I am a fan of Michael Giacchino's scores, particularly for the TV show LOST,
Star Trek - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and his more recent
Super 8 that I thought was exceptional. This is my first score that I have in the MI series, so apart from Lalo Schifrin's main theme which is reprised, I can't comment on whether any of Giacchino's music from the last film has been used in this release.
In essence, Ghost Protocol is a decent action score but never feels frantic. There's no hint of the choppy ostinato technique that Zimmer and his associates often use to keep up the pace, with Giacchino instead choosing to a more intelligent approach to the orchestrations and percussive elements that makes for a rewarding listen on album.
I won't go over every track in depth (there's 22 in total), but some favourites of mine included a Russian style choir and theme introduced in "Kremlin With Anticipation" (Track 5) and "From Russia With Shove" (Track 6). The penultimate track "Putting the Miss in Mission" (Track 21) was one of my favourites - the pace was much slower and writing for the string section was fantastic.
The insertion of Lalo Schifrin's main theme into the score was well executed alongside Giacchino's material, and was used more frequently than I had expected. My only other point of reference for music with a central recurring theme are for the James Bond scores, and I personally thought Schifrin's MI theme worked better throughout compared to composers who have reorchestrated John Barry's main theme into their James Bond scores. That might be down to the fact that Giacchino and his team are just particularly good at adapting previously written themes alongside their own, and credit where it is due.
The album runs for 72 minutes, which is probably above average for a score release. The majority of the tracks are over three minutes so they do have a bit of time to develop which is always a good thing. The sound quality is great, as you would hope and expect. On a small side note, Giacchino always names the tracks on the album himself, and some of names are cheesy but they do raise a smile. Ghost Protocol is no exception!
Overall, I thought this was a great score - but I can't comment on whether Giacchino's material for MI3 was in any way reused for this release because this is the first score I have purchased in the MI series. If you liked his score for MI3, I would imagine you would love this release, and for those of you who are fans of Michael Giacchino's style of music, his trademark is stamped all over this. Enjoy!