Aliens: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

 (21 customer reviews)

To start off, I must say that I do not own this album. I've purchased the complete album (20 tracks), and it overshadows the commercial release by quite a bit. Many good tracks were left out of the release, and regrettably my favorite track (Preparing for the Drop) isn't even used in the movie. Aside from the qualms about the CD release itself, the music is pretty good. Fortunately, Horner wrote this score early in his career, so he was forced to come up with as much original music as possible. Horner-bashers aside, you CAN recognize some themes in this release, most notably the Klingon theme from Star Trek III, and a litle of Khan's theme from Star Trek II. Both are not overused throughout the score, but you will notice other small Hornerisms here and there. Horner captures the essence of the movie in his score. Suspense, action, terror are all conveyed to the viewer through the music. The main and end titles have a solemn, lonely feeling, as Ripley floats in space...Read more

There tends to always be a mixed response on this score from the Horner bashers and lovers. This was a score I longed to purchased many years ago for one reason only: the sequence of music composed during the Marines escape upon finally discovering the aliens for the first time. On the CD, this lengthy track is "Futile Escape." In the movie, the music is drowned out by the sound effects, but on your stereo the true nature of this amazing track depicting the terror of the marines and their desire to escape can be heard properly. Additionally, this CD has a track (Bishop's Countdown) which is routinely used in movie trailers because of it's adrenaline pumping climax. It's sensational. The CD overall is a great listen. It has very solid action pieces and very quiet moody moments that keep the suspense hanging. If you want wall-to-wall action cues, you won't get it. Some may also get annoyed with the handful of quieter tracks. But, it's a good balance. A...Read more

No qualms on the music. The first and last tracks are another Horner tribute to his beloved Russians. In this case, Khachaturian (it might go further than that since it is Gayaneh's floating Adagio, used in the mythical '2001 Space Odyssey'). That, with more than a hint of Shostakovich 5th, of course. (Some criticize Horner for these "recyclings", I don't. I call them "tributes" and they work great.)

The score is very atmospheric, and addresses the gut. The orchestration (by one Greig McRitchie) is phenomenal (careful how you set the volume: there are many fff surprises!)
The only criticism to this (original) release is its short duration (35+ minutes) but that was 1986, and Varese has been extremely smart in reissuing a so-called Deluxe Edition, which contains, as it is shown, double the music. I also say "smart" because hardcore collectors will want both. In addition, the existence of the Deluxe obviously decreases the competition supply prices for this one...Read more