The Jerry Goldsmith Collection: Volume One - The Rarities features 23 tracks of new recordings of some of Goldsmith’s rarely heard themes including a Dominik Hauser’s recording of the complete score for Seven Days in May, the unused theme for the modern crime thriller 2 Days in the Valley, 'Comes The Night' from the rarely screened Sebastian, Chuck Cirino’s rendition of Goldsmith’s theme from Rio Conchos, arranger Joohyun Park’s take on 'The Sentence' from Warlock, vocalist Katie Campbell’s interpretation of the theme from The Illustrated Man, and 'If We Could Remember' from one of his final films The Sum of All Fears...

This album represents some of the rare tracks from Jerry Goldsmith's varied movie career. I have to admit that on balance I found this more hit than miss - with some of the reworkings taking away from the original, while others hardly seemed worth adding at all ('Judge Dredd Teaser' for example).

I'm not overly sure how hard it is to track down the original soundtracks to some of the tracks included here, or whether any of them have never been released to buy, but this is an album for hardcore Goldsmith fans only. While it does have its moments, there are more poor tracks than good - which as a Goldsmith fan myself, I have to admit pretty much sums up his career. He was either delivering wonderful scores or music that was dull and dated very quickly.

Highlights include 'Chinatown - End Credits'; 'The Detective - Dark Song'; 'Two Days in the Valley'; and 'The Sum Of All Fears.'

As a taster for Goldsmith's often overlooked work (although I can't understand why music from Poltergeist was included - the CD is still easy to get hold of for less than £10) this may prove of interest to his fan base, but to general soundtrack collectors there's very little to get excited about.

The album contains 23 tracks and lasts for 1 hr, 16 min, 44 sec.

6

Darren Rea