Attack of the Clones

Track Listing

01 - Star Wars Main Title and

Ambush on Coruscant (3:46)

02 - Love Theme from Attack of the Clones (5:33)

03 - Zam the Assassin and

The Chase Through Coruscant (11:07)

04 - Yoda and the Younglings (3:55)

05 - Departing Coruscant (1:44)

06 - Anakin and Padmé (3:56)

07 - Jango's Escape (3:48)
08 - The Meadow Picnic (4:14)
09 - Bounty Hunter's Pursuit (3:23)
10 - Return to Tatooine (6:56)
11 - The Tusken Camp and

The Homestead (5:54)
12 - Love Pledge and The Arena (8:29)
13 - Confrontation with Count Dooku and

Finale (10:44)

Orchestrated by Eddie Karam and Conrad Pope

Conducted by John Williams

Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra and

The London Voices

Produced by John Williams

Released by Sony Classical Records on April 23rd, 2002

Total Running Time: 73:34

It’s hard to believe that it has been three years since The Phantom Menace came out. Then again, the focus stayed on the film throughout the whole complete score and DVD release debacles. Before too long, the fan base at large was treated to tantalizing images and news items regarding the second installment of the new trilogy, Attack of the Clones. Even though the score to The Phantom Menace never received the proper release that it reserved, Williams’ music was quite entertaining and with Lucas promising that the second film to be much darker than the first, there were plenty wondering how this next score would compare with the previous one. Well, now that the score is finally here these questions are begging to be answered.

Even before the CD was released many had probably already listened to it a dozen times thanks to an earlier promo being MP3’d and released to the Internet. This caused quite a buzz among the fandom community although there has not been any official comment from either Sony Classical or John Williams (at least as far as I am aware of). While I’m sure it was nice to listen to the score almost a month before its official release, I do hope that those who enjoyed it will be sure to purchase a legitimate copy in support of the film score community.

Now that I’m off my soapbox, how does this score stand up? Well, at first listen one will notice that it is quite different from anything that has come out of the Star Wars films to date. It’s not that Williams’ alienates the style completely, but he does put an interesting spin on it this time around. Some people will have a big problem with this, but I found it to work quite well, especially in how it keeps from just being a re-hash of the previous four films. All the familiar themes are here, but Williams differs on several key points with, say, the scoring of the action sequences. Take the "Zam the Assassin" cue for instance. It sounds different from the kind of action scoring that has come before, but the same as well. There are moments of chaotic orchestra along with the inclusion of a screaming electric guitar. While I was a bit wary of this effect at first, I don’t think it sounds completely out of place, though like the techno moment from A.I., it will serve as the catalyst for a love/hate relationship with this moment.

Where Phantom Menace flowed along with a generally pleasant tone, this score is quite dark, even in the more romantic moments. The "Across the Stars" cue (which is the love theme for Anakin and Padme) is a beautiful track but it doesn’t represent the kind of “innocent” love that previous love themes in the trilogy have espoused. The theme never fully embraces a lush romantic tone, and instead ends on a chilling note. It appears again in "The Meadow Picnic" and "Love Pledge" and "The Arena" and each time it offers the hint of disastrous things to follow. But the most chilling performance comes with the end credits as the theme flows into Anakin’s Theme which is now close to being taken over completely by the Imperial March. This moment is one of the best on the whole CD and gave me chills.

Speaking of the Imperial March, it finally makes its first appearance in this score with the final track with full force. No hinting around like the Droid fighter attack and Anakin theme cues from The Phantom Menace. I am very interested in seeing just what moment in the film this segment accompanies. Other themes making their appearance consist of the Force theme, Yoda’s theme, the Battle Droid march, and a brief statement of "Duel of the Fates". There also seem to be some hints of the motif for Boba Fett in "Jango’s Escape".

Even with some great theme quotes, the score seems rather barren this time around. If there are more themes here, they are quite subtle. At the same time, I can’t help feeling that we are experiencing the original release of The Phantom Menace all over again. While the CD is fairly packed, I still feel like there are great moments that are completely missing here that we will be enlightened upon as soon as the film is released. Still, in this form the score is very good and despite anything I can say good or bad about the music, the legion of Star Wars fans are going to pick it up anyway.