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ALIENS by James Horner Varèse Sarabande VSD-47263 Released 1986 |
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I'm a very big fan of the "Alien" series, especially the first three. Even after having the scores for "Alien" and "Alien3" for so long, I still only had "Aliens" on vinyl. Not knowing its in-print status and worried about newly-minted James Horner fans, I snatched a CD copy shortly after "Titanic" lodged itself in the #1 slot on the charts. The "Main Title" is excellent, wonderful and very atmospheric. I love it. The next track is where my negative vibes start. Here we're introduced to the anvil sound for the first time. Now, I don't mind it so much, but Horner won't stop using it in this score, and indeed uses it quite a bit in many of his other movies too (the first time "Titanic" went into my CD player in November 1997, I was just waiting for the anvil sound that I anticipated would appear in the iceberg cue). Unfortunately I've grown so sick of its over-use that I can't enjoy this slightly better-than-average score as much as I'd like to. You can then leap to your own conclusions on how I feel about "Bishop's Countdown" based on how overused IT is (featured in one out of every ten film trailers, it would seem). Also, I am always reminded of Jerry Goldsmith's "Capricorn One" when I hear "Futile Escape". My biggest problem with this then is the mind-numbing clanging, but despite that I'd still have to give it an overall rating of 'recommended'. | |