History always seems to repeat itself and nowhere is this more evident
than in the film industry (and I am not even referring to all the endless remakes and
sequels that get churned out every year!). On the first
Alien film,
composer Jerry Goldsmith found his score routinely re-edited throughout
the film as Ridley Scott made musical changes here and there, even going
to far as to include portions from Goldsmith's score to Freud, and
replacing the end titles music entirely. I guess James Horner can't
feel too bad then that James Cameron pretty much did the same thing to
his score with the sequel film (although, in a twist of fate, Horner's
unused Resolution cue would eventually be dropped into Die
Hard's score).
Watching the film, I wasn't
too impressed with Horner's score at first. There were a couple of
interesting bits, but overall it seemed rather bland. Still, I wanted to
get this album and give it a spin separate from the film itself. Much to
my surprise (and delight) Horner's actual score to Aliens is quite
good, even though you could never tell from watching the film. A lot of
Horner's original music is simply not used at all, and the remaining portions are
pretty much scattered all over with seeming abandon. Such re-editing
caused a falling out with James Cameron that would only be
mended in time for Horner to return for Titanic.
Varese Sarabande put out the
original release of the score way back in 1987. The release contained the
40 minutes of score that was a mirror image of the LP version (one of Varese's last LPs)
that had come out a year earlier.
Bootlegs of various kinds have been floating around since that time, but
Varese, in a move that has become applaudingly common for the company, has
released a full 75 minute release that includes most of Horner's original
score as well as a handful of alternate and bonus tracks.
Due to the nature of the
film, Horner's score dances on the edge between horror and action, but the
results blend well together. The standard shrieking orchestra movements
are here, but Horner's
weaving of the main theme, along with some very wild action cues, keep the
score from dragging down in the conventional horror style (a style which
is generally not one of my favorites). As far as quieter pieces go, the
opening third of the score is probably the best, especially the Combat
Drop track. From that point, the music begins to dip into the atonal
horror cues, along with with a lot of creepy wind effects that add
greatly to the atmosphere.
The highlight of this score
would really have to be the brass and percussion work that Horner develops
here. Other's must feel the same way since two of the bonus tracks are
percussion-only versions of Ripley's Rescue and Combat Drop.
They are interesting for about the first thirty seconds, but then they get
rather tedious. They are somewhat neat to have here in a way, but I just
have to wonder: "What's the point?" I just hope there wasn't anything more
interesting that the space could have been used for instead.
As with most Horner scores,
there is certainly a lot of reused sections here, and I don't think I have
to even mention that the Alien motif is taken from the Klingon motif in
Star Trek III. I think what makes the difference between this and,
say, Enemy at the Gates, is that
it works. That little horn riff just fits the Aliens quite well,
where as horn theme for the Germans in
Enemy at the Gates was disappointing because there have been so
many good German themes in the past, from Williams to Giacchino, that it
actually hindered the score. It also didn't help that Horner didn't
incorporate as well as he should have causing it to make appearances that
were rough to my ears. As I have stated before, Horner's derivative scores
don't really bother me. It only bothers me when he doesn't derive well,
which is probably what a lot of people don't like about some of his works.
Thankfully, Aliens is one of Horner's best efforts and even when he
does resort to themes and sections that have found place before (and
after), they work quite well in this score.
Overall, Horner fans should
be quite pleased with this release. Of course, the big question is that is
this release viable for those who already own the original CD? Well, the
sound quality is much improved, and the added material may be enough for
some to justify purchasing this new release. On the other hand, if those reasons
don't matter a
lot to you, you'd probably be better off sticking with the original. As
for Horner fans who don't have this score, you have no excuse to
not rush right out and pick it up. *****
