.campaigner.com/csb/Public/show/4our-2r2gfg--156r1a-ag4f6q8

 

https://lalalandrecords.com/dr-seuss-how-the-grinch-stole-christmas-expanded-limited-edition/

[Trope 527]

This is such a wonderful, fun Christmas score! All the wacky (and jazzy) comedic cues bring a smile to my face, and the main theme is so heartwarming and beautiful. I hope James had a good time writing this one.

 

As a side note, I found a lossless version of the promo album online and was able to compare the sound quality between it and the LLL version (see my earlier post in this thread as to my concerns with the audio quality on the LLL tracks). Apart from uncovering a couple of alternate takes between them, it seems there is some amount of difference in the actual mix between the two versions, the most noticeable being an apparent lack of close-mic mix in the LLL tracks. Check out the difference in clarity in the percussion between these two portions from the same track (Promo 07 Home Sweet Lair & LLL 06 Grinch at Home). To me, it sounds like there's less close-mic present in the LLL mix, hence the percussion sounds more distant.

 

 

My current theory, based on the different mixes and the presence of continual frequency clicks in the LLL tracks (observable by spectrogram and also sometimes audible in the left channel), is that there might have been some regular interference in the close-mic channel audio files that LLL was working with, and a combination of re-mixing (i.e. reducing or removing close-mic channels) and detailed audio editing was required to hide/cover major faults. Also, the fact that none of these issues are present on the tracks identical to the 2000 OST album makes me think that LLL simply re-used the album masters for those tracks.

[Datameister 2,044]

I finally got around to listening to this today. It's a good time! I'd only heard it in the film before. I enjoy the movie but I tend to get annoyed while watching it—the manic energy and plasticky production design start to grate. I was a little worried that the score on its own would have the same effect, but my fear was unfounded. Zero regrets on the purchase.

 

The thing that amazes me most is the difference between "Christmas, Why Can't I Find You?" as a song and "Christmas, Why Can't I Find You?" as a theme. No offense to Cynthia Weil or young Taylor Momsen, but the lyrics and the vocal performance really don't do it for me. Then I hear the melody in an orchestra setting, and it really is genuinely sweet.