I've been listening to the cds to the music box since Monday. Tonight I plan on listening to Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow. I've already listened to PWBA, Beetlejuice, B89, ES, BR and,TBTNBC. All in order. I'll talk about Elfman's non Batman scores on The Danny Elfman Appreciation Thread. iI wanted to talk about Elfman's Batman scores up here since the thread was kind of about those two scores being included in the music box.
The first 21 tracks is the original 1989 Batman album. With improved sound and the same album/micro edits. With the exception of "Attack of the Batwing" cue being in it's entirety. The problem if you have the LLL album you're not missing much, b/c the LLLCD has the complete score with alternates. The album that's in the music box has a few of the same tracks that were added on the LLLCD. The music box version has synth mock ups and worktapes of Elfman's ideas for the baman and joker themes which are really neat. I think the sound quality for this album ,imo, might be slightly better than the LLLCD release and of course the original release. On another note there's also another track that's slightly different than the LLLCD. The track "Batwing I" now finishes in it's entirety, where the LLLCD cut off a few seconds (like 3) of the music where the batwing is heading into Gotham. Probably b/c the masters that they had had the film version where the prince song (Trust) cuts it off as the Joker is about to prepare his plan to gas Gotham. Still a nice release. Especially hearing Elfman's process of creating themes through synth mock-ups and worktapes.
The BR music box version is exactly the same tracks (excluding the "Face to Face" song) and album edits as the original 1992 album. It has a few of the new tracks that the LLLCD added in their complete score album. Which once again the LLLCD is more superior at. Especially if you want more music and not to mention the complete score with alternates. The main thing you'll be missing (if you don't have it already) are four tracks that are synth demos and worktapes by Elfman of the Penguin's theme. Which are nice. Especially the synth demo of "Death of the Penguin", which is almost exactly like the film version, but only done on synthesisers.
Overall I prefer the B89 MB version over BR music box b/c it offered more bonus stuff of Elfman's synth-demos and worktapes (that's probably b/c BR original album is a longer album than B89 original album. Therefore, B89 is able to fit more music). Not to mention you can hear the "Batwing I" track in it's entirety. But you're really not missing much if you have the LLL albums of both. B/c of the Elfmanite that I am. I love as much Elfman music I can have. So all the Batman albums have their merits to me.
