A heavily armored box set with enough firepower to destroy an entire wallet is coming from Mondo this week.
Michael Giacchino's score to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - recently surprise-released as a generous digital expanded edition - will get an 4LP release from the venerated collector's label/imprint, featuring all of the soundtrack material issued in 2016 along with an hour of unreleased and alternative material. (Fans will surely keep hoping for a CD edition; after all, rebellions are built on hope.)
One of the first significant expansions of Star Wars lore after Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm (The Force Awakens, the first in a new trilogy, premiered a year before), Rogue One fills in an exciting gap in the margins of the original film: the tale of how the plans for the Empire's dreaded Death Star fell into the hands of the heroic Rebel Alliance. A ragtag group of freedom fighters - including former prisoner Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), hardened soldier Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and Imperial spy Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) - venture into the heart of evil to recover the best-kept secret in the galaxy, staying one step ahead of the battle station's calculating director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn).
With a few surprising cameos from the original series - including a fearsome turn from the villainous Darth Vader and a digital recreation of Hammer horror legend Peter Cushing as the chilly Imperial governor Tarkin - the film slotted nicely into the classic canon while also offering tantalizing new ideas in the series (chiefly Donnie Yen's blind warrior monk, who puts his faith in the all-mystic Force without taking arms as a Jedi). Rogue One became the second highest-grossing film of the year, sending the Disney Star Wars era into hyperspace; a prequel series featuring Luna as Andor is slated for release on Disney+ later this year.
While Giacchino is considered by many as one of the closest heirs apparent to original series composer John Williams, he was not the first choice, signing onto Gareth Edwards' film after a series of reshoots meant that original composer Alexandre Desplat (who collaborated with Edwards on a 2014 reimagining of Godzilla) was no longer available. With only four and a half weeks at his disposal, the Oscar-winning Up composer brought together rousing action cues and contemplative moments with tasteful quotations of Williams' iconic motifs. (The film's finale, "Hope," finds the Giacchino/Williams hybrid at an apex, when Vader tears through a group of Rebels before the starship seen in the original 1977 film makes its daring escape.)
"This project was an almost five-week whirlwind of writing, recording, and mixing but I couldn't have been more enthusiastic about the adventure and will always look back on those days with fond memories," Giacchino said in the statement announcing the new reissue. "As with all the film scores I compose, my goal was to serve the story and the emotions of the film, but I think it was my 10-year-old brain who had the most fun composing for this new and exciting set of Star Wars characters and the worlds they inhabit."
Mondo's box set, produced in conjunction with Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Records, will be available to order Wednesday, February 16 at 12 p.m. CST at Mondo's official store, where it will retail for $75. The new packaging - including stark black-and-white sleeves designed by John Powell (no relation to the composer who happened to do the music for Solo, the other Star Wars spinoff) - will house four 180-gram LPs and new liner notes from the composer. Thirty-six of the set's tracks - including the entire final side of the set - feature cues not issued on the original soundtrack six years ago or wholly unused material, including alternate takes of thematic suites.
Check out the full track breakdown below and get ready for your attack run this week at Mondo's official web store.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Expanded Edition) (Mondo, 2022)
* previously unreleased. All other tracks released on Walt Disney Records D0024247-02, 2016
LP 1
- He's Here for Us
- A Long Ride Ahead
- Wobani Imperial Labor Camp
- There Are Spies Everywhere *
- The Detention of Jyn Erso *
- Jyn's Interrogation *
- Mission to Jedha *
- Trust Goes Both Ways
- When Has Become Now
- Jyn's Memories of Childhood *
- Jedha Arrival
- Hearts of Kyber *
- Ambush in Jedha City *
- Jedha City Ambush
- Let Them Pass in Peace (Part 1) *
- Let Them Pass in Peace (Part 2) *
- No Friends of The Empire *
- Imperial Departure *
- Reunion At Saw's Hideout *
- Cassian's Prison *
- Today of All Days *
LP 2
- Star-Dust
- An Imperial Test of Power *
- Apologies Are in Order *
- News from the Ashes *
- Approach to Eadu *
- No Trust Among Rebels *
- Jyn's Path is Clear *
- Confrontation on Eadu
- Krennic's Aspirations
- Rebellions Are Built on Hope
- A Rebel Change of Heart *
- Rogue One
LP 3
- Cargo Shuttle SW608
- Good Luck Little Sister *
- What Brings You to Scarif *
- Are We Blind *
- Scrambling the Rebel Fleet
- AT-ACT Assault
- Finding a Way Through *
- Project Star-Dust *
- Entering the Imperial Archives *
- Get That Beach Under Control *
- The Master Switch
- We Have to Press the Attack *
- Antenna Alignment *
LP 4
- Your Father Would Be Proud
- Hope
- Jyn Erso & Hope Suite
- The Imperial Suite
- Guardians of the Whills Suite
- Jyn Erso & Hope Suite (Alternate Open) *
- Guardians of the Whills Suite (Alternate Ending) *
- A Long Ride Ahead (Alternate Ending) *
- Jedha City Ambush (Alternate) *
- Rebellions Are Built on Hope (Alternate) *
- Scarif Antenna Alignment (Alternate) *
Robert says
CD Please!
Kerry says
Who really cares about star wars all lower case letters are appropriate!!!!
John Phillips says
I doubt there will be a CD. Two years back, an expanded Solo: A Star Wars Story score was released only digitally.