War of The Worlds

All newly-expanded and remastered 2-CD set to John Williams 2005 sci-fi gem! Steven Spielberg directs, Tom Cruise stars, Dreamworks Pictures and Paramount Pictures present, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) provide the spectacular effects and of, course, H.G. Wells lays the groundwork with his ever-influential 1897 novel. With John Williams providing the score, you know everything will be a sensation! It’s a score filled to the brim with all manner of excitement, from the interior and complex, to the richly moving and elegiac, from the powerful and terrifying, to the aggressive and relentless. Think large orchestra replete with chorus! Spielberg’s fresh and visceral take on this classic tale of invaders from another world launching an all-out war on Earth with the goal of nothing less than human harvest and annihilation.

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is the debut studio album by Jeff Wayne, retelling the story of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, released September 6, 1978. A concept album, its main format is progressive rock and string orchestra, using narration and leitmotifs to carry the story via rhyming melodic lyrics that express the feelings of the various characters. The two-disc album remains a bestseller, having sold millions of records around the world, and by 2009 it was the 40th best selling album of all time in the UK with sales of 2,561,286. It has since spawned multiple versions of the album, video games, DVDs, and live tours.

Released 40 years after Orson Welles' infamous radio version of the H.G. Wells tale, Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds straddles old-style radio drama and contemporary orchestrated narratives by Rick Wakeman and David Bedford. And while it lacks the sophisticated arrangements of, say, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, it does boast an impressively odd cast – this may be the only time that a member of Thin Lizzy worked with Richard Burton, and the presence of Julie Covington and the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward in very attractive singing roles attest to its pop/rock aspirations. It's Burton's sonorous tones that sustain this work; his frequent solo narrations are eminently listenable, whereas sections featuring dialogue with other characters often come off as a bit stilted. The music is competent studio rock, and "Horsell Common and the Heat Ray" does strike just the right balance between Burton's narration and an accompaniment built around a buzzsaw guitar riff…