PS: How can you be home alone if you're from Chicago, but are lost in New York?

HA2 is one of the only Williams scores I don't care to own, because it sounds EXACTLY like the first one. There may well be new material, I think there's a new song or two, but none of it grabbed me. So I don't recommend the second one. I find the first album has a lot of dull spots, but a lot of it's fun.

I love the score for the first film, but to be honest in the 2nd film the music never caught my attention. The 1st one is a decent purchase, it really is!

H Rocco,

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NP: A CIVIL ACTION (Elfman in Thomas Newman mode)

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Really? Hmmmm, I may check that one out!

Dan (UK)

Do you know Thomas's brother David's score for HEATHERS? Also very Thomas-ish, by David's own admission, and one of the few David scores that I've cared to own -- he's certainly a competent craftsman, but rarely, to my ear, a very interesting one.

NP: CHAIN REACTION (Goldsmith) is winding up. Not, objectively, one of his best, but I love the colors of it -- way more so than similar action scores from the same period (EXECUTIVE DECISION, CONGO, U.S. MARSHALS).

While the first score is a more coherent listen, and the second DOES feature many direct repeats from the first, there is MORE than enough material to make it worth buying. There are darker passages, new carols, a secondary theme for the villains, and scads of glorious Christmas/chase music (Duncan's Toy Shop, To The Plaza Presto, among others) that, arguably, puts the sequel score a step above its predecessor. The performance of the repeated material on the second disc does NOT suffer from "lackluster retread" syndrome, largely due to the stellar effort of the LSO. Plus, the "setting-the-trap" sequence on the second score CD includes the Christmas Carol introduction/fade-out that I wanted on the original.

On the second disk we also find the "we overslept" cue in its originality, not hacked up as on the first cd.

I agree with Wedge (I think it was him), if you want the score get the second cd. If you are a Williams fan get both. If you are a purist get the second and the first as well. If you are rich get them both and give them away if you don't like them much. If you are very rich, get Home Alone with just the songs as well. If you are crazy...well...we all crazy here so it don't matter anyway.

Am I the only one who cares about Nick Glennie-Smith's score to 3, and just how long is his suite on the soundtrack?

And I'd buy BATMAN & ROBIN at the drop of a hat -- I thought it was a sensational score, and perhaps I haven't listened to BATMAN FOREVER enough to have detected whether they're the "same" scores or not. (It was CREEPY AS HELL to see Schumacher RESTAGING so many setpieces from BATMAN FOREVER, though -- I'm sure that has a LOT to do with people's perceptions that the music was repeated. The songs weren't as good, though -- you won't get me near the BATMAN & ROBIN rock CD, but I love both BATMAN FOREVER albums.)

NP - IVAN THE TERRIBLE by Sergei Prokofiev *****/*****

(Oh ... and if you haven't heard Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," you haven't heard ANYTHING! I recommend just about everything he's written, but this takes the cake. That and Peter and the Wolf seem to be Horner's biggest "inspirations" -- it's where he got "Stealing the Enterprise" and almost ALL of "Land Before Time." There's also an excellent 4-CD set of all of Prokofiev's symphonies. The 5th is my favorite.)

Still, I'd recommend getting both CDs, as the first one still has stuff that's not featured on the second CD in that way, or not that good. E.g., the percussion in "Setting the Trap" sounds better on the first CD, and I think the fugue is shortened in the second score.

Master Rocco, you should REALLY get the second one, you won't regret it.

And I should try to find Ivan the Terrible. In fact, Wedge, I was looking for Romeo and Juliet about 2 years or so ago, and was surprised to find only one complete recording, and that one was rather expensive. So I don't have this one, either.