Ranking the Star Wars Soundtracks — Page 8

“Across the Stars” is more than enough to put it in front of ROTS and possibly RO.

joefavs said:

“Across the Stars” is more than enough to put it in front of ROTS and possibly RO.

Doesn’t make up for the fact that the rest of the score is mostly pretty boring, honestly.

DominicCobb said:

Doesn’t make up for the fact that the rest of the score is mostly pretty boring, honestly.

I don’t think it’s any more boring than ROTS. A big part of what I’m considering for my ranking is the relative strength of the themes introduced in each film, and on those grounds Sith is absolutely the loser.

joefavs said:

DominicCobb said:

Doesn’t make up for the fact that the rest of the score is mostly pretty boring, honestly.

I don’t think it’s any more boring than ROTS. A big part of what I’m considering for my ranking is the relative strength of the themes introduced in each film, and on those grounds Sith is absolutely the loser.

No doubt about that. ROTS pretty much only has Grievous’s theme and Battle of the Heroes, the former being merely serviceable and the latter a set piece more than an actual theme. AOTC’s non-Across the Stars themes aren’t much either (one for Kamino, one for the Separatists, and then one for the monsters which barely counts because it was mostly cut out), but Across the Star is really freaking good.

Still, for me, it’s a lot of factors that push ROTS over. The biggest being that AOTC has almost a complete cut and paste job for its climax (both films suffer from this but it really doesn’t get any worse than the battle of Geonosis). The other being that ROTS is just more enjoyable an experience to listen to on its own. Sure, it’s way over the top, but taken as its own thing, separate from the other SW scores, it works really well actually. There are some good expanded score edits of both of them out there and I find ROTS a much more fulfilling listen than AOTC.

Anakin’s Dark Deeds is probably simultaneously the best and worst part of the soundtrack. The beginning is just waaaay too much. I’m of the opinion that choir should only be used sparingly in SW scores, and on this cue it just goes way over board. However the latter part of the track (as it’s presented on the OST) is kind of undeniably amazing (especially as it appears in the film and in fan expanded scores).

Return of the Jedi (10/10)
The Empire Strikes Back (9.5/10)
A New Hope (9.5/10)
Revenge of the Sith (8.5/10)
The Phantom Menace (8/10)
Attack of the Clones (8/10)
The Force Awakens (7.5/10)

I don’t get how anyone can listen to the PT soundtracks. I mean, the TPM one is quite good, but no matter how good it is, it keeps reminding me of watching TPM.

I don’t remember the prequels music beyond the duel themes. Do they even have an equivalent to the Asteroid Field or the TIE Fighter Attack? The track listing alone mentions Jar-Jar about 5 times.

Don’t think I could actually rank the albums themselves, it would be more down to individual themes for me…which I’ll get back to you on once I listen to all the albums again 😛

By the way, like the DSEs are there any digital copies getting around of the theatrical soundtracks before the SEs and subsequent Georgenstein changes with each media release? I know for instance that my copy of ROTJ is missing Lapti Nek and also the original Ewok city music at the end of the movie, instead it has that horrible celebration song (which isn’t all that bad really but I hate the removal of the original music)? I only bought all the albums something like 4 or 5 years ago.

.Val

You can find the original albums on iTunes, etc.

DominicCobb said:

You can find the original albums on iTunes, etc.

Yeah I don’t like iTunes, I use it simply because I use and iPhone but all the music I actually own I specifically buy on CD. Plus already owning copies of the current albums, I don’t want double ups (to an extent) and look at it as with the fan edits - I have purchased the official copies so I’m happy to just download copies of the actual originals.

.Val

Valheru_84 said:

DominicCobb said:

You can find the original albums on iTunes, etc.

Yeah I don’t like iTunes, I use it simply because I use and iPhone but all the music I actually own I specifically buy on CD. Plus already owning copies of the current albums, I don’t want double ups (to an extent) and look at it as with the fan edits - I have purchased the official copies so I’m happy to just download copies of the actual originals.

.Val

It’s not the same as with the films, the “official copies” right now are the original albums. If you don’t want to double up you can just buy the individual songs you don’t already own (though many other tracks are edited differently).

If you want CD, the collection they released a couple years back is the original albums I believe (though it’s all six films and quite expensive). It seems they might be doing individual CD releases at some point in the future, but who knows. You can probably get them on ebay.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

You can get the 1993 album box pretty cheap used.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002VI7/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks but I already own one set of all 6 movies that I would have spent close to that already (not including the additional freight needed for the set above) in obtaining, not realising at the time that certain OT tracks had been omitted / replaced. I’m not keen to spend that again plus more with the chance of receiving a scratched second hand set.

DominicCobb said:

Valheru_84 said:

DominicCobb said:

You can find the original albums on iTunes, etc.

Yeah I don’t like iTunes, I use it simply because I use and iPhone but all the music I actually own I specifically buy on CD. Plus already owning copies of the current albums, I don’t want double ups (to an extent) and look at it as with the fan edits - I have purchased the official copies so I’m happy to just download copies of the actual originals.

