Yes, I am a James Horner purist. Sue me. I have been in love with his work since I first heard his score for Braveheart back in 1995, and have been defending him and his work since then.

That being said, I purchased Yared's score from Ebay a few years ago, having heard so much pomp about how great it was. I heard a snippet of his track "Approach of the Greeks" and was initially captivated by it. So I bought it...

...and was very disappointed. It was loud. Too much wailing and moaning of voices. No rhythm. The melodies were weak, and the thematic development was mediocre at best. I compared it to Horner's album, and put Yared's album back on EBay. Horner, despite his tendency to use snippets of his past scores simply does a better job crafting his themes and his music is purer and less of an annoyance. And the "wailing women" kind of voice work that Horner employs is less intrusive of my eardrums than Yared's version.

THE DIRECTOR'S CUT: If you haven't already, DO NOT buy Peterson's "Troy: The Director's Cut". Peterson hacked Horner's score, added Danny Elfman's score to Planet of the Apes for the battle music for Hector and Achilles and replaced entire sections of emotional music with Yared's wailing women cues. Horner's score is a mess in the director's cut and the mix of styles between Yared and Horner is a sin to film making.