The repeating, cyclical idea featuring the bansuri flute and light chimes for Octopussy's operations is, in fact, quite dominant in the middle portions of Octopussy. It transitions to the alto flute for the easier rendition in "The Mysterious Octopussy" and dies out on strings and flute at the end of "Yo-Yo Fight and Death of Vijay," but an offshoot survives in the latter half of "Checkpoint Charlie and the Romanov Star." Strikingly, this Octopussy material transitions to become a relative of the love theme at end of "Kamal Khan's Death and Finale," a really lovely singular moment in the score. The rest of the score for Octopussy largely rotates between Barry's other dedicated motifs for the film, including a static action theme that is almost identical in all instances, harkening back to the 1960's action motifs of the franchise. Debuting in "Gobinda Attacks," this repetitive theme is given heavier tones in "Easy Come, Easy Go" and builds to its usual formation in "Yo-Yo Fight and Death of Vijay." Its base elements only inform the diversion in "The Chase Bomb Theme," which doesn't really provide the nuclear weapon with much of a unique identity. A full reprise of the action theme returns in "Fight With Mischka" and the latter half of "Gorilla Suit and Death of Grischka," receiving its most interesting moment for Octopussy-oriented flutes at the start of "The Palace Fight" as the gang of babes goes to battle. As an adjunct to this material, Barry's menacing villain plot theme is militaristic and suspenseful, often featuring snare accents on each measure in the composer's typical style. It's supported by a solo timpani motif that becomes more prominent in later cues. Teased in "Fill Her Up" and the subdued suspense of "Bond at the Monsoon Palace," this villain identity offers a rising bass string figure alone in "Palace Intrigue" and stews in "The End of General Orlov." The timpani motif rumbles early in "Gorilla Suit and Death of Grischka," reprised but yielding to the theme in "The Bomb Arrives and Clowning Around." This material resolves in the first minute of "Kamal Khan's Death and Finale." A bit more general in its approach is Barry's unrelated, early suspense music in the underwhelming "009 Gets the Knife and the Property of a Lady."

Outside of Barry's relatively new ideas in Octopussy, the composer relies far more heavily on the famous Monty Norman theme for the franchise. This move was partly due to the attempt by the entire production to revisit the 1960's formula of success for the concept and partly due to the desire to drive home the fact that Octopussy was a true Bond film and Never Say Never Again was not. The entire pre-credit hangar sequence heard in "Gun Barrel and Airbase" and "Bond Look-Alike" uses this theme in suspense mode while "Gobinda Attacks," "Easy Come, Easy Go," and "The Palace Fight" provide full, jazzy performances of the idea as Bond prevails in those situations. (The blend between the stock action rhythms and franchise themes would be better explored in the two subsequent scores, as its segregation here conveys Barry's past in these scores with all his usual plusses and minuses.) The Bond theme extends to other incarnations in the subtle shades of "Kremlin Art Repository and Sotheby's" and the opening of "India." A cute comedic reference is even made as source music in "Vijay's Pungi," a rare moment in which 007 recognizes his own theme on screen. Barry allows the Bond theme to flourish again in the bursts of enthusiasm during "Follow That Car," but most listeners will return to the early "Bond Look-Alike" cue as the best adaptation of the theme in the score. A few other motifs work around the margins in Octopussy, led by the composer's usual notion of military heroism and British pomp heard at the openings of "Fill Her Up" and "Checkpoint Charlie and the Romanov Star." Two location-specific themes are notable but fleetingly short; a stout Russian identity in "Kremlin Art Repository and Sotheby's" and a rousing Indian one in "India" are quick moments if interest. Overall, Octopussy remains one of the more predictably repetitive 007 scores by Barry, with less flair than the two subsequent two entries but very cognizant of its roots. The film's circus music was licensed for insertion, but a significant amount of ethnic source material was provided by Barry himself, most of it related to the Octopussy gang and associated exotic Indian element. For a long time, this music was unavailable on album, as the history of Octopussy outside of the picture has been suboptimum.

In conjunction with the original LP release, a rare CD on the A&M label was pressed in 1985 due to the Coolidge association. That CD was among the first ever offered on the commercial market, and it achieved a value of $250 in the early 1990's, eventually ranked by veteran collectors and soundtrack specialty stores in 1994 as the sixth most valuable soundtrack CD in the world. In 1995, a bootleg from "Music Collectors Anonymous" combined the records of For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy onto one digital transfer, circulating around the market for a short time before becoming a collectible itself. In 1997, Rykodisc released both scores (as well as The Living Daylights the next year) on their own albums. The sound quality between the original collectibles and the 1997 pressing of Octopussy was identical, as were the musical contents, and Ryko padded the running time of their product with three tracks of dialogue from the film. Unfortunately, those quotes are mixed at too low a volume compared to the music surrounding them. The Ryko product was also a much-advertised enhanced CD with the theatrical trailer, pictures, and expanded liner notes. While these are nothing too spectacular, the packaging was generous for its era, especially with its extraordinary notes, but anyone who has trouble folding maps back into their proper arrangement likely cursed its layout. Even this album went out of print, leaving it absent from the market once again. In early 2003, EMI finally re-released all of the Bond scores through Goldeneye for rock bottom prices around $10 internationally and, in many cases, additional music was offered. The main attraction of the 2003 products was their remastering of the scores from source tapes. Barry's scores typically sounded good regardless of their age, a trademark of his recordings, and Octopussy already featured good sound on its previous albums. The greatest benefit to this particular 2003 album is its removal of the three dialogue tracks from the product, returning the listening experience to its original form. In 2024, La-La Land Records released a definitive, limited expansion with the fuller score in another remastered presentation. The additional material is mostly redundant but has some noteworthy new moments hidden within, including the opening and finale of the movie. It reaffirms that Octopussy ranks among the better Bond scores, despite its rather conservative and repetitive approach.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download