My favorite Trek sound tracks: TOS movies: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Star Trek: The Motion Picture TNG: Star Trek Nemesis and I love the new Trek movie soundtracks.
The best music - on its own - moves you and takes you on a journey. The composers who can do that are masters.
Michael Giacchino often does - we're lucky to have him aboard Trek, even if it's not his best cinematic work. That's probably Up.
I have yet to see 'Up;' it's on my 'to see' list. The first Giacchino score I heard and liked was for "The Incredibles." (One of my favorite films).
I'm mostly a Jerry Goldsmith guy. Joel, I posted this elsewhere a while back, but I think you may get a chuckle out of it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X0cfl52sps In other news: I haven't watched Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in quite a few years. I can't say it's my favorite, but I'm holding out, curious if its '80's' feel will be more effective in years to come, in the way that the original series' Tomorrow is Yesterday benefits from the passage of time. Sort of unrelated...but I thought the beam-in sound accompanying the main title in ST IV was a sound effect too far. And I still say IV's main theme reminds me of Christmas music.
TMP set a new standard for movie soundtracks when it premiered. I recall that even the critics and fans who panned the film positively gushed over the score. TFF was a surprisingly good score. I use it for background and RPG music with regularity. First Contact's score was amazing. I turned to my wife in the theater as the opening credits faded into Picard's dream and told her, "Even if the rest of the film is dreadful, I've had my money's worth!" TWOK and TSFS were excellent for their time. Unfortunately Horner continued to write for film and now all I can think is, "Oh, look! The starship Titanic just hit the giant space iceberg!" 09 and STID are good scores with a couple of great tracks each, but somehow don't quite sing when listened to without the films. Insurrection and Nemesis are both far better than the films they accompany. TVH... Lord, but I hate every aspect of that film. This is the only Trek soundtrack that I no longer own seperately. I cringe at it's 80s bubblegum shallowness. My favorite piece of Trek music, however, is the intro to DS9. It's the ringtone on my phone!
It's a matter of age with Horner. When TWOK came out, my friends were bitching about how it all sounded like THE WOLFEN and BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS ... and they were right! I can't think of anyone else who has been so shamelessly derivative and yet so overwhelmingly successful. For me, it has always been TMP, TFF, select pieces of TWOK like SNEAK ATTACK frenzied portions and, TV-wise, THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE and THE EMPATH (also the good exciting stuff on TIN MAN.)
I can't distinguish the soundtracks all that well, but I do know I absolutely LOVE Goldsmith's "Klingon Imperial Theme".
It does repeat, but I like it. I remember this kid (probably in middle school at the time) sitting in the back of me whistling the theme song during the closing credits of the 2009 film. It was awesome.