The 70+ minutes of music is very evenly balanced, with each track representing about 3 minutes of the score's main theme. No selection runs much longer than 4 minutes, allowing the themes flow from one to another in almost suite form, and you can lose track of them quickly if you're not paying attention. There are, expectedly, a few cues that contain such a wacky or outdated personality that you will be jolted out of your seat. Shire isn't immune to the occasional dud, though a cue such as the rejected opening to The World According to Garp is more humorously bad than simply lacking in merit. Sequentially, the album begins with the pompous Max Dugan Returns, a cue completely at odds with the re-recorded theme from The Conversation (sequencing is suspect in a few places). From there, the London Symphony Orchestra flourishes with Return to Oz, a large-scale score that has always been very popular on the secondary market. The selection here is the best that appears on the original collectible CD itself. Issues of wildly varying sound quality also plague the album at times. By comparison to Return to Oz, which is somewhat muted itself, Raid on Entebbe is almost unlistenable. The quality improves for the two guitars featured in Paris Trout. The much sought-after All the President's Men follows, also making use of the guitar (the score is, as appropriate for a Pakula film, dark and menacing in tone, but heroic in theme). There's no doubt about the touch of James Bond in Farewell, My Lovely, but nevertheless, it's an enjoyable film noir remake score with the full spirit of the alto sax. Not much can be said of the circus atmosphere for The World According to Garp other than it's no surprise that the Beetles song was used instead of this particular cue. Two quiet tracks follow; Bed and Breakfast is impressively full of warmth and depth, with excellent sound quality.

While Film Score Monthly has pumped a significant amount of hype into The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 over the years, it is a horrifically dated score and thus extremely overrated. Shire's pop style of the 70's will alienate many digital era listeners, and it really doesn't build dark and realistic suspense in the film like it could have. The selection from 2010 is exactly the orchestral cue you'll remember from the finale of the film. Its message-heavy, classically inclined tones will be worth the album alone for some listeners. Last Stand at Sabre River is a stirring Western score for the 1997 Tom Selleck cable film, released on the Intrada label, and one of its highlight suite-like cues is provided here. After Straight Time takes us on another journey into unfortunate pop rhythms of the past, two remarkable tracks follow. Old Boyfriends is a film that was never released, and its viola solos are worthwhile. The IMAX film The Journey Inside boosts the theory that composers always rise for the occasion of the really big screen. It is more harmonically upbeat and heroic in a larger scale than many of the other selections, and celebrated the "new" invention of the Pentium chip (an exciting sci-fi adventure at the time!). Monkey Shines starts promisingly with its faux lyrical and romantic orchestration, but degenerates into the expectedly horrid mass of noise near the end. One Night Stand is a soft quartet piece that can easily slip by unnoticed. The Hindenburg suffers from a distant recording quality that stifles some of its majesty, but the music is still whimsically perfect for the Robert Wise film. Shire says that "accordions don't necessarily have to be a curse," and he is right; My Antonia is a pretty score. The TV mini-series The Kennedys of Massachusetts has never been one of his stronger efforts, taking the combination of Gaelic and patriotic tones to almost ridiculous levels. Sarah Plain and Tall recalls Old Boyfriends in style.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of any compilation of 70's and 80's music like this how different tunes age differently. After several decades, Saturday Night Fever is still regarded fondly by those caught up with its style at its release, but it is so badly dated in sound now that it will only serve to annoy digital age ears. Conversely, Jennifer Warnes' performance of "It Goes Like It Goes" from Norma Rae is as gorgeous now as it has always been. With whimsy in its string and piano accompaniment and a recording quality beyond its time, the song proves that one of its memorable lyrics is true: "maybe what's good gets a little bit better." When Shire looks back at his own career, and chuckles at the circumstances that brought about this song at the last minute, he should be proud that it represents his only Academy Award statue. It is, ultimately, the most memorable track on the entire compilation. Overall, there's such a variety of music on this compilation that there's bound to be a track here that will tickle any fan of 70's and 80's films. As a promotional product, its distribution to the soundtrack specialty market at the time was likely done to cover its production costs, and the cost of the album was not an insignificant one. Many of the cues are simply not available anywhere else, however, even almost ten years after its release. One of the disappointing aspects of this compilation is that it is still largely representative of Shire's career, even upon another visit after all these years. There is no doubt that there is place for Shire's trademark piano works and beyond in today's industry, regardless of how badly some of his most heralded music has aged. Wherever you stand on that debate, this "David Shire Film Music" compilation is one of the most relevant composer collections of original recordings of all time. Often lengthy personal notes about each selection on the album makes for a fascinating exploration of the circumstances surrounding his great works. The album is, at the very least, an educational resource.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download