Sep 11, 2019

Expanded Score CD for Danny Elfman's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996) Out this Week from La-La Land

Years in the making, La-La Land Records finally made the announcement today that Mission: Impossible fans have been craving: an expanded score CD featuring Danny Elfman's amazing music from the first Tom Cruise Mission movie! The 2-disc limited edition soundtrack to the 1996 Brian De Palma film (review here) will contain the original score album assembly, mastered by Patricia Sullivan, on Disc 1, while Disc 2 (per the label) "showcases the remastered film score, expanding the original album release by more than twenty minutes. Produced by Dan Goldwasser and Neil S. Bulk and remastered by Mike Matessino, this powerhouse 2-CD set is limited to 3000 units and features exclusive liner notes by writer Jeff Bond. The sleek art direction is by Dan Goldwasser." It should be noted that, like the original score album, this release will not contain the version of Lalo Schifrin's "Mission: Impossible Theme" by U2's Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, which was originally included on the entirely different album Mission: Impossible - Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture (remember those annoying "From and Inspired by" albums so popular in the late Nineties?), and also issued as a single. Elfman's music, however, frequently incorporates Shifrin's theme, too, as well as his distinctive cue "The Plot" from the Sixties TV show. Missing from the track list for the new release are the three Elfman tracks originally included on that "From and Inspired by" album, but my guess is that that those tracks contain music already inclued in other tracks on the original score album. (Can anyone confirm or refute that?) Last year, Mondo released Elfman's Mission: Impossible score on vinyl, but that release contained no extra music.

Strictly limited to 3000 units, La-La Land's Mission: Impossible - Limited Edition soundtrack retails for $29.98. It's available to order now, and starts shipping later this week on September 13.

Here's the full track listing from the La-La Land website:

DISC 1 ORIGINAL POINT MUSIC SCORE ALBUM
1. Sleeping Beauty(†) 2:33
2. Theme From Mission: Impossible(§) 1:07
    Composed by Lalo Schifrin, arr. Danny Elfman
3. Red Handed(§) 4:23
4. Big Trouble 5:37
5. Love Theme? 2:24
6. Mole Hunt 3:05
7. The Disc(†) 1:58
8. Max Found 1:05
9. Looking for “Job”(†) 4:40
10. Betrayal 2:59
11. The Heist(†) 5:49
12. Uh-Oh! 1:31
13. Biblical Revelation 1:37
14. Phone Home 2:28
15. Train Time(§)(†) 4:15
16. Ménage à Trois 2:57
17. Zoom A 1:54
18. Zoom B(§) 2:58
TOTAL DISC TIME: 53:20

DISC 2 FILM SCORE
1. Sleeping Beauty**(†) (Film Version) 3:03
2. Theme From Mission: Impossible(§) 1:07
    Composed by Lalo Schifrin, arr. Danny Elfman
3. Red Handed** (†/§) (Film Version) 6:21
4. Big Trouble** (Film Version) 7:01
5. Lonely March* 0:54
6. Mole Hunt** (Film Version)/Escape* 3:35
7. Looking For “Job”(†) 4:44
8. Max Returns*/Max At Last* 1:30
9. Max Found 1:05
10. The Disc(†) 1:59
11. Disavowed*/Worse Than You Think** (†) 2:48
12. Langley*(§) 1:01
13. The Heist** (†) (Film Version) 5:05
14. Uh-Oh! 1:31
15. Biblical Revelation 1:36
16. Phone Home 2:28
17. Betrayal** (Film Version) 3:01
18. Love Theme? 2:24
19. Train Time** (Film Version)/Is He?* 5:33
20. Ménage à Trois 2:57
21. Zoom A** (Film Version)/Zoom B**(§) (Film Version) 5:21

ADDITIONAL MUSIC
22. Red Handed**(†) (Alternate Ending) 1:46
23. Disavowed* (Alternate)/Worse Than You Think*(†) (Alternate) 2:59
24. Zoom A** (Alternate)/Zoom B**(§) (Alternate) 5:19
TOTAL DISC TIME: 75:15

TOTAL ALBUM TIME: 128:35

* previously unreleased
** contains previously unreleased material
§ contains “Theme From Mission: Impossible” by Lalo Schifrin
† contains “The Plot” by Lalo Schifrin
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2 comments:

  1. Quiller1:01 PM

    Tanner,

    I can indeed confirm that the three Elfman tracks featured on the “From and Inspired” album are tracks included on the score album, albeit under different titles. I bought the “From and Inspired” album barely days after seeing the movie in the theater… and immediately regretted it because it didn’t have near enough of the score and only two of the catalog tracks appeared in the movie proper.

    Anyhow, the track titled “Impossible Mission” is a mashup of parts of three cues from the score album: “Sleeping Beauty” heard over the pretitle sequence, “The Heist” heard during Ethan and Krieger’s trek through the heating ducts to the computer vault at Langley, and a third track which I believe is called “Max Found” heard when Ethan is taken into custody by Max’s operatives in Prague. “Claire” is in fact the “Betrayal” track from the score album, heard during the flashback sequence at the London terminal. I don’t have the album handy so I don’t recall the name of the third track, but it’s a mashup of “Train Time” (first establishing shot of the bullet train) and “Zoom B” (second half of the train chase, once it enters the Chunnel). Significantly, this track on the “From and Inspired by” album is the only one to feature an Elfman rendering of the M:I theme.

    Man, those “from and inspired by” albums in the 90s were weird, weren’t they? The M:I version seemed to be an attempt to cash in on/promote the short-lived Britpop trend, with tracks like Massive Attack’s “Spying Glass,” Pulp’s “I Spy,” and Gavin Friday’s “You, Me, and World War III” chosen because… well, because they had the word “spy” or something related in their titles. The only tracks on the album that were heard in the movie were, of course, the Mullen/Clayton version of the theme (over the end credits), and the Cranberries’ “Dreams” (heard as digetic music in the penultimate scene between Ethan and Luther at the café). And at that point “Dreams” was already four years old.

    I’ll also mention that this same team was involved in a terrific set of La-La Land Records reissues, between 2011 and 2014, of the scores to the OTHER big ‘90s espionage franchise from Paramount – Basil Poledouris’s Hunt for Red October, James Horner’s Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and Jerry Goldsmith’s Sum of All Fears. So we have good reason to expect great things from this release. My recollection is that the ’96 release on Point Music was pretty comprehensive, but it’s been years since I watched the movie or listened to the album, so if they’ve actually unearthed some hidden treasures that didn’t make it onto the original album, I’ll be glad to have them.

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  2. Tanner11:59 AM

    Thanks for that detailed clarification, Quiller! Yeah, there's not THAT much new material, but still enough to make the expanded release a must for fans of the series. Right: the theme of the M:I from & inspired by album (almost none of which was actually inspired by, most of it pre-dating the film) seemed to be Britpop tunes with "spy" in the title. Including Pulp's "I Spy."

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