Ranking the Star Wars Soundtracks — Page 10

I shouldn’t rank so soon after TLJ (you have to sit with a score even longer than a film to fully understand and appreciate it), but here goes…

1. SW
2. ESB
3. ROTJ
4. TFA
5. TPM
6. TLJ
7. ROTS
8. RO
9. AOTC

This is pretty tough actually because TLJ is a actually pretty much wall to wall great but loses big points in my mind for lack of new material. It feels more like TFA Part II (and in that sense, it does absolutely succeed). But if we look at each film and the new signature theme they introduced, I don’t know if TLJ even qualifies because it doesn’t have one, but if we use the next closest thing - Rose’s theme - it’s at the bottom of the list.

I could be wrong, but while TFA had say three new themes, the only memorable music in TLJ was TIE Fighter Attack from Star Wars… Listening to it now but so far it’s just the old stuff.

Collipso said:

1. RotS
2. TESB
3. SW
4. RotJ
5. AotC
6. TFA
7. RO
8. TPM

TPM has it’s moments but most of it is inferior to the others imo.

Lol most of AOTC is just a recycling of TPM…which has actually got a lot of good music.

TV’s Frink said:

Collipso said:

1. RotS
2. TESB
3. SW
4. RotJ
5. AotC
6. TFA
7. RO
8. TPM

TPM has it’s moments but most of it is inferior to the others imo.

Lol most of AOTC is just a recycling of TPM…which has actually got a lot of good music.

You’re probably right, just switch those around and put RO in last.

TLJ is a wonderful score. Rose’s theme is tender and beautiful, actions cues are terrific, it’s epic and intimist at the same time. For the last 40 years Jedi Master Williams is the true Guardian of the Star Wars Temple.

edit: oh I forgot the ranking… well, let’s say:

1. ANH

2-3. TESB/ROTJ

4-5. ROTS/TPM

6-7. TLJ/TFA

8. AOTC

R1 is a very good score but it’s a Giacchino score with curious unfinished nods to Star Wars themes, so I don’t count it as a Star Wars score.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0dqWRYwKNGcBLnOpmT-6vkshfPtS_j8V

This guy uploaded basically the closest thing we’ll get to a “Ultimate Edition” for all the SW soundtracks. This is his playlist for Star Wars, for example.

Anyone else hear shades of Back to the Future in some of the more upbeat renditions of Rose’s theme?

joefavs said:

Anyone else hear shades of Back to the Future in some of the more upbeat renditions of Rose’s theme?

Yeah, I’ve been thinking this.

Pretty sure they used the same recording of the main theme for TFA and TLJ. In the soundtrack at least. When I watched it everyone screamed when the crawl came up so I couldn’t really distinguish it. My favorite main theme is still RotJ’s, slightly above all the others tied, except for the ST one which ranks a little bit below. I miss London Symphony Orchestra. I guess they made it more powerful.

In the soundtrack it sounds the same.

Collipso said:

In the soundtrack it sounds the same.

The soundtrack is the exact same recording.

What about in the movie? It sounded the same recording to me (which I found a bit disappointing, as it was lazy and reminded me of the prequels).

Mocata said:

I could be wrong, but while TFA had say three new themes, the only memorable music in TLJ was TIE Fighter Attack from Star Wars… Listening to it now but so far it’s just the old stuff.

I’ve tried a few times since seeing TLJ to think if there were any new memorable themes from TLJ but I can’t actually remember any of the music apart from knowing it borrowed various themes from earlier movies here and there to try and evoke emotion when they wanted it or to help lead you to an expectation so it could then be subverted on you.

Were there actually any new standout themes or even new themes at all? One thing the PT taught me is that no matter how bad a SW movie may get, you could always count on Williams to produce an outstanding score with at least one standout new theme per movie. I am thinking maybe I can’t even get that much out of TLJ this time round, which would be saddening if not even Williams could give me one positive thing to say about TLJ.

Val

TLJ has more or less three new themes, the most obvious being Rose’s and the second most obvious being a new one for Luke. Both can be found in the track “The Rebellion is Reborn,” which is a concert suite.

TLJ is definitely light on new themes (though no more so than ROTS). This is somewhat disappointing but the quality of a score is not entirely dependent on a simple number of how many new themes there are. TLJ, in this way, is sort of an inverse of TFA. The latter introduced so many new themes, and didn’t do all that much with the old ones. This time, Williams really digs deep into the existing themes (primarily the ones from TFA, of course), and gives them some of their absolute best renditions.

Ultimately I think I prefer TFA (the highlights are better), but TLJ is a lot more consistently fantastic (basically no lows to speak of). Another great effort by Williams, it’s not an accident he was nominated for an Oscar yesterday.

What?? RotS had more original themes than TFA, RotJ, TLJ, AotC and TPM…

Collipso said:

What?? RotS had more original themes than TFA, RotJ, TLJ, AotC and TPM…

You sure? I count 2, maaybe 3.

From the OST:

Anakin’s Dark Deeds
Battle of the Heroes/Anakin vs Obi-Wan
Padme’s Ruminations
Anakin’s Dream
The Immolation Scene
Anakin’s Betrayal
Heck, even General Grievous’ theme

Collipso said:

From the OST:

Anakin’s Dark Deeds

Not a theme.

Battle of the Heroes/Anakin vs Obi-Wan

That’s one.

Padme’s Ruminations

Not a theme.

Anakin’s Dream

Not a theme.

The Immolation Scene

Not a theme.

Anakin’s Betrayal

That’s one (arguably)

Heck, even General Grievous’ theme

And that’s the last one.

NeverarGreat said:

When we talk about themes, are we referring to Leitmotifs for characters/things? If so, I don’t know if it even makes sense to have so many different ‘themes’ for Anakin.

Yeah, although I tend to think that themes aren’t strictly for characters/things, they are simply related to those characters/things. Small distinction but I think it’s actually a big difference.

Well, I was thinking of original songs and pieces I guess. What would you define as a theme?

Edit: ignore this post.

It’s funny that they used the same recording in TLJ considering that they did re-record it.

(Video from Rian Johnson: https://vimeo.com/252417024)