As has become customary for the prequel albums, the credits segue into music from later in the film, but returning to material accompanying the opening battle sequence later in the track. Another reviewer described it as Williams' "Walton ceremonial style" action music and I can understand the comment; it doesn't have dizzying agility, but soldiers on with menacingly asymmetric rhythms, punctuated by the typical mixture of woodwind runs over brass and percussion. Occasionally a little directionless, but exciting none the less. For all the digital knowhow at his disposal (and an essentially limitless budget), Lucas' dream sequences seemed surprisingly hokey, but Williams' churning music effectively brings them to life as in the ensuing track. From this point, the score starts to make its mark as an extremely dark piece of work and far from the frolics of A New Hope.
As I rather suspected might be the case, there is no new character theme this time, but Battle of the Heroes, which would be a wonderful change of direction for a Star Wars score had Duel of the Fates not got in their first (and with a better title). Unlike Fates' idiomatic choral writing, here the choir somewhat clumsily follows the strangely offbeat melody - there is little of Fates' imaginative interplay between chorus and orchestra, nor its taut dramatic narrative. Indeed, Battle of the Heroes has a somewhat under developed structure and its brief quote of the Force theme feels a little forced. If it was pure underscore, this would be understandable, but as a concert arrangement, surprisingly clunky. The brass hit finale also feels remarkably cheesy and, dare I say it, lazy as a conclusion. Far more effective would have been to allow the opening string figure to burn itself out and close on a quiet, low note rather than shoehorn in an unnecessarily explosive ending. A metaphor for the score itself; generally fine, occasionally brilliant, but a couple of surprisingly awkward moments.
Some of the score's best and worst moments are at the film's dramatic centre. Anakin's Betrayal and The Immolation Scene are highlights. The former is almost Wagnerian in its melodrama, while the latter recalls the angst of Born on the Fourth of July, quite rightly standing out as it accompanies one of the film's most powerful scenes (although, in truth, the film should have been filled with far more of them). On the flip side, Palpatine's Teachings and Padme's Ruminations are as tedious as others have made out. The latter is fairly effective in the film, but its wailing vocals are flat on disc, while the low end groaning vocals of the former are similarly uninspiring even if the lonely brass solo introduced later in the cue works well. While effective in the film itself, neither are great album material nor are they especially typical of the Star Wars musical universe (particularly the wailing vocals, the most annoying soundtrack cliché du jour) which dislocates them even further from the rest.
The remaining action has its moments. General Grievous continues the Chase Through Coruscant style of Attack of the Clones but at an even more frenetic pace and includes some fine percussion writing. Grievous and the Droids picks up the thread, but seems to have lost a little momentum in the interim. Anakin vs Obi-Wan makes great use of Battle of the Heroes, plus a reprise of the Duel from The Empire Strikes Back even if, strangely, those portions do not actually accompany Master vs Learner in the film itself. I'm not entirely convinced that such material sits ideally alongside the surging Battle of the Heroes chorus and doesn't even seem an especially clever reuse of material. If the material is quoted to show history repeating itself, then the film doesn't confirm this notion so its use seems somewhat mystifying.
The Birth of the Twins is rather creepy, but Padme's Destiny reprises the funeral music from The Phantom Menace and reinforces how sublime a composition it is. A New Hope quotes the themes for both Luke and Leia (although not their combined theme from Return of the Jedi) before launching into what is almost a fantastic Star Wars End Credits redux (but, annoyingly, isn't). The main (or Luke's theme) starts off as usual, with the original segue into Leia's - thus looking forward to Episode IV, but also bringing back some of those sorely missed melodies. At climax of Leia's theme, Williams pulls off a brilliant segue into Battle of the Heroes, which blends into the Throne Room (extended edition from later compilations), but instead of simply using the original link back into the credits, it stops in its tracks and picks up again with the descending string motif before the credits ending from Return of the Jedi. Musically clumsy, it spoils what is so close to being an outstanding conclusion and even more irritating when all the links are written, they just need to be put together in the right order.
That Revenge of the Sith is the most atypical of the Star Wars scores is certainly not an issue and there are a swathe of outstanding moments, but it also has a couple of rather dull tracks and a few where Williams seems to have been curiously uninspired, verging on careless. Not quite up to the par of the others, but I am bound to say that as with most Williams scores, it is truly a relative measure and there are unlikely to many finer efforts this year (although Howard Shore may once again pull out all the stops for Peter Jackson's King Kong). If nothing else, if Williams stays away from Potter and with no more Star Wars, he'll have a bit more free time around his Spielberg assignments to work on some films of real, rather than CGI popcorn drama.
The Bonus DVD disc is, as far as I know, available with all copies and is a fine collection of clips from all six films, beautifully remixed (if only the original trilogy albums sounded so good on CD) with only small amounts of dialogue here and there. The introductions to each chapter by Ian McDiarmid are a little flat, but can easily be omitted and the highlights from Williams' 28 year assignment can be enjoyed in a 70 minute mega remix. Given that it makes no difference to the retail price, it's a nice bonus that seems like a surprisingly generous extra when every Star Wars fan will buy the album anyway and could have been a "special edition" at premium rate. Thanks to Sony, thanks to Uncle George and mainly, thanks to JW.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 70:45