I totally concur, worth every dollar. I was one of the original subscribers to the series back in the 70's and it's nice to have these again.
The vocals aren't that bad on Thief, IMO, except for Abu's - I actually think the singer on O.K. Corral , while not Frankie Laine, did a pretty good job.
The book's a little gem, and as to the Goldsmith booklet, I haven't looked at it since a page started coming out in the section discussing the Blue Max. I hope this set sells out, Lukas put a lot of TLC into it and it deserves to find it's audience.[/quote]
I suppose that the Tiomkin vocals aren't exactly unlistenable, just not my thing. The score is very good - in fact that whole Tiomkin disc is a fave in the set. He just didn't hold back, did he?
Now that you mention it, the Abu vocals are the ones I have to skip past - too close to cloying musical theater. The soprano singing the love theme is perfect, love that cue.
The Steiner disc is also terrific - not sure what this talk of Helen Of Troy being a weaker recording over at FSM is all about. Nice to have a shorter 'Summer Place' - the SAE disc is great, but a bit long to get through in one sitting!
The only one I haven't played more than once is Young Bess. The best recording of this one, for me, is on 16 minute Fantasy on themes of..., on the Bay Cities Rozsa disc whose name escapes me at the moment. The score is good but I just never warmed to it much.