[Nick Zwar]

Yes, I hear you. I don’t rebuy all these things either; there are some soundtracks I have bought several times, and in some cases I cannot resist, but I weigh individually when I do this and if it’s worth it. In case of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS I make an exception though, as it may be my favorite John Williams score. When it comes to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and E.T., I have the original album releases (on LP and CD), the original expansions (Arista/MCA) and the La-La Land 2CD sets. I think the earlier expansions were certainly fine and sufficient. I do like that the La-La Land E.T. contains the mysterious, spooky “Main Title”, I think that’s the only album which has that included, but it’s only a minute long, so only fanatics would buy the album for that. All CLOSE ENCOUNTERS expansions play slightly differently, but they are all great. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND is perhaps my favorite John Williams score, and I do have every single version of it. The original Arista expansion plays fine and is great, I was very happy when that was released. The La-La Land 2CD set offers basically two expanded versions of the score: on Disc 1, the tracks are selected to reflect John Williams originally intended 2LP soundtrack album at the time of release (but which never happened, as we all know only a single LP version with a “pop single” was released), and on Disc 2 basically another version of the score made from versions of cues not on Disc 1. So all three “Close Encounters” expansions released offer a somewhat different listening experience.

ROSEWOOD as presented by La-La Land is not so much an “expansion” (as that implies it’s a sort of original album plus additional cues, or a longer presention), but a different presentation altogether. The film score as presented on Disc 1 is more dramatic, instrumental, less choir, the OST as presented on Disc 2 is a beautiful, introspective dramatic “Gospel” album. Both are very good and worth listening to, but “expansion” doesn’t really fit the description.