John Williams: A Life In Music [VINYL]

This is the worse sounding new vinyl I have ever heard. It crackles and pops all the way through to the point you can't listen to it. The quiet parts are completely ruined by the crackles and pops. I even cleaned it with my vinyl washer and still no better. I assume I either got a bad one or they are all rubbish. Shame as I like the look of the vinyl and the music is good if you can hear it. It's going back for a refund.

First things first let me just say that there's nothing new on this LP. They're all tracks that any John Williams fan will have heard a hundred times. That said, they're supposedly new recordings by the LSO, and they are all very good and well done.Otherwise this LP seems a bit gimmicky. From the "cosmic" vinyl, to the booklet with very little info and random stock photo backgrounds, it just smacks of a bit of a cash in.Quality wise, the afore-mentioned recordings are all very good, perhaps not the difinitive versions in some cases (Schindler's List), but they are all well produced and come across very well in the vinyl...once you get rid of the dust from the hard cardboard packaging.Would I recommend it? Maybe. If you're a collector and would just like another take on these classic tracks, or if you'd just like to hear them on vinyl and can't stump up the outlay for the other grandious boxsets on the market, then go for it.Otherwise, as I said at the start, there's nothing really new here once you get passed the marketing.

The vinyl record itself is a beautiful design, a really nice cosmic splash look; unfortunately that's where the positives end for this would be lovely item. The packaging doesn't really have much extra information for good reading and the inner sleeve left lots of flecks of paper on the record. The most disappointing part to this release is that the quality control of the pressing it utterly terrible. The first one I received had terrible clicking and pops on the inner tracks. The replacement one had a visible fibre pressed into the grooves. Which ever manufacturer this was produced at, haven't done a good job at all. It is a shame since I love the look of it but if I can't play it as part of the enjoyment then I'm not going to keep it.

In support of the contributions of Jonno (6 May) and Dingle (6 September) and to politely disagree with the rather unfair criticism of Jonno's entry by Ms ingham, NickatVAB and ST, the sound quality of this CD is quite frankly appalling. If this is where we are in 2018 and if the engineers responsible for this are proud of their achievement, there is no hope for us. Thank Heaven we can still buy early recordings from the 50's (unfortunately not of John Williams output) but which are far, far superior to this dross in terms of sound quality. I will resist the temptation to analyse the limited dynamic range and flatness of this CD, suffice to say it does not reveal any of the majesty of a highly respected symphony orchestra in full flow. The ET "Flying" track is quite the worst example of this piece I have ever heard. The Classic fm connection may partially explain the sound quality issue but Decca should hang their heads in shame.

Great classic soundtrack titles, but it's a shame there's only 10 (other John Williams albums have the exact same songs but far more of them). I went to record it onto my PC so I could copy it onto my phone and for some weird reason my Microsoft Media Player programme came up with all the album info in Chinese not English. So I then had to manually change everything, which did work out.

Have yet to test this CD as I have bought it as a Stocking filler, so I can’t comment on sound quality as some other reviewers have.For me this was at a great price, especially for what I want it for, the paper sleeve is strong and does the job, and the illustrations are nice. However there is one downside, I removed the packaging as I’d bought it to hide a ticket inside, and took out the booklet that came with it. For some reason despite the package being sealed on arrival, the booklet was damaged in one corner. All of the pages were stuck together in the bottom corner next to the ‘spine’, and it almost looks burnt. As this is a gift it’s quite dissapointing to see as I now have a torn book, but for the price I can live with it. I can see that no other purchasers have had this problem, so I must have just gotten unlucky.

A fantastic CD. But anything by John Williams is great. My only problem is that it would have been far, far better had it been a double or triple CD. Or am I being greedy.

Excellent CD but disappointed to see si few tunes in it