The Daily Spin, October 8
John Williams | Jurassic Park
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Jurassic Park (1993)
Artist: John Williams
Link:
The fact that we are alive when both John Williams and Hans Zimmer are also alive and producing as they do is a testament to how lucky we really are, us modern folk.
Though he’ll always be most notable for his work on some of the most iconic themes of my childhood (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones), I think few tracks have stuck so deeply in my head as the ‘Theme from Jurassic Park’. From the beginning, the lone horn opening into this gently sweeping string arrangement, all the glory of a new world, these almost-tentative steps of the instruments as the song marches forward, a harp underlying the near-impossibility of it all. The star, of course, is that fantastic waterfall of sound about a minute-and-a-half in, the notes we’ve all come to know entirely as the ‘Jurassic Park’ riff, but even the rest of the song, which largely settles around it, is designed to portray every single inch of the majesty you see in front of you, and does so with remarkable aplomb.
This is the greatest strength of a composer like Williams - to make something so obviously a horrendous idea seem majestic, beautiful, and genius all at once. It’s a deeply moving score, one that underlines the utter insanity of the project itself while also showcasing the hopes and dreams of those that built it - and being able to portray all those emotions at once is something only a few truly special people are capable of.
That’s the Williams touch, baybee. It’s why he’s the GOAT.
Rating: 9.2/10
Best Tracks: Theme from Jurassic Park; A Tree For My Bed
Worst Tracks: The Raptor Attack