What is your favourite soundtrack record label?
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Historically, for me, it’s impossible to beat Varese Sarabande. And maybe Intrada trailing a little behind.
I’m a HUGE fan of Silva Screen. Many of the compilations, in particular, opened my eyes and ears to lots of music in the 90s. But they have great individual soundtracks too. They’ve received a lot of undeserved ridicule.
FSM was obviously important back when it was a thing, especially the rare John Williams stuff.
These days, among the “new kids on the block” (relatively speaking), I’m a big fan of what Mikael Carlsson does with Moviescore Media – highlighting smaller and less-talked-about titles, usually in lovely, curated form.
But the BIG favourite right now is Caldera. Love the titles they choose. Obviously the long collaboration with Zbigniew Preisner (one of my favourite composers), but also things like the Shire works or maybe something from a Mike Leigh film, or a Gerald Fried title. Etc. And on top of that, they usually curate their albums wonderfully too.
The (lack of) curating thing is why La La Land Records doesn’t score that high with me. Yes, love the titles they choose (often from my own formative years), but not the presentation.
It’s not really adding to the discussion but I don’t really care about favourite labels.
Film Score Monthly’s releases were always ones to look forward to. Usually for their track-by-track analyses.
I don’t really have a favourite label per se. But the label I ordered the most CDs from the last few years is probably Quartet.
I don’t have a favorite label. Varèse Sarabande released a lot of great stuff in their day. I loved the detailled technical background information in FSM and Intrada’s booklets, like Doug Fake’s “tech talk”. Intrada, La-La Land, Quartet, MusicBox released lots of the stuff I ever wanted, and I really don’t see how their presentation can be faulted, especially since they often even remaster and restore the original soundtrack recording as well. A set like the recent 3 disc JAWS set is pretty much best of all worlds for everyone.
Don’t forget Milan Records. Up there with Varese in the 90s, and even a little liner notes, in contrast to Varese’s very simple booklet with pictures only.
I appreciate them all, to varying degrees* (and I like to have ALL the music, or as much as, for me to curate) but at the moment, I would say BSX/DDR are the most exciting in terms of output and obscure titles being released (although I think their choices might be down to a more ‘relaxed’ attitude towards licensing and copyright).
*with Varese Sarabande, Intrada and FSM being the cornerstones for me..
Yes, BSX is kinda the “pirates of the industry”, aren’t they, playing loose and fast with licencing, customer service and everything else? Which is why I’ve been weary of using them or ordering from them (I think most of the titles I own from them, are digital files, often promos and the like). But they do release some damn interesting titles, I’ll give them that.
BSX seems to act a bit in the Wild West like Tsunami did back then. I never bought any CD from them but buying downloads works without any issue. I often take advantage of their 30%-50% sales.
Speaking of BSX’s “gung-ho” acrobatics when it comes to licencing, artwork etc., I just noticed – in their latest batch – the heavy AI imprint on the covers, with even the same boy appearing in two completely different films, one happy, one sad. Made me smile….they simply do not care about such things, do they?
Probably does even if you see how it turns out… (not to speak of the general “stealing” to train GenAI…) I mean it is formally “okay” but boring composition, too… But as far as I remember Mark Banning did all designs inhouse since forever.
Lalaland has a feature on New York Times online. Since it is behind a paywall they just posted it with photos on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lalalandrecords/posts/pfbid0259Br26wWLo4GkYojjyxYTH4VmPSgHqYRtwDWkr8fWiabym1Xodg6kYESUqGgURklI have a subscription to the New York Times, that allows me to share a limited number of articles, so here you go.
Lost Movie Music? On CD? La-La Land is an Anomaly. (And a success)
Thanks a lot for the access, Nick! I’m in awe of what Matt & Michael have accomplished (more than 700 titles released!), but that article, and those quotes, also perfectly explain why LLL was never the label for me. The whole thing about how they met and bonded over “missing music” from soundtrack albums, an issue that has never even existed in my mind. But for them, it informed all of their releases. We couldn’t be more different, it’s like we’re on different planets.
On the other hand, and as I said earlier, the titles they choose are very often from my own formative years. So if they do premiere releases of these (like, say, BEVERLY HILLS COP or TOP GUN), they are – on paper – right up my alley. I just wish they had been conceptualized differently.
