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As fate would have it, however, the producers of Joe Versus the Volcano ended up removing a handful of Delerue's lengthier cues in favor of pop songs anyway, including the notable recordings for "Brain Cloud," "Shopping Spree," "Alone in New York," and "Fishing." Much of the remaining score was undermixed in the film, deflating its impact in many parts of the love story. In fact, as you will notice if you have watched the film in one of its numerous television reruns, the fabulous "End Credits" suite is dubbed out and most casual viewers won't likely get the idea that a strong score for the film exists at all. As for that score's contents, the music for Joe Versus the Volcano follows the fairy tale genre of the story very faithfully. Delerue begins with a music box theme that repeats with innocence several times throughout the score before eventually concluding the narrative with it. The central romance is treated with one of Delerue's many remarkable, career-defining love themes, flourishing in rich strings, flowing harp, and melodically dramatic key shifts. This one in particular is even loftier than many of his other, similar entries in the genre, sometimes straying into the pure fantasy genre, though Delerue, as always, manipulates the otherworldly whimsy of the theme for insertion into nearly every cue in some way or another, whether it be with a sax, full brass, or even a chorus. The lengthy "End Credits" suite, which for years had been a popular bootlegged representation of the entire score (likely yanked from the end titles of a foreign-released VHS tape), presents the love theme in not only a solid performance of full strings, but also a lyrical song as well. In terms of integration, the lyrical version of the theme melds with the surrounding score much like Jerry Goldsmith's accomplishment in his rejected fantasy score for Legend. For Delerue enthusiasts who collect his plentiful love themes on album, there are plenty of performances of the one here, and because this theme didn't appear on his popular compilations, the belated Varèse Sarabande album of Joe Versus the Volcano will suffice to meet your desire for yet another sugary romance melody from the master.

Several cues highlight Joe Versus the Volcano with breaks from the standard Delerue romance formula, however. The sax interwoven with the love theme in "Shopping Spree" is a success in its contemporary tones, and the light rock of the rejected "Fishing" cue is a welcome change, as well as the acoustic guitar performance in "Dinner with Dee Dee," which finishes with a flash of gusto. Ironically, the most notable use of music in the film itself is the humorous adaptation of "Hava Nagila" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," arranged by Delerue into the tribal chants of the native "Waponis" people of the volcano island late in the film. Orchestrally, the most powerful standout cue in the film exists for its only major action scene: the typhoon sequence. As the storm ravages the ship and forces the main characters to be marooned, Delerue explodes with a full brass statement of a secondary "despair theme" of dramatic tragedy that was explored less melodramatically in "Brain Cloud." The sheer size of this extended cue, and the mastery with which Delerue creates the perfect "storm at sea" atmosphere, elevates it beyond even the love theme on the album. It is fitting that this cue was seemingly Delerue's favorite when scoring the film; driving brass in the minor key build to one magnificent major key crescendo, after which the love theme is performed in full. This cue alone is worth the price of the album. The 2002 CD release had been a project of love for the Varèse Sarabande label's Robert Townson for some time, as he was a close associate and friend of Delerue. Mounting requests from fans, along with the simple fact that Joe Versus the Volcano was the last of Delerue's great 1990's scores yet to be released on album, eventually led to this "Masters Film Music" release. How these "Masters Film Music" albums differed in intent from the label's CD Club albums, which had been resumed just a year prior, wasn't entirely clear, but the fact remains that Joe Versus the Volcano was also a limited pressing of 3,000 albums. Long after this album inevitably sold out and became a top collectible, Varèse expanded it slightly and cleaned up its sound for another 2,000-copy run in 2016. For both Delerue collectors and general film music fans alike, either album will not disappoint you if you enjoy his predictably strong romance scores.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download