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Despite the phenomenal box-office bounty of Titanic, director James Cameron didn't become King of the World overnight. Indeed, King James helped build his crowd-pleasing reputation on the belated 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott's outer space shockfest, Alien. That sequel, Aliens, was also his first collaboration with film scorer James Horner, whose music contributed in no small way to Titanic's über-success. This expanded edition of Horner's mysterious Aliens score features a sparkling digital transfer and over a half-hour of previously unreleased cues and outtakes. While Horner obviously trades on Jerry Goldsmith's original masterpiece and even Khatchaturian's Gayane Ballet Suite (used so effectively by Kubrick to evoke the loneliness of space in 2001), it's a pastiche that's informed by a masterful use of brooding orchestral colors and percussion flourishes that are by turns ominous and subtle. That element of the composer's evocative formula is further explored in two percussion-only bonus cuts, "Ripley's Rescue" and "Combat Drop." This edition also includes a colorful illustrated booklet with a detailed essay about the film's musical genesis. --Jerry McCulley

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Discs and Tracks

Disc 1
  1 - Main Title
  2 - Bad Dreams
  3 - Dark Discovery/Newt's Horror
  4 - LV-426
  5 - Combat Drop
  6 - Complex
  7 - Atmosphere Station
  8 - Med. Lab
  9 - Newt
  10 - Sub-Level 3
  11 - Ripley's Rescue
  12 - Face Huggers
  13 - Futile Escape
  14 - Newt Is Taken
  15 - Going After Newt
  16 - Queen
  17 - Bishop's Countdown
  18 - Queen to Bishop
  19 - Resolution and Hyperspace
  20 - Bad Dreams (alternate)
  21 - Ripley's Rescue (percussion only)
  22 - LV-426 (alternate edit - film version)
  23 - Combat Drop (percussion only)
  24 - Hyperspace (alternate ending)

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Star Trek, part Two        Rating:

I was really looking forward to getting this CD, since I loved the movie so much. But after putting it in the player and hearing some of the tracks, I realized I had heard something like it before. And then it hit me: Some tracks were almost verbatim from the Star Trek II & III Wrath of Kahn and Search for Spock Soundtracks, especially the Klingon attack music. Nuts! I hate it when composers use similar music for different movies. Horner went and got lazy it seems. The other music is Aliens specific and sounds like I remember from the movie, but the other music causes a mental switch and confuses me as to which soundtrack I'm listening to.

Excellent. Stop waffling and get it.        Rating:

Amazing score, especially for only having been written in a few weeks. There is indeed a lot of new stuff on here, which along with the remaster, makes the disc completely worth the re-purchase. Sure, it should have all been on the original to begin with, but come on now.

Among the half hour's worth of new tracks, are the intense "Queen to Bishop" and the surprisingly complex "Face Hugger" - the cue used for the facehugger attack on Ripley and Newt when they are locked in the quarantine room of the medical lab in the film. For such an intense scene, you'd never notice the merits of the composition until you listen to it on its own. The percussion-only Ripley's Rescue track is a lot of fun too (especially for a percussionist).

Whether or not you think this score is a masterpiece, the images it invokes are timeless. I admit this one sat on my wish list for literally years until I recently rewatched the film and got interested again. As one that was recently on the fence, I can now safely say this disc deserves a purchase. If you're not convinced just by my review, seriously, rent Aliens again on DVD. If you haven't ordered this version of the soundtrack immediately after seeing it, then... well, you don't deserve it.

Outstanding, arguably Horner's best soundtrack        Rating:

In contrary to many reviewers, it is my opinion that Horner really did an admirable job on Aliens. This is a fantastic soundtrack, largely also due to LSO's outstanding performance. There are very few weak moments on this soundtrack, and I - being a percussionist - also like the "percussion only" tracks, which apparently seem to annoy everyone but me. :) Otherwise, lots of great writing and instrumentation, especially in those more atmospheric cues (which also seem to annoy some people, but I think Horner had a good reason for composing that material the way he did).

The film itself (which is for me one of the all-time greatest examples of its genre) would probably lose a lot of its efficiency and impact, were it not for Horner's musical contribution. Yes, he did to some extent reuse some of his earlier scores and yes, he did use some other music too, but in this case, it somehow just makes perfect sense. After Aliens, Horner certainly wrote (and is still able to write) a lot of good music, but I think he'll never be able to write something quite as unspeakably special as Aliens.

Last, but not least, this Varese Sarabande's Deluxe Edition really delivers big time, the score sounds fantastic and its many previously unreleased tracks are a treasure which make every true soundtrack junkie's day. :) Yet another big plus is the accompanying booklet, which could serve as an example of how these things should be done (thank God we still have people like Mike Matessino ...). Warmly recommended!

Aliens "Unedited"        Rating:

I say "unedited" because this is the score as it was recorded in the studio, not how it was heard in the movie. As the 2 disc edition of Aliens explains, there were difficulties with scoring this film as "both director and composer didn't know how to deal with composers and directors". However, both composer and director have proven to have learned this necessary skill as was seen (and heard) in Cameron/Horner's Titanic.
This is actually quite an accomplishment for having been composed in a matter of weeks (two or three if I remember correctly). The score has some nice quiet, atmospheric cues, as well as some very hard, action cues. The booklet that comes with the CD is a detailed account of the score in relation to the film and how the score was re-edited almost completely to fit with the director's vision of the film. I personally couldn't really tell that this was different from the film, but I haven't methodically compared the two. Very good score for Horner's second ever. Great CD to compliment the music of an incredible film.

A Very Great Re-Issue!        Rating:

I must say that this album is the greatest re-issue up to date. On the previous version(which I also have), looks miniscule when compared to this. Now, this album features tracks and alternate cues previously not available. Outstanding tracks are: Ripley's Rescue(Track 11), Futile Escape(Track 13), Bishop's Countdown(Track 17) and the newly available Queen To Bishop(Track 18). And not to mention that this album has been given the 20-Bit remastering process, restoring back it's true sound quality, with no hints of detail loss. All "Aliens" fans out there, this is one marvellous album not to be missed.

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