Another busy month and a delay in writing this "best of" due to the death of our oldest cat (pictured on the blog here).  20 years is a long time for anyone, but especially for a pet.  So other things sort of paled in comparison.

Here are a few favorites that came across the desk in the month of September.

If you have not heard Marvin Hamlisch's score for The Informant! you are in for a real treat.  Retro in a way similar to what Williams did for Catch Me if You Can, but with a lot more jazzy influence, this score is a great listen from beginning to end.  Hamlisch does not need to write much of anything these days with so many long-running shows and popular songs to boot and this is his first film score in nearly a decade.  Let's hope it brings him out a bit more!

Film Score Monthly's release of a more complete score for Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan might seem uninteresting, but this is one of the more popular Trek scores and features fine work by James Horner.  Prokofiev's ghost aside, there are some great musical matches to picture in this more successful of the earlier Trek films and Horner's swashbuckling approach to the film as a sea adventure in space makes it one of the more engaging of the series.  This is not a limited release, appearing on their Retrograde label, and essentially includes all of the old GRP CD with improved sound, longer segments and additional cues.

It has been rather hard to recommend many recent Intrada CDs since they seem to sell out the moment they appear.  Watching these instant low release sell outs is a reminder of the esoteric nature of film music lovers.  We all have favorite scores from movies we watched as kids, or which moved us at other stages as adults.  Sometimes enjoying the score of one composer then leads to the enjoyment of others.  You'll notice though the steady stream of "greats" tends to get the most attention and familiarity sometimes breeds a lackluster response unless the music is from one of those bigger films.  The release of Rent-a-Cop an uneven Burt Reynolds/Liza Minneli feature from the 1980s is one of those films where the music far outshines the screen action.  And that is because it is from Jerry Goldsmith.  Fans of the composer's music know that this was one of those quickly out-of-print CDs (I saw it for $250 at one point in a used book store).  The original release focused mostly on the beautiful lyric theme and little action music.  Intrada has solved that problem by expanding the original release into this quite satisfying CD.  Often Goldsmith's music is discussed in terms of everything but thematic ideas, though these are always interesting.  This time the main theme is one of his better ones and it makes for a great listen in its recurrence.

La-La Land has released a number of older film scores and most recently has managed to secure the rights to more recent film music as well.  One of their latest, in time for Halloween, is Trick 'r Treat from an anthology film of sorts featuring music by Douglas Pipes.  Pipes last noticeable film was Monster House and here he has crafted a score that is uniquely his own voice, which means that it features a hybrid of styles by Goldsmith and Elfman.  It's a fun orchestral score for a relatively dark topic with great thematic development.

Finally, Verve continues to release back catalogue titles from the Mercury label.  One of these is a 1960s set by Quincy Jones covering classic tunes by Henry Mancini.  Quincy Jones Explores Mancini is Jones' big band in intriguing arrangements of Mancini greats that feature some of that masters memorable tunes.  Jones' finds rather unique ways to make these his own and there are some intriguing vocalizations (think Bobby McFerrin) that are blended into some of the tracks.  Toots Thieleman makes an appearance as well.  A great album, and guilty pleasure, now available again on CD.

Continuing in its series of re-issues, Silva has released a slightly updated Star Trek compilation.  The previous one was a two-disc set featuring suites from the television series in addition to a host of end credit suites.  You will likely want to hang on to that release still if you own it though, making picking this one up a bit frustrating. 

The new release is well-organized into two sections.  The first features music from all 11 Star Trek films chronologically organized.  Most of these performances with the City of Prague orchestra are conducted by Nic Raine, so at least they are near the top in terms of performance quality.  A screeching climax in Eidelman’s music from The Undiscovered Country is the one “worst” things in the batch.  Other places of intonation issues in brass rear their head slightly and have been commented on elsewhere by others who have heard these performances wherever they may have ended up.  The new addition is of course from Giacchino’s wonderful score to the new Star Trek and takes makes up a four minute track consisting of “Hella Talk” (which presents Giacchino’s new thematic idea) and “Enterprising Young Men.”  This is a positive addition to the Silva catalogue. 

The second section of the disc features the theme music for each of the Star Trek television series from Courage’s theme, with soprano vocal, up through the more recent, and mostly lackluster Star Trek: Enterprise (an instrumental version of the music by Dianne Warren).  The latter, as with the Giacchino, is conducted by James Fitzpatrick and is well-performed though it has the most pops-like feel.  These selections too are all arranged chronologically as well making for a fine satisfying conclusion.

The last tracks from each section are the newest additions to Silva’s catalog.  If you are a Giacchino fan, it is likely we may see a Silva compilation on the far horizon—they have music already in the can from The Incredibles, Cloverfield, and Lost so they are about half way to an hour long disc.  Easily recommended for fans of the Star Trek films and a great gift to introduce the music to younger fans.  As good background, or travel disc, the perfect sound and abundance of strong music makes this a fun listen.