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May/June 2019
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6/30/19
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
(John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you, like most film music collectors, marvel at the ingenuity with which John Williams
explores each of his mind-bogglingly complex ideas for individual concepts within his fantasy
scores.
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| Avoid it... |
if you are a strong believer in the thematic continuity of any franchise, for the maestro
largely tackled this score as though it were a series of self-contained vignettes with
surprisingly little regard for his previous identities.
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6/11/19
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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
(John Williams/William Ross)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
without reservation on the 2018 La-La Land Records set, for the expanded presentation of the
work illuminates thematic development and connectivity to its predecessor that greatly
elevates the status of this score.
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| Avoid it... |
if you still believe that John Williams' music for the thematically superior but generally
comparable Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone failed to generate enough magical spirit to
represent the concepts in the stories.
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5/27/19
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(John Williams)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
if you desire just one of the Harry Potter scores for your collection, because this original
entry by John Williams is a strong foundation for the franchise and features its best
performances of the famous recurring themes.
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| Avoid it... |
if you might be bothered by the fact that Williams doesn't stray too far from his comfort zone
for this score, exposing several stylistic similarities to his previous works.
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5/11/19
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Unlawful Entry (James Horner)
Updated Review, With Additional Album
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| Buy it... |
only if you are the most ambitious collector of James Horner's work and wish to hear a starkly
palatable main theme featuring progressions of tragedy that foreshadowed John Ottman's later
suspense methods.
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| Avoid it... |
if Horner's sparse, mostly synthetic suspense music of the 1980's and associated generic,
low-key thriller techniques don't hold your interest, for both aspects of that style are at
work in this bland, hapless effort.
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