I have my issues with La La Land Records. I love their selection of titles, but don’t like their presentations (C&C).
As I said somewhere else, I don’t see how La-La Land’s presentation can be bettered in any way, as they tend to always even include the original soundtrack album (edits) for those scores that had one, and excellent exhaustive booklets.
You want the full score? Got it. You want the soundtrack edits? Got it. You want alternates or possible extras? Got them too.Considering that by your own admission up there you would not even buy their CDs anyway, if they gave them away for free, since shipping and customs would still be to high, I guess they should not be faulted for not specifically fitting their releases to pretty much the only person in the entire world who would prefer a soundtrack album to be incomplete. 🙂
I just want the curated album. Nothing more, nothing less. But I’m fully aware I’m the odd one out. LLL’s business model is not in question.
just want the curated album. Nothing more, nothing less
But, as I pointed out, if that’s all you want, you can have it. It’s there. If all you want is the original album, you can listen to exactly that. Nothing stops you from ignoring the rest. No one is forcing you to hear a single alternate cue. (Especially not if you wouldn’t buy the album anyway because of the high prices.)
But the frequency and intensity of your objections make it seem as if the real issue is not your preference, but your discomfort with labels also catering to people who enjoy and prefer their compositions to be released complete. Wanting your version is fine. Wanting it to be the only available version is something entirely different.
Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be either or, and the way music is currently released, and especially since most people listen to files nowadays anyway and anyone can easily edit and cut their music in any way shape or form they want if they feel so inclined, everyone can have their cake. That’s how it should be.Neither of the two extreme statements “Every filmscore deserves to be presented and enjoyed in complete recorded form” and “There is no film music worth listening to on album that wasn’t on the original soundtrack album” makes sense.
Like Nick I think it’s good to have the choice.But still I think, in 90% of the cases Thor is right. But for the remaining 10% I am grateful for the work of the speciality labels.
The point is not what music is worth listening to. I think 90% of film scores are totally uninteresting to listen to to begin with, that’s not the point. The point is I don’t complain about the 99% that are released that I am personally not interested in, and I don’t belabor the point that there is so much music released that I’m personally not interested in. I don’t know how many new film scores are released month after month, year after year, an enormous amount. I don’t think I listen to more than 1% of it, probably less.
If a label releases two albums from a movie, same mastering, same everything, and one contains just the original soundtrack and one contains the original soundtrack, plus the complete film score, plus all extras, and releases these two albums on the same day, same price, I don’t think anyone would just buy the album that contains the original soundtrack album only.
There are actually soundtrack released that have the film score and some other stuff I am not really interested in. So what? Doesn’t bother me, I just don’t listen to it. Easy as that. The Silva Screen release of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK for example contains a lot of dialog sequences in between, but it nevertheless contains the original soundtrack, I just don’t listen to the dialog. No big deal. Maybe some people enjoy the dialog, who knows, then it’s fine by me. And in this case, the dialog has to actively programmed out, as it is interspersed, so in the days when people actually listened to CDs, that might even be a slight inconvenience, if you have to program it out. However, the way La-La Land releases their scores, you can usually just listen to the original soundtrack album from beginning to end, no programming needed, so even that is not an issue.
And I’m not even talking about all the digital only releases, where theoretically you could just literally buy only those tracks that you want.
I have a subscription to the New York Times, that allows me to share a limited number of articles, so here you go.
Just to note that Lalaland had actually posted the full article for free reading on Facebook (probably NYT would not really be happy about that ;-)).
“Every filmscore deserves to be presented and enjoyed in complete recorded form” and “There is no film music worth listening to on album that wasn’t on the original soundtrack album” makes sense.
Indeed that is too extreme in both ways for me, too. And I also think Thor is (often) right.
The point is not what music is worth listening to. I think 90% of film scores are totally uninteresting to listen to to begin with, that’s not the point. The point is I don’t complain about the 99% that are released that I am personally not interested in, and I don’t belabor the point that there is so much music released that I’m personally not interested in. I don’t know how many new film scores are released month after month, year after year, an enormous amount. I don’t think I listen to more than 1% of it, probably less.
