Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Now this is one very interesting topic. Not too long ago, I was sitting at home, enjoying a fine glass of wine, and I pulled out Intrada's terrific release of THE BOYS OF BRAZIL. And for the first time I listened to the actual soundtrack (Disc One), because up to that point I had only listened to disc two, which contains Jerry Goldsmith's edited suite version. I find both of these CDs fantastic, and I am absolutely grateful that Intrada chose to release that version along with the complete score. Truly the best of both worlds. There are other CD releases like that, ALIEN, THE WIND AND THE LION, and it's not limited to Intrada (the Varese release of THE FURY comes to mind, for example).

Or take FSM's release of THE TWILIGHT ZONE score by Jerry Goldsmith. The original album as edited was one of the best Goldsmith scores AND albums released in the 1980s. The score was very well represented by the suites that Goldsmith put together. The FSM release adds a few odds and ends, some nice cues, yes, nice to have, but it's really not adding anything to the impact of the music itself. On the contrary, the way the original abum was edited actually added to the musical and dramatic impact of certain cues, whereas, in direct comparison, the original film version diminishes the dramatic musical flow at times rather than accentuating it. Which is why FSM made the sensible decision to offer edits of the actual album tracks along the full edits as a bonus, so again, here we have the best of both worlds. Excellent score, excellent album, and just about everybody but the most ardent nay-sayers should be happy. I am at least very happy with the way that album turned out.

I am very much with Doug on this one, since I like WHOLE ALBUMS. I know you can easily program your iPod or CD player, I know you can make your own "best of" albums, but the point is: I like to put a CD into my player and have musical flow. When I listen to a film score, it's about the music, NOT the movie. Most of the time. I don't want to "re-create" the movie in my head with the music, or just have a musical cue-by-cue depiction of the movie, I want to LISTEN to an album that makes sense musically. That's me.

But I understand the other side of the coin, I understand how frustrating it can be to hear a cue in a movie only to be disappointed when finding out it's not on the CD. That one darn cue that you really loved, it's not on there. The CD may be great, the album may have musical flow to it, but that one darn exciting piece of music, it's just not there. Hey, that harp intro for KICK THE CAN in TWILIGHT ZONE is an example. It's a cute piece, I like to listen to it, and it wasn't on the original album. Or take STAR WARS. The original STAR WARS album -- a two LP set -- was terrific, it had a great flow to it, but boy was I excited when I at last heard that MOS EISLEY cue on the expanded set. It was one of those cues that stood out for me in the movie and I missed it on the soundtrack.

Interestingly, I find sometimes that the actual chronological film order IS the best way for the music to flow. LOGAN'S RUN comes to mind. It's one of my favorite Goldsmith scores, but I never much cared for the soundtrack album of it, it was too disjointed to my taste to make any sense musically. FSM's release of the complete score --- with all the icy cold electronics at the beginning and the orchestral sections developing out of it gradually, just like in the film -- really let the music breathe.

And boy, do I love those complete releases of the LORD OF THE RINGS score. (Even though I kept the original albums as well and have no intention parting with them.)

As a soundtrack producer, you have some tough choices to make sometimes I guess. Yet I have to say this: these days are paradise for old time soundtrack collectors like me, because the albums that Intrada, FSM, Lala Land (INNERSPACE and DRAGONSLAYER, whoo-hoo!) put out are really great.

I don't have a resolution to this any more than anybody else here. But I do know that I have the confidence Intrada will continue to produce excellent albums. There are some scores, I certainly prefer complete, and others where I would prefer somebody had done some musically sensible editing to make sense out of a collection of cues. But somebody else might feel differently about that very same score. In case of some scores, particularly when the original soundtrack was actually a re-recording, like THE FURY, a release containing both is certainly the best of both worlds.

Chronological & Complete...

Not so long ago the all-important catch word was Expanded which really just meant a handful of bonus cues.

I like the idea of going back to ideas past and attempting to make albums,
not collections or archives,
but releasing a portrait of the music standing alone...
away from the media from which it was derived.
And perhaps also acting as a portrait of the composer as well.

I look forward to the first of these conceptual experiments.