At the end of last year, Concorde assembled a collection of all 4 soundtracks to the Indiana Jones soundtracks, with Raiders, Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade expanded and completely re-mastered.
In addition, unreleased cues from the first 3 scores and an interview are included on a 5th CD.
Crystal Skull is exactly the same as the standalone Concorde disk, but is a nice value-add, and everything matches up stylistically.
Score Completeness
It should be obvious that the scores are not complete. However, this is by design, and actually works well, and unless one is really intimately acquainted with the scores and movies, there is nothing that is missing to the ear.
The Temple of Doom is a real find here, with a lot of fantastic music added.
Also, the scores are rearranged into film order, with a couple of minor exceptions, and it is a great listening experience.
The only problem in terms of content is the fact that the Desert Chase cues is the original album edit, and not the complete cue as presented on the DCC release from 1995.
Sound Quality
The sound quality is absolutely stunning on this set, and is a joy to the ears. There are slight speed/pitch issues, but these are not even noticeable to my ears, and do not detract from the listening experience for me.
Cue Editing
It has been pointed out that cues that are often heard together are separated in this release.
I actually LIKE my soundtracks like that. It means I get to hear smaller snippets of music, and it becomes easier to skip to my favorite cues.
Presentation
In many ways, the presentation and packaging is very good, though it could have been better.
I have had no issues with the DigiPaks instead of the standard Jewel cases, but I know some people do.
The lack of a detailed cue breakdown, ala the 1995 DCC Raiders disk, is disappointing, but what is there is very nice.
The bonus disk is presented within a simple slipcase, so I am very careful whenever I get the disk out. This is my only major issue with the presentation.
The set is contained within a very nice fake leather case that looks like an old book, with a very nice Fedora and Whip logo. This is very good, and it looks good next to my Lord of the Rings Complete Recordings sets.
Value for Money
In as of itself, this set is easily worth the $40-55 price tag it carries, and provides a nice collection of music, some of which is rare, unreleased or only available via Japanese import.
In addition, this is absolutely classic stuff, and sounds fantastic.
The CDs for the first 3 are becoming available as individual CDs in February 2009, though the additional material and interviews on the 5th CD is not included.
For those who want only one or two of the soundtracks, this might be an option, but there is some great material for all of the scores.
Conclusion
Much has been said of this release, to a point where a web site has been set up for those who must know what is missing, and what was on the other releases of these scores.
Classic scores at a reasonable price, despite the flaws, and a must-have. 4 out of 5.
2 comments:
I agree with you on nearly all of this. I also enjoy shorter tracks. When I'm creating my "best of" playlists it makes it much easier to pick cues that work instead of a long cue that I only enjoy part of.
And I wish they had used the complete version of "Desert Chase", but that is my only disappointment. "Temple of Doom" cemented it's place as my favorite Indy score with this release.
Here here, especially on Temple.
I had the 11 cue Japanese import, and it was okay, but once I got this set, Temple won me over big time.
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