Music Album Review: 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Original Soundtrack'

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Gareth Edwards' blockbuster Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a film that boasts many "firsts" in the history of the 40-year-old franchise created by George Lucas.
  • It is the first stand-alone Star Wars film that's not centered on the Skywalker family
  • It is the first Star Wars film that focuses on ordinary beings from various parts of the galaxy that aren't Jedi or Force users
  • It is the first Star Wars film to identify most of the planets with onscreen tags
  • It is the first Star Wars film with no title crawl, no transitional "wipes," and only the second to use a pan-up establishing shot (the other being Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
  • It is the first live-action Star Wars film without a musical score composed and conducted by John Williams
Lucasfilm President (and Rogue One producer) Kathleen Kennedy and her creative team pulled all the stops to make Rogue One: A Star Wars Story a separate part of the Star Wars universe yet faithful to the mythos created by Kennedy's friend and mentor Lucas back in the late 1970s. 

One of the biggest steps taken by the Rogue One team to achieve these two goals was to hire composer Alexander Desplat (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Parts I and II) to write the musical score. But due to scheduling conflicts partly created by the need to reshoot parts of Rogue One, the Academy Award-winner had to step down from the job. 

Enter Michael Giacchino, who has scored all three of the recent Star Trek reboot films, as well as Up, Mission Impossible III, The Incredibles, and Doctor Strange. Giacchino, winner of a plethora of awards for his TV and film scores, took on two challenges: compose the score in less than eight weeks and follow in the footsteps of the Jedi Master of Star Wars composers, John Williams.

(C) 2016 Disney Music Group and Lucasfilm Ltd.
 For us, the Star Wars fans who grew up listening to John Williams' seven (soon to be eight) indelible and magnificent scores, the question was Will the music to Rogue One be as good as the Maestro's great scores? 

Fortunately, Giacchino - perhaps aided by the powers of the Force - is a big fan of Williams' many musical compositions for the works of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. In fact, Giacchino has written music for a franchise that Spielberg and Williams collaborated on. In 2015, he scored Colin Trevorow's Jurassic World, the fourth installment in the Jurassic Park series. 

Back in 1977, long before I knew I was going to be a film composer, I spent countless hours listening to the original Star Wars double LP on my small RCA stereo in my bedroom. In a sense, John Williams was my first music teacher. All these years later, John continues to be an inspiration. - Michael Giacchino

Though Rogue One doesn't begin with Williams' iconic Star Wars theme, Giacchino's music reflects the Romantic era style of the main saga's scores. The orchestrations by Bill Ross, Brad Dechter, Jeff Kryka, and Chris Tilton sound eerily similar to Herbert W. Spencer's Original Trilogy work, and the studio orchestra that performs the music is reminiscent of the London Symphony Orchestra in sound and richness of tone.

And although most of the music is new and unique to Rogue One, some of Williams' Star Wars themes appear, including the Death Star motif from A New Hope and The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) from The Empire Strikes Back. 

The Album

Walt Disney Records has released the soundtrack album in three formats: digital, vinyl, and audio CD. I have the latter, so this review will reflect that. 

Released on December 16, 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's CD soundtrack album is a 1-disc offering. Like 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, it probably is a "greatest hits" selection of cues rather than the complete score. It is divided into 21 tracks, each one of which has a descriptive title and a comedic "in-joke" alternate title. (Well, 18 tracks have comedic alt-titles, anyway.) 
  1. He’s Here For Us (A Krennic Condition)
  2. A Long Ride Ahead (Jyn and Scare It)
  3. Wobani Imperial Labor Camp (Jyncarcerated)
  4. Trust Goes Both Ways (Going to See Saw)
  5. When Has Become Now (That New Death Star Smell)
  6. Jedha Arrival (Jedha Call Saw)
  7. Jedha City Ambush (When Ambush Comes to Shove)
  8. Star-Dust (Erso Facto)
  9. Confrontation on Eadu (Go Do. That Eadu. That You Do. So Well)
  10. Krennic’s Aspirations (Have a Choke and a Smile)
  11. Rebellions Are Built on Hope (Erso in Vain)
  12. Rogue One (Takes One to Rogue One)
  13. Cargo Shuttle SW-0608 (World's Worst Vacation Destination)
  14. Scrambling the Rebel Fleet (Scarif Tactics)
  15. AT-ACT Assault (Bazed and Confused)
  16. The Master Switch (Switch Hunt)
  17. Your Father Would Be Proud (Transmission Impossible)
  18. Hope (Live and Let Jedi)
  19. Jyn Erso & Hope Suite 
  20. The Imperial Suite 
  21. Guardians of the Whills Suite

Considering that, in movie-making terms, Giacchino got the gig almost at the last minute, his score for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a brilliant musical masterpiece. It reflects the film's Guns of Navarone/Saving Private Ryan sensibilities. There's a palette of sounds that paints a picture of intergalactic commandos going on a risky all-or-nothing mission against the forces of the Galactic Empire, full of quiet character-related themes and stirring battle marches. 

Rogue One's music accomplishes what its parent film has also done: it tells an original, stand-alone story (the rogue of the Star Wars saga, you might say) with new and original material, yet it is faithful to what came before.   

Although I would have preferred a more complete soundtrack album along the lines of Sony Classical's much-reissued Special Edition 2-disc sets of Williams' Original Trilogy scores, this album is still a lot of fun to listen to. 

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