I agree that R1’s soundtrack beats TFA’s. Only good theme was Rey’s theme in TFA, whatever marches were way too prequelish for me and not even close to the OT. And even Williams admits its similarity to PT, IIRC in some interview.

I mean, R1’s soundtrack doesn’t stand that much out either but it’s much more consistent. It would have been way better if the guy had more than 4 weeks to score it. But at least it doesn’t sound prequelish.

And I don’t necessarily mean OTish = good, PTish = bad, but they are very different and these try to tie in with the OT, not the PT. PT has a few good themes too, but they don’t have the same feeling. Nevertheless, IMHO Williams just isn’t as good as he once was, and I don’t mean anything bad with it, that’s just the way it is. R1 with 1980’s Williams score would have kicked ass.