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•	2009 JHCD-26 Album

•	2008 JHCD-24 Album

•	2008 Super Tracks Album

With most of the essential cues from the show included on original, lengthy promotional release of 1999, "The Incredible Hulk" fans who grew up with show could finally enjoy a solid treatment of music from the series. Whether that music (or the series) fits your tastes is another matter, and Harnell's work in this case has aged rather badly compared to his other entries of the time. While retaining a certain orchestral sci-fi element that can also be heard in "V," both the era of the show and its deeper character development cause its music to have an entirely different feel. Harnell's use of the smaller orchestra provides for a generous amount of dramatic underscore for the shifting emotions on screen. Also present are subtle reminders of 1970's pop influence, with percussion, electric bass, and various rhythms often embedded within the music and exuding an occasional disco genre feel. It is because of these elements that the music really doesn't hold up as well several decades later. The album releases expose vast contrasts in style, especially on the products featuring fuller selections of music from individual episodes. The highlights of Harnell's music are the moments of solitary contemplation in addition to the remarkable love theme. The latter is provided in a concert-like rendition early on the original 1999 product and its 2008 re-issue, though the theme really flourishes with the female choral contributions of "The Wedding" from the famous episode "Married." Even better known from the show is "The Lonely Man Theme," a solitary piano idea for the scientist's transient movements that eventually was adapted as the show's title theme and has come to symbolize the character in memory ever since. On the other end of the dramatic scale, the moments of brutish Hulk anger, often accented by plain militaristic percussion that continues for extended sequences, are more difficult to grasp in context or out, mostly due to their harshly dissonant shades and incongruous applications of percussion. While sufficient in its basic purpose, the sparse recording depth of these sequences fails to really capture the threat posed by the character, leaving the intimidation factor up to Ferrigno's freakish physique.

The original 1999 album for "The Incredible Hulk" was constructed with the idea of covering this wide variation in music from the series, and this product, along with its straight 2008 re-issue, will suffice as a decent representation of the show's music for most listeners. Three variants of the title theme are provided, including a (now frightfully obnoxious) "Disco Version" that was released on an LP single at the height of the show's popularity. Over twenty-five minutes from the pilot, which is arguably better than much of the material that would appear in later episodes, is followed by suites from a few of the best episodic scores, including "Married," "Prometheus," "The Secret Empire," "Homecoming," and more. A few of the episodes used music that also appeared in the 1979 series "Cliffhangers." The best of these episodic suites are by far the two cuts from the Emmy-winning "Married" episode, which include both the wedding and death scenes' accompaniment. A token farewell track from the pilot finishes the score music on the album with a reprise of the "Lonely Man Theme." The 2008 and 2009 episodic score promos, limited to either 1,000 or 1,500 copies each, expanded upon most of these short selections from the original album, including additional music from the pilot movie, "A Death in the Family," the pair of "Prometheus" episodes, the two "The First" episodes, "Homecoming," and "Married." The last of those albums, featuring "Homecoming" and "Married," is really the only episodic CD worth exploring by those not interested in collecting the entire lot. Interestingly, none of these albums contains any material from the episode "Triangle," which was the episodic score that earned Harnell an Emmy nomination from the series. Still, with 74 minutes of well-presented music, the original, rare SuperTracks album or its 2008 Five Jays Records re-issue (essentially both promos pressed on behalf of Harnell) will surely satisfy the majority of fans of the show or comic series. Due to the age in musical style and mono recording quality of "The Incredible Hulk," though, more casual fans of television sci-fi music might be better suited investigating Harnell's more lasting "V" music first. Sadly, the iconic theme for Banner in this show did not survive to define the identity of the character in Marvel's 2000's and 2010's modernization of the concept, despite some fleeting cameo references.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download