Break through with Paramount made!

But to make a playlist that's good, you need to really have a feel for the music - to listen to it a lot. And if you find the album unlistenable because it's too long, you're not going to do that. That's the problem I always have. I've only listened to that Godzilla album once since a spate of 3-4 times when it first came out; I'm sure I'd have listened to it far more frequently (as I do with Independence Day) if it were 50-60 minutes long. Frankly, when you've got hundreds of great albums that you can just stick in the CD player and enjoy, why bother with one that requires all this additional effort? Surely that's what the album producer should do.

(Picked Godzilla because it has been discussed, but there are far worse examples than that. My only problem with Godzilla is that it's so long I never have that much time to listen to it, rather than there being anything particularly wrong with it.)

Actually, the 2CD contains the same tracks from a professionally produced singular one -- and then some, and all tracks are ready for consumption -- you just to to personally decide which tracks you like consuming...

The promo was a great listening experience, but with nearly 2 hours of music in the film, there was a lot of stellar material that was omitted. The reason for the promo being the short length it was, was due to the re-use fees hindering a more fleshed out album - nothing more than that.

When the financial roadblocks were no longer a factor, a lengthier album was possible, and since a majority of people (i.e. not Thor) would complain if certain pieces were left off the album, it was decided to put it together with as much of the score as possible. I make no excuses for what I did, even if Thor is kicking himself for getting rid of the promo.

Incidentally, Thor, you CAN recreate the promo quite easily using the 2-disc set.

I agree with Thor, Martijn, Southall, and the people agreeing with Southall though, but not as dogmatic. I'm able to skip the tracks I don't really need to hear most of the times. Though, I prefer it to just float and happen without my interference of course.

okay, most of you can skip a track
but we reviewers must see the whole picture, and then skipping is out of the question

I like, no I believe that a listening experience can make or break a CD
If an album starts brilliant but loses appeal, or an album is average at first and ends with a bang, then you will think differently about both

sometimes music needs to be filler in order to clear your thoughts and give you a breezer from all the exictement. But too much is never good and that hurts the listening experience. LOTR complete editions is perhaps an example were 2 would have made it far better than 3, despite the overall brilliance of it all

That would almost seem like an argument for lazy commercialism, and I can't fullly figure out whether that is a triumph for liberalism or a most cynical comment on consumerism...

For the record, my attitude has shifted from the "I'll make my own mixes" one during the heyday of cassette tapes to "do it FOR me" during the CD's conquering march to "fuck it, I'll make my own playlist again" now that I have a multi-mega-GB MP3 player.

It still annoys me that quantity seems to be sacrificed to quality, but at least now I'm able to pick 'n' choose again. And if the market demands "full, complete, chronologicals", obviously I can bitch about it (and I honestly do think a trade is lost in there somewhere), but it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense.

Incidentally, ALL of my CDs are collecting dust at the moment. I play everything from my laptop (which thankfully has optical out), which is probably why I don't mind making playlists. In fact, I relish making playlists. In some small way, I get to personalise some albums.

Word.

Consumer sovereignty, and producer survival, of course. For if they couldn't in some way vary re-releases of scores - by adding material, etc - how could they convince the existing owners to seek the product update.

Wasn't that by Hollywood Records? Which is owned by Disney?

Well, people always complain that "how do you know you don't like it if you don't buy it?" - as if preferences are based on being exposed to every single variation of the thing you don't like, so it is at least worth it just for the sake of proving these guys wrong, even if I am 99% certain that the presentation will turn me off the score's musical values. I did the same thing with ALIENS a while back...bought the expanded CD, tried it a few times, realized the original Varese (which I thankfully HAD NOT gotten rid off) was a much better representation and "concept album", and then sold off the expanded. I can't do this every time, of course, but I can take a dip ever so often. And then, of course, there are the times where you have no choice, where the only thing available is a C&C. Then I have to live with that.

I've said on numerous occasions that there are two types of film music fan - ones who listen to the albums because they like the music as music, and ones who listen to the albums because they're a souvenir of the film. At the moment, most releases cater towards the second bunch of people, and there seems to be an assumption that they make up the majority of film music fans; personally, I have my doubts, and I'm pleased to belong in the first category, along with Thor. For a while I thought we were the only members, but others have poked their heads above the water over the years.

Sometimes a score feels like a whole new experience after you watched the movie. Tom Newman's scores are good examples. For example I rarely listened to Finding Nemo when I initially got the album, but only after seeing the movie I realized what a beautiful score it is.

Interesting. This guy seems to think just the opposite.

For me, the technical aspect (in the film) and artistic aspect (on CD) of a score are both equally important. Two sides of the same coin. But I agree proper album editing makes a better listening experience. That's why Zimmer does that (though I think some of his edits are horrid).