Composed by Michael Giacchino

UMC Music, out now

Michael Giacchino steps in to score the first Star Wars anthology movie.

The absence of the blaring Star Wars main theme crashing in at the beginning of Rogue One was particularly noticeable at cinemas, but the rest of the musical score fit well with the film and the franchise, and proves a worthy listen on the soundtrack album. Coming in relatively late to replace original composer Alexander Desplat, Michael Giacchino delivers us a score that is fitting on many levels.

It’s not John Williams, it’s not trying to be John Williams, but it is its own score, and it most definitely is a Star Wars score. Giacchino brings an ethos to the scoring that echoes the background ethos that Williams brought in 1977; it’s sweeping and epic in tracks such as Jedha Arrival, it has the flighty woodwinds in Star-Dust, and it has the operatic Wagnerian quality in its darker moments and in its magnificent and memorable leitmotifs for Director Krennic and the Empire.

Where the score feels less Star Wars-ish is perhaps in its action cues, which are more clearly Giacchino doing what he does in modern film. This still works, of course, as these cues fit the scenes, and are as very well done as we expect from this composer. Even here, though, you can hear the influence of other entries in the franchise – some reversals of musical phrases from Tie Fighter Attack on the score for A New Hope are discernible in the Confrontation On Eadu track, marking where the Rebel X Wings arrive in action for the first time in the film.

A lot of longtime fans probably want to hear familiar cues from the franchise, and indeed Williams’s cues from A New Hope, and The Imperial March do appear. The triumphant swelling of the Force theme in Wobani Imperial Labour Camp is a lovely moment, perfectly placing the listener in the Star Wars universe. Likewise, the snippets of the Imperial March in Krennic’s Aspirations and Hope really hit the musical spot. The Rebels also get a lovely suite in the form of Rogue One, blending in the Force theme and a moment of Leia’s theme with those of the film’s charaters. Of course the various battle tracks in the latter third of the album have some obvious uses of battle music from Episodes IV and VI mixed in with Giacchino’s driving and evocative themes. These tracks are both epic in sweep and emotionally engaging, as war-themed music perhaps should be.

Not all of the Williams cues are necessarily obvious in the film, and the soundtrack gives a great opportunity to actually pick up on some of the quieter moments that were drowned out by sound effects and dialogue in the film- both the Emperor’s Theme and the Death Star interior mood music in Krennic’s Aspirations, and the Imperial Attack drumbeat in Hope. There are even some nice musical Easter eggs such as the Death Star’s musical sting, which sneaks into It Has Become Now.

What really sells the score, though, is the use of the sounds of instruments themselves, proportioning the instruments used in the orchestra just as Williams did in 1977, so that the score feels like it is from then – and also occasionally bringing even more retro, 1930s Flash Gordon style moments, further playing on the franchise’s own inspirations. The last few tracks on the album are nice concert suite versions of the new themes. Jyn’s is a gorgeous violin-based theme, which actually almost sounds in the latter parts like a really good Bond girl theme. Krennic and the Empire’s has an almost Soviet quality, and Baze and Chirrut’s, appropriately enough, is a thoughtful and wistful theme that sounds as if it’s about to become the Force theme, but doesn’t. Lovely, and as pleasant to listen to as they were in the earlier tracks in which they appear.

Verdict: This is one of the better soundtrack albums released over the past few years, and, it must be said, knocks seven bells out of Williams’s own The Force Awakens score. Disney could do a lot worse than keep Giacchino as the heir to the musical Empire. 9/10

David A McIntee