I really appreciate how John Williams just took on a whole new sound for the film, while still obviously working in the same general parameters. It’s definitely SW, but it sounds very different from any of the previous scores.
And of course there’s some of his best leitmotivic work in years (which is showcased in possibly one of his all-time best end credit suites).
Yeah, I’ve come to appreciate the new scores the more I listen to them on shuffle with the OT scores.
Oxygen turned me onto the end credit suite for Revenge of the Sith. Wow. That is just an incredible farewell to the franchise from him (considering at the time that was the last movie). It’s so incredible.
The ROTS end credit has always been a favorite track of mine to listen to (easily has more plays than any other 13 minute track by a mile) - there’s just so much classic music there, and put together quite magnificently. I will say, if I have to put my critical hat on, the majority of is just recycled from SW, and of course in many ways it’s meant as a suite for the whole saga (which, with hindsight, dampens its effect) so I’ve always found it hard to rate amongst the others. As an original composition, the best (only?) thing it has to offer is a pretty fantastic rendition of the Force theme (ROTS is nothing if not filled with great Force theme variations).
In my mind, SW will always be the best end credit suite because of a whole host of reasons. It is the shortest and the simplest, but there is a beauty in simplicity, and we must not forget that for SW, truly the whole thing was a suite (including the initial Rebel fanfare/main title/rolling thunder medley that is reprised in all the suites).
Empire is certainly up there with it’s delightful, bouncy play on Yoda’s theme (music edit be damned, though the transition into Yoda’s theme is maybe the best transition into new themes there is) and for having the best ending to perhaps any score ever(?).
ROTJ, TPM, and AOTC are pretty straightforward (with AOTC as usual being the biggest offender with only ONE new theme in the suite, at least ROTJ and TPM had a couple). Though still obviously all fantastic pieces (this is JW we’re talking about).
TFA though… damn. First you get one of the best Rey’s theme renditions there is in the whole score, then you get a whole serving of Kylo Ren (two themes and one ambiguously Ren/FO motif), which then segues into the action (Finn? Falcon?) motif, DURING which Poe’s theme comes out of nowhere, and from there we jump into the March of the Resistance in full force, and then we segue back into Rey’s theme which plays masterfully alongside the Force theme and then finally resolves with a beautiful, twinkling rendition of the main title. Jesus what a piece.
If we’re going on a pure numbers game, SW has a medley of three themes/motifs, ESB three (not counting holdover material), ROTJ two (ditto), TPM two (three if you count the Imperial March), AOTC one (two, again if you count blink and you miss it Imperial March), ROTS two I guess(? or three? don’t know how to evaluate this with regards to holdover material… side note, would you believe though that this is the first suite to feature the Force theme? how is that possible?), TFA has SEVEN (and that’s IF you count all the Ren/FO stuff just once). I’d call that impressive.
SW Oxygen is pretty good. Just starting to get into it - binged a bunch on a long plane ride a couple days ago. I’m mostly mad though that I wasn’t listening along at the time because there’ve been a few instances where I wanted to send them feedback on nearly four year old episodes.