The first CD of the set opens with the necessary suite from Elfman's personal favorite (and most fans' favorites from the composer), Edward Scissorhands. Elfman touches on both the comedic and tragic elements of the score by ranging in inclusion from "Barber" to the absolutely essential "Grand Finale." The lesser-known but respected Dolores Claiborne score suffers perhaps the most in its placement on the album, simply unable to compete with the overbearing emotion of Edward Scissorhands and the quirkiness of To Die For. The latter score is among one of Elfman's most playful, with the juxtaposition of an innocent children's chorus with rocking electric guitar rips performed by Elfman himself. A bizarre roller coaster of a ride, To Die For is an important inclusion here if only because it will likely ward some Elfman's pre-1995 fans away from its complete album. Back to Elfman's tragic favorites, a generous offering from Black Beauty skillfully merges several cues from across the score into one unsurprisingly gorgeous suite. As a nod to his Batman theme (another personal favorite of his), the collection of cues from Batman Returns includes the obvious pronouncements of the title theme, as well as the "End Credits" representation of Penguin and Catwoman themes. The second CD offers a wider variety of Elfman's production, beginning with the hot score at the time, Mission: Impossible. While the score would be a rhythmically percussive departure from Elfman's previous action music, it's interesting to note that he chose to include on this album the cues that are most similar to the rest of his body of work, highlighted by the "Betrayal" cue that tops the score in quality. None of Lalo Schifrin's theme appears here (perhaps due to rights issues). By contrast, Sommersby remains a hidden gem, and its lengthy suite is extremely welcome on this compilation. For any fan of Elfman's tragic symphonic works, this suite will send you seeking the score's original album without hesitation.

Among one of Elfman's commercially unreleased scores at the time was Dead Presidents, which combined with To Die For caused considerable shock for fans of the composer in 1995. Among the alternately harsh and hip 1970's rock sounds came the introduction of the electric base into Elfman's ensembles... a permanent addition. Woefully out of place on the album is The Nightmare Before Christmas, for which Elfman includes the three most impressive score cuts from the album and unfortunately none of the songs (perhaps a rights issue once again?). The unreleased score for early 1996's Freeway, a gift score from Elfman for a friend, is Elfman's first improvised synthetic work, and hails back to his "Face Like a Frog" days... it's truly bizarre and sick, bordering on completely intolerable even to a veteran Elfman collector. The odd selection of items that follows typically falls closer to this bizarre end of the spectrum, with Shrunken Heads resembling The Nightmare Before Christmas very closely. Elfman's "Amazing Stories" cues --like those of John Williams-- are highly valued and offer some of Elfman's most comedic symphonic writing since Beetlejuice. The theme for the 1990 Warner TV show "The Flash" is a playful Batman knock-off. The four cues from "Pee Wee's Playhouse" are lower-budget renditions of the nearly identical film score cues, and they can't compare to the original orchestral performances. The Beetlejuice television show theme likewise will send you scampering for the original. The album ends with a remarkable demo of "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas in which Elfman confirms his immense talents to the world by performing every instrument and voice himself. This 2-CD set is simply unbeatable in its lengthy offerings of original recordings from each of the composer's works between 1991 and 1996. With the continued movement towards diversity in Elfman's career, a third volume is highly wished for by his fans, though with ten years passed without any word on Volume III and such a large volume of material now collected in his career, any hopes for such an album are slim. Even so, if Elfman can ever arrange the finances and permissions necessary for Volume III, there's everything from the magical Nissan commercial music from 1996 to the fifteen minutes of beautiful unreleased music from The Family Man to be included. Let's keep hoping...  *****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download