Aliens
The deluxe edition

Just as Jerry Goldsmith didn't have a particularly enjoyable experience on the original Alien, neither did James Horner working on the James Cameron directed sequel. Ultimately, both composers came up trumps, even if the music heard in the final films wasn't what they originally intended. For this expanded release, Varese have assembled Horner's entire score as it was originally written as well as providing a few bonus tracks. It greatly expands the original 45 minute album and arranges the music into film order. The result being that whereas the short version mixed the suspense and action cues, the flow of the film results in the album being heavier on suspense in the first half and action in the latter stages.
The Main Title is a creepy string adagio which is strikingly similar to Khachaturian's Gayenne Ballet Suite. While many would argue that Horner should have written something entirely original, I doubt any alternate could have been more appropriate and it's a shame he doesn't credit his inspiration, particularly in this case. The melody comes up a few times throughout the score, although to call it a main theme would be stretching it a little. The opening half of the film is very much low end suspense with plenty of echoing synth, percussion and trumpet effects. Goldsmith's well known rhythm from Capricorn One makes a few appearances, which is again somewhat unfortunate as it wouldn't take much to come up with something similar, but not quite so obviously the same. One notable sidestep from the rest of the score is the gritty, but fairly heroic Combat Drop which is a nicely militaristic 'call to action' type cue. It was ultimately replaced with a percussion cue attributed to Harry Rabinowitz, although the percussion only version in the Bonus Tracks section is presumably by Horner. Perhaps a fraction too optimistic for the finished film, but a fine cue as stand alone music.

The novelty of Horner's suspense cues do tend to wear a little thin after a while, but with Ripley's Rescue, Horner breaks out the fully compliment of percussion and brass for the first action outing of the score. While not as intricately conceived as something like Star Trek 2 or Krull, Horner's action is bracing and played by the London Symphony Orchestra with a notable lack of subtlety. Various action devices appear from time to time, Going After Newt features a terrific ascending brass motif that is present in several of Horner's other scores of the period. The slightly far eastern motif for the Klingons in Star Trek 3 also makes a couple of appearances. The action highlights are undoubtedly the final three tracks. Bishop's Countdown, now infamous in its appearance in action film trailers, is still as thrilling as ever, although Resolution with its brief burst as Ripley finally overcomes the Alien Queen is probably my favourite. The main title material is reprised as a very appropriate end credit.

The Bonus Tracks are interesting exercises more than crucial additions. The percussion only tracks will keep percussion students happy and the couple of alternate edits give some idea as to the music's treatment in the film. I don't wish to take away from the efforts of Nick Redman as producer of the deluxe edition, but it almost seems as though his liner notes describing how the music was used in the film must have been almost more complex to research than editing the music for this album. It certainly provides a fascinating insight into the way music can be hacked to pieces at the whim of the director and producers. The sound quality is notably different from the original album which had a very narrow sounding stereo, but is somewhat more expansive here. The brass could occasionally have been mixed just a fraction louder over the percussion, but otherwise it's never sounded better. An immaculately produced album of one of Horner's most exciting and notable action scores.