@Alex ....holy shit.  At first i was dismissing what you were saying as the standard post-modern hate of corporate driven consumerism, but this was actually some seemingly well-informed serious shit.  Where did you learn this stuff about the modern film-scoring process?  It makes total sense and I definitely buy it.   

Regarding other composers not being as good:

I've always thought of it like this:  Williams is the best in terms of technical virtuosity and out-and-out composition skill.  However, 1990's Horner is probably the best at conveying a deep and simple emotional texture ...and Silvestri is a close second to Horner in terms of emotionalism  (see Forrest Gump). 

But if we're talking about any other composer then yes yes YES 100% yes.  Zimmer is probably the prime example. Everyone talks about him these days and is obsessed over him, but I think his music used to be better (i.e. Gladiator).  His style is very monochromatic and relies largely on blaring fortissimo  to convey "intensity" combined with very simple rhythms and heavy heavy amounts of repetition.  In other words he's not even in the same league as Williams. I definitely agree that Giaccino can be good but doesn't have near the level of skill. 

One composer to watch out for is Junkie XL.  I was really surprised by the sweeping romanticism of his Fury Road score.  I mean, I wouldn't say it had anywhere near the level of rhythmic or textual complexity of Williams, but it felt like very old school film, like 1960's film, and because of that, endearing. 

Side Note:  I haven't seen many of the movies that Williams scored in the past 5 years.  Were any of them truly stand-out scores?

What kills me about the Ep 7 score, which is indeed crazy forgettable and lame, is that there's multiple opportunities where the movie would be like 10 times better if you were to just use some of the old themes.

Like, how do you not use the Han/Leia theme when Han gets killed. I just do not understand the decision. As it is, Han's death feels so underplayed and unimportant....this should arguably be the biggest moment in the whole series! I understand producer meddling, but you'd think J.J would have the weight to say "Guys, this moment NEEDS this".

As for "replacements", the only one I could offer is John Powell, but it sounds like he's been sticking to animated movies specifically because he got burned out dealing with the generic studio scoring requirements. At least in animation he's allowed to write a fucking melody.

I've been listening to the OST for a few days. It actually has many memorable themes that probably aren't as obvious as Rey's on the first viewing. Partly because the film probably puts too much emphasis on the forgettable action parts of the soundtracl, but also because there's little re-use of the themes in different atmospheres - which, as Clemmensen pointed out, Williams has always been insanely good at. Or maybe that as Alex said, they're more phrases than themes.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised that listening to it changed my mind a lot. I especially love the opening track and its suspenseful violins/high trumpet blares associated with the First Order attacking. It's a very different treatment than the Empire's and feels new. Not even talking about The Jedi Steps, which effortlessly carries incredible drama and meaning with just a few notes. I think it easily enters my favourite SW melodies.

Taken as a whole, it's certainly not as memorable as the OT's, but there are great themes (or phr... yeah you get the idea) to be found in it. What it's not is "crazy forgettable and lame", at least to me.

PS: I'll admit I don't care much for Snoke's theme, though; it feels like a rehash of Palpatine's theme but without its greatness.

Really minor, but I didn't want to post it in the chat in case it could be seen as a spoiler: just noticed the "Hyperspace" motif is in the background of the opening cue of the soundtrack at 3:05. Never would have noticed it without listening with headphones, super nice touch.

I hate retailer exclusives, was bad enough when it was game content, and now this. At least there's just one exclusive that actually matters, so you don't have to get multiple editions just to get all of it. Also it's digital content that's exclusive, so not sure how that's handled.

It looks like Target is the way to go.

TARGET – The Target Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray Combo Pack comes with exclusive packaging and an added 20 minutes of bonus content, including never-before-seen interviews with Daisy Ridley and John Boyega and a deeper look at the movie’s costumes and weaponry

WALMART – The Walmart Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray Combo Pack comes with exclusive BB-8 packaging and an exclusive Star Wars Galactic Connexions trading disc

BEST BUY – The Best Buy Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray Combo Pack features exclusive SteelBook Packaging

DISNEY STORE – The Disney Store Star Wars: The Force Awakens Blu-ray Combo Pack comes with an exclusive lithograph set while supplies last

That added 20 mins of bonus content is digital only, not on disc. No doubt it'll all end up on Youtube on the day of release.

The super-important question though is: will we get another FIYH podcast for TFA once it's released on Blu-ray???

At this point, if there's a bright center of the Star Wars universe, I'm on the planet it's farthest from.

Can't speak for the others, of course.