I felt this score was much more percussive than melodic. Much more so than the previous films. That was the first thing that struck me when skimming through the soundtrack the day before I saw the movie (didn’t want to hear too much, but couldn’t help myself). I don’t mean that there were more drums (although there were, I think), but that the other instruments also focused more on staccato rhythm.

Compare something like the asteroid chase in ESB to the Falcon chase in this and you can definitely hear the difference in approach. That’s probably why a lot of people thought it was less than stellar. Personally speaking, I also thought it was a bit of a let down, but I didn’t care all that much. It wasn’t an issue of the music being bad or uninspired, just that it’s hard to top the first two SW movies.