It is simply the greatest period to be a
soundtrack fan right now. Especially if you are a fan of John Williams.
Starting in 1995, fans have been treated to excellent releases of expanded
score material on CD. Such releases have included Raiders
of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, Star Wars, and Superman.
Now, Decca Records has chimed in on the craze with their outstanding release
of another one of Williams classic scores: Jaws.
It has been a long time since I last saw this
film (though I've seen the first sequel more times then I care for already),
thought I am planning to check out the really nice looking DVD sometime
soon. At first I was skeptical about just how the score would sound since I
couldn't remember being struck by anything musically when I last saw the
film, and I had never listened to the original soundtrack release. I was pleasantly
surprised to learn that this score has more than its fair share of excellent
moments and definitely deserves to be considered a classic. The excellent
restoration and presentation by Decca makes this release even more special.
The CD starts off with the standard
performance of the main theme that we have all come to know and love. In
fact, it is the Jaws theme that is the backbone to this score. There is
almost not a single track on this CD that goes by without the theme popping
up somewhere, and Williams always finds ways to twist it around and keep it
interesting. Most of the time the theme is regulated to the background,
keeping in tone with the shark's actions in the film. These are probably the
coolest sections consisting of a primary melody performing away unaware of
the darker tones forming from the string section. Even during some of the
more heroic cues, one can always detect faint tracings of the theme
somewhere. Forget Bruce, John Williams is the shark.
The track listing is not arranged chronologically,
which is explained in the linear notes (which offer thoughts on the score
from several different sources including Williams himself) as a decision to
make the CD play out as more of a suite than a totally accurate presentation
of the score as it was presented in the film. The arrangement is quite nice
though and since I am not familiar enough with the film to make the skewed
track order annoying, I find it works really well in keeping the music
nicely balanced.
This is another excellent expanded release of a
classic John Williams score. Any fan of vintage scores such as this should
waste no time in obtaining a copy. Highly recommended. *****
