The original, much-belated-by-ego CD of Blade Runner was something of a botched job, so this 3CD set produced for the anniversary held out the promise of fixing all the original's shortcomings - include the omitted cues, get rid of the dialogue samples, etc. Instead it's actually magnified them. Aside from Tyrell's Death most of the second CDs cues seem to be outtakes and rejected cues while the third is 'inspired' by the film in the worst way - mostly soulless, meandering concrete ambient stuff that sounds like a replicant fanboy's choice of music to stare moodily at the black-painted walls to. With crappy dialogue samples. It definitely improves as it goes along, but never shakes the feeling that it's a rejected 80s album he just slapped the Blade Runner name on to get Universal to release it.

Take the famous opening rumble - the cue is there on the first CD (which is the previous single-CD Vangelis release), but the opening is mixed down so you can hear Harrison Ford telling the computer to track left, zoom in, etc on the photograph. It only becomes dialogue free on the first crescendo. The next cue is mostly Ford and Young talking about owls while the music is mixed down. Because that's obviously what people buy CDs for...

For the uninterrupted score, you have to find the 1994 bootleg CD, which still has more music that's actually from the film than these three CDs put together. This remains a great score but this set is just another terrible album.