grunty
I have reached Yuki nirvana
HTTYD The Deluxe Edition is finally on my shelf and I have some thoughts.
The music is obviously 5/5 for me, one of my favorite scores (and animated movies, unlike its sequels). I did not really look into the technicalities yet. I presume it's the complete score but I didn't compare it to the movie or complete bootlegs. I also remember some bootleg tracks being lossy flacs - I did not compare that to this release yet.
But now this 2CD release. I have thoughts.
Firstly, the bonus tracks and the extra CD.
If you take out the 7 bonus tracks (22m29s), the entire score presentation is 83m22s. Fair, more than one CD.
If you go further and exclude the (unnecessary) Jonsi ending credits song (4m18s), we are left with a glorious 79m4s. Pretty sure that's a single CD.
But fine, maybe they contractually HAVE to include Jonsi's "Sticks & Stones" song on every HTTYD release. Fine - so that extra CD was "necessary". You could've still had the score on one disc for a great single CD listening experience and have the second disc be an extra with the damn song (I don't think any score/Powell completionists/purists would mind this song's omission from the score presentation). But fine, you chose to split the score and the song across two discs ~50/30min. It is what it is and it's fine... Have I already mentioned that it's fine?
So the bonus tracks... With the exception of one alternative recording of the ending track (2m4s), the bonus tracks are all synth demos which I'm pretty sure cost ZERO to release (please inform me if I'm wrong). This is disappointing particularly because these demos are not that different from the final result (composition/arrange wise; they do not appear to be early drafts or anything like that) but also because you could fit almost the entirety of the score in demo form on this 2CD release and it would still cost you zero - why then only 20m26s of demos? Someone please explain. I'm complaining because I feel like this was the perfect opportunity to release additional music from Gift of the Night Fury (I'm not sure if it was all synth. It wasn't by Powell but it's not like the original score is entirely from Powell either) and Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (if it had any original music, it's been a while). Instead we got only these six demos which are very close to the final recordings. Eh.
Secondly, the cover art. Don't get me wrong - I love that poster art, but using the same exact front and back cover 10 years later for a limited edition with a different tracklist? Meh. (see pic for original and deluxe)
Anyways, I'm now going to undermine myself and say - despite my nitpicky complaining - I'm actually VERY happy to finally have an expanded release for HTTYD (like I said, it's one of my favs) and I would surely+gladly get expanded versions of the sequel OSTs should they materialize, too.
Edit:
The mastering on Deluxe appears to be much better than on the original release I have. Makes me happy.
For those wondering how much strictly new stuff there is, the answer is "not much, actually". About 9 minutes plus the original opening to This Is Berk. Some stuff is edited differently than on the original release (some tracks were mixed/crossfaded together on the original release, while they are seperate here; on the flipside "Dragon Battle" is now part of "This Is Berk" on Deluxe - but those two were still crossfaded together on the original release with even less space between), I don't know how much the tracks might differ in the middle (I don't have every single note and sound memorized; I'm not sure why some titles are different on tracks which appear to be the same). Overall, the original album was a good presentation of the score (without comparing the mastering).
The music is obviously 5/5 for me, one of my favorite scores (and animated movies, unlike its sequels). I did not really look into the technicalities yet. I presume it's the complete score but I didn't compare it to the movie or complete bootlegs. I also remember some bootleg tracks being lossy flacs - I did not compare that to this release yet.
But now this 2CD release. I have thoughts.
Firstly, the bonus tracks and the extra CD.
If you take out the 7 bonus tracks (22m29s), the entire score presentation is 83m22s. Fair, more than one CD.
If you go further and exclude the (unnecessary) Jonsi ending credits song (4m18s), we are left with a glorious 79m4s. Pretty sure that's a single CD.
But fine, maybe they contractually HAVE to include Jonsi's "Sticks & Stones" song on every HTTYD release. Fine - so that extra CD was "necessary". You could've still had the score on one disc for a great single CD listening experience and have the second disc be an extra with the damn song (I don't think any score/Powell completionists/purists would mind this song's omission from the score presentation). But fine, you chose to split the score and the song across two discs ~50/30min. It is what it is and it's fine... Have I already mentioned that it's fine?
So the bonus tracks... With the exception of one alternative recording of the ending track (2m4s), the bonus tracks are all synth demos which I'm pretty sure cost ZERO to release (please inform me if I'm wrong). This is disappointing particularly because these demos are not that different from the final result (composition/arrange wise; they do not appear to be early drafts or anything like that) but also because you could fit almost the entirety of the score in demo form on this 2CD release and it would still cost you zero - why then only 20m26s of demos? Someone please explain. I'm complaining because I feel like this was the perfect opportunity to release additional music from Gift of the Night Fury (I'm not sure if it was all synth. It wasn't by Powell but it's not like the original score is entirely from Powell either) and Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (if it had any original music, it's been a while). Instead we got only these six demos which are very close to the final recordings. Eh.
Secondly, the cover art. Don't get me wrong - I love that poster art, but using the same exact front and back cover 10 years later for a limited edition with a different tracklist? Meh. (see pic for original and deluxe)
Anyways, I'm now going to undermine myself and say - despite my nitpicky complaining - I'm actually VERY happy to finally have an expanded release for HTTYD (like I said, it's one of my favs) and I would surely+gladly get expanded versions of the sequel OSTs should they materialize, too.
Edit:
The mastering on Deluxe appears to be much better than on the original release I have. Makes me happy.
For those wondering how much strictly new stuff there is, the answer is "not much, actually". About 9 minutes plus the original opening to This Is Berk. Some stuff is edited differently than on the original release (some tracks were mixed/crossfaded together on the original release, while they are seperate here; on the flipside "Dragon Battle" is now part of "This Is Berk" on Deluxe - but those two were still crossfaded together on the original release with even less space between), I don't know how much the tracks might differ in the middle (I don't have every single note and sound memorized; I'm not sure why some titles are different on tracks which appear to be the same). Overall, the original album was a good presentation of the score (without comparing the mastering).
Last edited:
