Okay, yes, Star Wars is not the coveted franchise it once was. It’s like an author that had that one good novel rehashing and shaping it until the characters are ABC daytime drama in quality.

But the music of Star Wars has always been good. The powers that be pay well and are able to order up proper tinklings.

John Williams is the man behind the theme we all know and love. Here, the real composer is Kevin Kiner.

His new notes, brought to life by the city of Prague Philharmonic, punctuate the lands we’ll visit superbly. In fact, Williams’ billion-dollar score-heard-round-the-world shows only on tracks 1 and 32. Makes sense as that is the start and end of the film. Still you can tell Kiner was careful not to change the notes’ sublime feelings so as to no longer relate to the past Star Wars films music in our minds. Smart.

All together there are 32 tracks for your audio pleasure served up by Kiner. The song lengths vary from under a minute to just over four. Plus there’s a pull-out poster of the cast (this Clone cast in the animation) for the purchaser. Not too shabby.

The finest tracks – in my all-knowing opinion – are a 45 second bit called Jabba’s Palace, track 11, B’omarr Monastery, Track 22 Ziro’s Nightclub Band, Track 23 Seedy City Swing, and track 27, Dunes of Tatoonie.

The first two have a Star Wars slant on Arab music that’s fun and makes for imaginary voyages to these mythical places. The next two offer quick snippets of Americana music including a nourish score in the first. They are so fun you wish they were a tad longer. The Tattoonie tune is just beautiful orchestration.

If you adore Star Wars you need this soundtrack.