Buy it... on the expanded album if you are a dedicated collector of John Williams' albums and are interested enough in the franchise to hear the minimal amount of more original music left off of the 1992 commercial album.

Avoid it... on either album if you own the original Home Alone score and are less than thrilled with it.

Williams

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York: (John Williams) The astounding box office success of Home Alone in 1990 rolled director Chris Columbus into a predictable and mindless sequel in 1992, largely repeating the same cartoonish action formula involving the tirelessly irritating character of Kevin McCallister played, once again, by Macaulay Culkin. While the venue for that action changed, the same dumb crooks highlight the returning cast and, as though to attempt to dampen the perpetual violence of the story, yet another feel-good subplot of morality (this time involving a slightly creepy pigeon lady) is tacked on to the film. The concept was still successful enough to spawn another two sequels, though Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was the final entry for the original assembly of cast and crew. That crew once again included veteran composer John Williams, whose affinity for franchises and working with Columbus made him an easy bet for this project. Nominated for Academy Awards in both the "best score" and "best song" categories for Home Alone just a year prior, Williams used the occasion to phone in an easy assignment, largely reprising most of the fundamental concepts he had previously explored. Still, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York followed a movie that was a departure for Williams. Prior to 1990, the maestro had not scored a fluffy comedy film in decades, becoming known instead for his serious historical dramas and flighty space-faring adventures. Nevertheless, Home Alone was an enormous artistic success for Williams, not only with critics and the Academy, but with his fans as well. The sensitivity and innocent environment of holiday magic in his score and children's songs in the first film were a side of Williams previously unexplored by the composer in his post-Star Wars career. When Home Alone 2: Lost in New York was released in 1992, it was quickly realized, though, that the entire production was essentially a remake of the original film.

The sequel formula was followed with precision, even down to Williams score. The composer summoned the same performers once again and sent copyists away with nearly all of the first Home Alone score so it could be easily adapted into the second film. There was never any intent for the sequel score to break significant new ground. Upon listening to Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the average Williams fan (assuming he or she is familiar with the first score) will wonder what has really changed, possibly leading to some disgruntlement. Aside from a handful of cues to represent the arrival of McCallister, the little dip, in New York and his subsequent experiences in the Plaza Hotel, the existing material is recycled to a considerable degree. A veteran collector of Williams's music could find the score for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York to be either an interesting study of how Williams can adapt his own music while maintaining a superior level of complexity or, alternately, an insult to the first score. For some, it won't be hard not to fall somewhere in between the two ways of thinking. Indeed, the sequel work has nearly the entire first score embedded within it. Williams tries so hard to insert every measure of Home Alone into this score that you sometimes hear the orchestra laboriously attempting to change the key of a cue in order to accommodate the cut and paste job that follows. No better of an example of this tactic is the re-use of the "Preparing the Trap" cue, which stood out with its electronic rhythm in the first film and will definitely get your attention this time around when Williams has to tap dance his way from a previous cue into the wholesale restatement of "Preparing the Trap" by awkwardly shifting key. Sadly, the perpetual feeling of lazy repetition causes the score to lose some of its magic, and no new combination of Williams' songs and Leslie Bricusse's lyrics can top the original. Because of this rather intriguing cut and paste approach for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the score remains a curious entry into his career.

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Williams usually takes such great care to alter his sequel works to stand on their own, and yet this score so blatantly reprises the previous material that it's almost a completely redundant accompaniment to the original. At the time of the film's debut, the Williams score was released on a single CD (opposite an obligatory song album), and that first score CD was dominated, unfortunately, by all of the most prominent note-for-note sections of re-use. That product eventually fell out of print and, after spending a few years as an easy find in used-CD bins, fetched prices upwards of $100. The same would eventually be the case for a limited 2-CD version from Varèse Sarabande in late 2002. The expanded Club series entry presents the entirety of Williams' efforts for the film, including some of his more original material for the sequel. And yet, with so much of the material on the 2-CD set still so familiar to the first score, one must scratch his head and wonder why this score (of all the possibilities) received Varèse's most thorough level of treatment. For the avid Williams fan, though, it must be said that it is a treat to hear the alternative cues (especially for the airport sequence) and the bonus performances of "Angels with Filthy Souls." The presentation of music on the 2-CD version is overwhelming in its completeness, though the more important reason to investigate this set is due to the issue of sound quality, which is noticeably improved compared to the original album. The original album from Fox was processed incorrectly from a second-generation master, diminishing the dynamic range of the presentation. Overall, though, unless you are a dedicated collector of Williams' albums, there really isn't an overwhelming need to seek the limited edition of this score, a product that itself eventually sold out and became a top collectible. Had Williams chosen, as he usually does, to infuse this sequel with a strong new theme to accompany the old material, then maybe Home Alone 2: Lost in New York would stand strong on its own merits. Unfortunately, it's a rare failure by Williams to add magic and identity to his work, and it can easily be skipped in all of its album forms.

Music as Written for the Film: **
Score as Heard on the 1992 Fox Album: **
Score as Heard on the 2002 Varèse Sarabande 2-CD Album: ***
Overall: **

Bias Check:

For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.72 (in 63 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.67 (in 299,176 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.