Yeah, here I think comes into play that you and I have the luxury to ignore these 99% of uninteresting music and Thor with his profession as a film journalist has to work himself every year through, I don’t remember, were it 2000 or 5000?, new film scores. That is really a bonejob. In front of that background I understand his extreme preference better. Still I often disagree.
Again, I am not questioning Thor’s preference. What I am questioning is the leap from his own personal preference to “this is what should exist for everyone”.
Just to note that Lalaland had actually posted the full article for free reading on Facebook (probably NYT would not really be happy about that ;-)).
That’s why I did it the “official” way. NYT subscribers may share a limited number of articles for others to read.
Again, I am not questioning Thor’s preference. What I am questioning is the leap from his own personal preference to “this is what should exist for everyone”.
I don’t believe I ever argued that. I just said that LLL is “not a label for me”. It clearly is a label for most fans, since most fans prefer C&C.
Same as Caldera and Moviescore Media ARE labels for me, since they usually curate their albums. Then you can have a separate discussion regarding the label’s profile, i.e. the titles they choose. That is obviously an important part of the total evaluation (as well as customer service, artwork, packaging etc.).
I only want the OST, nothing else. I don’t care if it’s included in the package, I just want that. I don’t want the “extra” bonus tracks or additional music. Same as that U2 ordeal awhile back, when they offered their latest album free to those who downloaded iTunes. I don’t want it. I just want iTunes.
A good example is THE FURY, which I just relistened to a couple of days ago. I had the original Varese release for many years, but then someone sent me the 2CD set that included both the OST and the film recording. I proceeded to SELL the old CD, since the OST was already in the set, and in remastered sound. I’ve regretted it ever since. I just want it to be an entity that contains the OST, nothing more, nothing less. I put it on, press play and let it play out. And when it’s over, that’s it. There’s nothing more to be had or be found anywhere on the disc. I find that more compelling.
So I gravitate towards labels that offer that.
I don’t believe I ever argued that. I just said that LLL is “not a label for me”. It clearly is a label for most fans, since most fans prefer C&C.
Not directly, no, but the way you tend to belabor the point makes it at least appear that way at times. I’m all for anyone listening to music in any way they see fit, and the more people are able to listen to the music they want in the way they want, the better. And Labels like La-La Land are about as good at providing that as I can see would be possible.
A good example is THE FURY, which I just relistened to a couple of days ago. I had the original Varese release for many years, but then someone sent me the 2CD set that included both the OST and the film recording. I proceeded to SELL the old CD, since the OST was already in the set, and in remastered sound. I’ve regretted it ever since. I just want it to be an entity that contains the OST, nothing more, nothing less. I put it on, press play and let it play out. And when it’s over, that’s it. There’s nothing more to be had or be found anywhere on the disc. I find that more compelling.
See, that’s what I mean. THE FURY already gives you the original album on its own disc even, just like you said… you can press play, enjoy it, and never touch the second CD. So when the mere existence of additional material on a release becomes a complaint, it stops being about your listening habits and starts sounding like an objection to other people having options you don’t personally use. Since THE FURY allows you to already do exactly what you describe: put on the album disc, let it run, and call it a day. Nothing about the expanded set interferes with that. Which is why the complaint about the second disc comes across, intentionally or not, as something else entirely: not a matter of listening, but a matter of limiting what others get to hear.
I think if they had released the OST and the “full package” separately, it would have been great for all parties involved. But that makes no business sense, of course.
Which is why the complaint about the second disc comes across, intentionally or not, as something else entirely: not a matter of listening, but a matter of limiting what others get to hear.
I don’t see it that way. I just see it as the very nature of a preference. My preference does not encompass pleasing other people’s preferences. A preference is by nature anti-altruistic. I’m not opposed to other people getting what they want (as I said, two different releases would solve much of the problem, were it financially feasible), but that’s not my main concern when I decide what I like or don’t like to listen to, and how I want said album to be.
Which 2CD set of THE FURY do you have? Do you want to trade against a single Varèse Sarabande CD?
This one. I forgot there was even another one after that, on LLL. I think I’m going to keep it, if only because of the superior sound on the OST, but some day, I’ll reacquire the old Varese, I think.
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