Film Music 2012 is the sixth instalment in the acclaimed annual “Year Book” concept from Silva Screen. Snapshot of the best on offer in a cinematic music 2012 year, this engaging compilation features music as varied as themes from the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Ted, Skyfall and The Hunger Games...

It's that time again when Silva Screen Records collect together a handful of themes and memorable tracks from the previous year's Hollywood movie output. As we've come to expect, while not the original recordings, these are as near as possible to the quality of the originals thanks to both The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and London Music Works.

I'm a bit of a stickler for "copies" and really don't enjoy reworkings, but I own the albums for several of the releases reproduced here and I couldn't tell the difference. In fact when played next to each other its hard to tell which is the original and which is the reworking. And that to me is all the excuse to push this album to soundtrack fans as a taster for albums they may not have thought of purchasing. While I own the majority of the soundtracks that are included here, my interest was peaked enough to ensure that I sought out both the Ted and Lincoln scores from iTunes.

It was sad to discover two tracks where the composers seemed to have practically phoned in music from previous works. For example, John Williams seemed to be reworking his score for Saving Private Ryan for Lincoln (even though it's a fantastic score), while Hans Zimmer has revisited Gladiator for The Dark Knight Rises. Actually this is something Williams seems to have been doing for a few years now and I'm starting to wonder if he hasn't actually retired and has got a "ghost composer" to rework old scores.

The only track that doesn't sound like the original is the theme to Skyfall, which replaces Adele's singing with an electric guitar - which makes it sound a little cheesy. Otherwise this is a faultless collection.

Track listing:

01 - 'End Titles' (Ted) - Walter Murphy
02 - 'New York City Surprise' (Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted) - Hans Zimmer
03 - 'Fate and Destiny' (Brave) - Patrick Doyle
04 - 'Freedom's Call' (Lincoln) - John Williams
05 - 'Snow White' (Snow White and the Huntsman) - James Newton Howard
06 - 'Life' (Prometheus) - Harry Gregson-Williams
07 - 'Over Hill' (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) - Howard Shore
08 - 'Imagine the Fire' (The Dark Knight Rises) - Hans Zimmer
09 - 'The Avengers' (Avengers Assemble) - Alan Silvestri
10 - 'Young Peter' (The Amazing Spider-Man) - James Horner
11 - 'Rue's Farewell' (The Hunger Games) - James Newton Howard
12 - 'Skyfall' - instrumental (Skyfall) - Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth

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Darren Rea