[Nick Zwar]

I sure have lots of film music where I haven’t seen the movie, so I appreciate good liner notes that tell me something about the movie and how the music is generally applied and functions within it.
As I said, I don’t think there is just “one right way” for liner notes. Track by track analysis can make a lot of sense, especially when the film score is composed to picture with a clear compositional and dramatic narrative that reflects certain key moments, or when musical concepts and devices reflect key ideas of the movie. Also, often times I haven’t even seen the movie, so a general outline about the function of the music within the movie can be quite interesting. On the other hand, there is a lot of film music that is composed completely different. When a film score is more composed with certain moods or themes or doesn’t have a symphonic/narrative structure, a track by track analysis isn’t really important.
I think by and large the best liner notes give you insights about the music that are not readily obvious or background information (about the movie, the composer, the time when the music was composed, etc.).