SOUNDTRACKS!!!
Wall of text-warning. (Ensign Q:
don't read it.
)
TL;DR: if you like awesome scores, and/or Jerry, just click the links and hear if there's anything you like.
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I love Trek. And I love soundtrack scores. They don't mix however, IMO, like
the best of things.
I've never been a fan of "the TNG theme". I do like the renditions from Motion Pic and, particularly, the album version for Final Frontier; but the series recording is... blander, somehow? The themes for DS9 (McCarthy) and Voyager (Goldsmith) I
do love.
I don't have the complete scores for those two first Trek movies that Goldsmith did, but I have a compilation (The Astral Symphony) of the first 5 films and there's great tracks there -- IMO, much better than the
theme that has become so world-famous.
The theme from Airforce One... yeah,
does almost fit Trek. But
not because it's particularly
good, or classic Goldsmith... (It's good as a sort of heroic anthem, so... if that floats your
boat starship...
)
But he can do so much better!
To me,
this is classic Goldsmith. (Not the best 'album', though; isolated scores / actual soundtracks used, weirdly cut; but great work put into it.)
Some of the darker parts of
First Blood II (Rambo; couldn't find a good in-minor cue, but link is decent) are also great IMO. And
this diamond, from The 13th Warrior, blends winks at the happy patriotism with some hints of the dark side of Alien. Somehow, the whole 13th Warrior score is a guilty pleasure of mine. (And now, as I listen to it -- there's a lot of First Contact in it! Or vice versa?)
I found the scores for Generations (McCarthy) and First Contact (Goldsmith) very good; and -- for their time --
those of Wrath and Search (James Horner)
awesome. I have 5 CDs of DS9 music... and that's... nice, as background for a Trek game. I really enjoy it, but it wa written too fast to be great music, I think. (I do love it on screen though, and that's what counts most for
most people, right?)
What I hadn't expected, though, was that
the Ron Jones scores for early Trek aren't to me
don't feel at all as... dated as I thought they'd be. They actually are great background music for building decs, playing the game, working, sleeping...
Pretty awesome, for the "mediocre 80s/90s TV music" that is was in my memory. And there's multiple CDs out there, on the Tube!
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Sorry, that went a bit off-topic. Back to mash-ups?