CD REVIEW - Silverado


Silverado
Music by Bruce Broughton
Intrada MAF 7096
Disc 1 - 18 Tracks 48:03 mins Disc 2 - 9 Tracks 38:01 mins

It seems to be raining expanded western scores, what with the classic Per un Pugno di Dollari, reviewed here yesterday and now Bruce Broughton's fantastic score for 1985's Silverado.
Intrada's previous album release of the score totalled some 46 minutes and was a good representation of the score but, whilst that album featured pretty much all the best tracks, there's still plenty of interest here to make this a worthwhile purchase. On the first disc, "The Strongbox Rescue," for instance, offers the first appearance of the splendid extension to the main theme, heard over the End Credits track "We'll Be Back," and "Party Crashers" is a suitably menacing action cue; whilst on the second disc, the scoring of the concluding battle scenes, previously only partially represented, is here presented in full over three tracks totalling some 22 minutes plus. Also included for the first time is the film's wrap-up music, which leads into the wonderful aforementioned final cue "We'll Be Back."
Three bonus cues fill out the second disc; two fiddle-lead source dance cues "The Bradley Place" and "The Silverado Waltz," together with an alternate take of one of the suspenseful sections of the final battle music.
The colourful accompanying booklet features notes by the composer, director Lawrence Kasdan and Intrada's own Douglass Fake. I just wish the cover artwork from the previous release had been retained, but this is just a minor quibble.
Incidentally, and as previously reported, the western delights continue, as Intrada are also releasing an extended two-disc version of Broughton's score for Tombstone - another must-have release.