[Nils Jacob Holt Hanssen]

I think I can echo most of what Nick has said here. I always appreciate an elaborate booklet with a well written essay, and I usually read it before putting in the CD. The background information on both the film and the score gets me into the mood – and sometimes even stoked – for listening to the CD.

But I’m of two minds about track-by-track analyses. That’s not really common anymore, though, although most of the FSM (and some of the other labels’) releases had them back in the day. On the one hand, it’s interesting to get an understanding of what the composer tried to accomplish in a given scene, and what he did to achieve it. But it really doesn’t enhance the listening experience itself. Also, it chops it up, since you basically have to put the player on pause between each track, to read about and get ready for the next. So I hardly do that anymore.