Granted, Alien was a complete innovation and scoring something like that was probably difficult, but I think Goldsmith is too lush and overwrought, bordering on instrusive. The best parts of his score are probably the parts he likes the least.
His Legend score is also highly overrated, I'm glad they replaced it with Tangerine Dream's track. Tangerine Dream added an airy surreality to the film that gave it the same level of weird as The Dark Crystal; that's what makes it endearing.
Goldsmith's stuff works where a certain amount of epic kitsch is required, like with Rambo or Star Trek, but he can't nail down atmosphere. He says it himself in the Quadrilogy interview: he wants his scores to be able to stand independently from their respective films. Sometimes, that approach is unnecessary.
