[Nick Zwar]

John Williams is interesting, as there are some scores by him I prefer on the original album edit, some I prefer as full film scores, and some where I find I continue to enjoy both.

For example, E.T.-The Extra Terrestrial is a great soundtrack album, flows well, so I still enjoy that. However, it omits some of the darker material Williams composed for the movie, so I like the full score as well. I play either. On the other hand, the original album for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND was quite a disappointment, it’s much better presented on the expanded Arista or La-La Land albums, so I don’t play the original album cut at all anymore. I don’t play the OST for JAWS anymore either; I know it has its adherents, and that’s fine, but I far prefer the full film score for that one. It is much more savage, brutal, more Stravinsky-like, and so I much prefer that. Adios, album edit. Same with A.I., that was an awful album, not just omitting much substance of the composition, but instead including one track twice (which of course reduces re-use fees quite a bit), and putting the (more or less) same pop song twice on the album, once even in the album flow.
In case of MONSIGNOR, Williams rearranged his material a bit for the album, but it’s mostly there. Both the film score and the album are just fine the way they are, but I prefer the album arrangement Williams did for listening purposes.
One of my favorite Williams scores is ROSEWOOD, and here you have two very different albums. The original Sony OST was basically a Gospel Choir album with orchestral interludes, I enjoy that very much. The film score has far less choral songs and is more dramatic in tone, I very much like that as well. So that’s one case where the expanded film score edition La-La Land put out is not a mere “expansion” as in “longer”, but both albums have a very different tone. That was quite a revelation when La-La Land put the film score out, I’m very happy to have picked that one up.