.Val

It’s not the same as with the films, the “official copies” right now are the original albums. If you don’t want to double up you can just buy the individual songs you don’t already own (though many other tracks are edited differently).

If you want CD, the collection they released a couple years back is the original albums I believe (though it’s all six films and quite expensive). It seems they might be doing individual CD releases at some point in the future, but who knows. You can probably get them on ebay.

Ok, so to be specific I have the “latter” official albums. I simply thought since I’ve already got “one” copy that I’d just download the actual originals if someone has them rather than try to buy them since I’ve already essentially outlaid good money for one set. I just used the DSE example to try and somewhat explain where my thought process on the matter started.

Anyway regardless of other options available, my question remains and that is - does anyone have such copies readily available that they would be willing to share? Feel free to PM me if so, it would be very much appreciated.

.Val

Not to backseat mod or anything but that’s technically piracy which isn’t looked kindly upon on this site. Like the films, the special edition albums are quite different, though unlike the films (and the main reason why Despecialized is allowed), both versions of the album are readily available for purchase.

The choices you make are up to you, I’m honestly not judging, I just don’t think you should talk about that here.

DominicCobb said:

Not to backseat mod or anything but that’s technically piracy which isn’t looked kindly upon on this site. Like the films, the special edition albums are quite different, though unlike the films (and the main reason why Despecialized is allowed), both versions of the album are readily available for purchase.

The choices you make are up to you, I’m honestly not judging, I just don’t think you should talk about that here.

I honestly can’t see how it’s different than the DSE situation (and fan edits in general) which is another reason I referenced it. Also I’m not sure if you would say the original soundtracks are technically still available (in CD medium) if you have to get them via eBay and the like instead of actual retailers. There definitely weren’t any copies available in any of my local stores, only the latest versions I already have a copy of.

I get what you say about it possibly being against forum rules, I’ll wait for an actual mod to weigh in on this one though before making any retractions on my posts. Thanks for the heads up nonetheless and yes it could probably go to another thread now if discussed further. It was only meant to be a simple question for anyone that knew the answer and then I would have just PM’d them anyway 😉

Basically my reasons for asking in summary are:

• I already own the latest official copies which if you include TFA, has already set me back around $170 Australian ($140ish without TFA).
• I’m only after the original OT soundtracks, not the other 3 for the PT that I would get in such a box set as listed above which would double the cost to get what I initially thought I was getting in the first place and would have paid for duplicate PT albums.
• The albums I am after are are not readily available anymore via conventional retailers, instead requiring me to purchase 2nd hand copies or digital copies from a service I haven’t ever used nor plan to.
• I feel I’ve already paid for the right to own what should have been the original soundtracks anyway, much like needing to own a copy of the SW blurays to keep copies of HD fan edits and fixes.

.Val

I will say I think I misspoke, and the CDs in the collection are actually the SE (technically I don’t think the original ESB program was ever released on CD).

Regardless, saying you have no interest in the official digital release because its digital is silly if you’re asking someone to give you digital files anyway.

Ultimately, like I said, it’s up to you, but it is piracy. If they release the OOT officially are you going to download that illegally too? Same logic.

As for the missing cues, there’s only two - Lapti Nek and the Ewok Celebration - but as far as I know neither are the film versions. If you’re interested in the film versions, there are score fan edits out there that try to preserve that.

DominicCobb said:
Regardless, saying you have no interest in the official digital release because its digital is silly if you’re asking someone to give you digital files anyway.

No, I’m not interested in acquiring them via iTunes or paying for their digital versions. You should know that all my music I have is owned on CD but I listen to them digitally, having ripped copies to put on my PC and iPhone. They’re more for collection that repeat playing themselves as I’ve got no qualms with digital copies for all my favourite bands and music but I want to own them on a physical medium of which my favourite is the CD album since I grew up with it and enjoy the artwork and booklets that come with them. I don’t like the thought at all of only owning some megabytes of data when it comes to the music I am most passionate about, I want something I can actually hold and look at physically.

I already own physical copies of the work, some of which is arranged / edited differently but still essentially the same source material but is also missing a couple of tracks that should be there in the first place.

Ultimately, like I said, it’s up to you, but it is piracy. If they release the OOT officially are you going to download that illegally too? Same logic.

As said, I haven’t ever seen the original soundtracks for sale anywhere. I’ll look into it but I don’t think they’re actually available outside non official retailers, meaning they fall into the same category for sharing copies as the DSEs do. This site well knows the grey area it falls into and I think this is where the OOT soundtracks now fall into as well. I will see if I can confirm that though before proceeding further in obtaining them via other means.

As for the missing cues, there’s only two - Lapti Nek and the Ewok Celebration - but as far as I know neither are the film versions. If you’re interested in the film versions, there are score fan edits out there that try to preserve that.

Would you mind pointing me to any such fan edit scores (can’t say I’ve seen any around yet in my OT.com travels)? As it’s something else I initially thought about asking above but was waiting to see what came about with my first question.

.Val