Was just wondering if any other members of the hivemind listened to movie soundtracks - and I mean proper scores (eg Indiana Jones) and not compilation albums (eg Bodyguard) and could post their recommendations.
Here’s some of the stuff I listen to:
There are the “obvious” composers that most people would be familiar with.
John Williams - STAR WARS, Indiana Jones, Superman, Jurrassic Park
James Horner - Beautiful Mind, Willow, Legends of the Fall, even Titanic (NOT the Celine song!), Natty Gahn
Hans Zimmer - The Rock, Crimson Tide
Howard Shore - Lord of the Rings
Ennio Morricone - Once upon a time in the West, Good Bad Ugly, Mission…
Otherwise I enjoy these:
Piano (Michael Nyman)
Pan’s Labyrinth (Javier Navarrete)
The Fountain (Clint Mansell)
Stardust (Ilan Eshkeri)
Finding Neverland (Jan Kaczmarek)
Cider House Rules (Rachel Portman)
Dragon (Randy Edelman)
Dragonheart (Randy Edelman)
Last of the Mohicans (Randy Edelman / Trevor Jones)
Dances with Wolves (John Barry)
Cutthroat Island (John Debney)
Open Range (Michael Kamen)
Alexander (Vangelis)
Amelie (Yann Tiersen)
Sure I missed LOTS - who’s got a favourite I should go check out?
All the time! 90% of my library is film soundtracks, game soundtracks and moody, ambient droning.
I’m a big fan of these fellas:
Clint Mansell:
The Fountain, Requiem For A Dream Cliff Martinez:
Traffic, Narc, Wicker Park, Sex, Lies and Videotape, Solaris, The Underneath David Holmes:
Oceans, 11, 12, 13, Out Of Sight Elliot Goldenthal:
Heat, Alien 3 Philip Glass:
The Hours, Mishima Vangelis,
Blade Runner, 1492 David Shire:
The Conversation, Zodiac Eric Serra:
Leon, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element Alexandre Desplat:
Syriana, The Painted Veil Stewart Copeland:
Rumble Fish, Talk Radio, Wall Street Tangerine Dream:
Anything really… Sorcerer, Legend
I’m not generally a fan of the more mainstream composers, but Jerry Goldsmith’s Alien score is remarkable.
I am a gigantic fan of movie soundtracks - Zimmer and his proteges like Badelt and Jablonsky are always a favorite, but for my money, Harry Gregson-Williams is the best film score composer out there these days. Like Jablonsky, he’s done great work in scoring video games as well.
Speaking of Ennio Morricone, I just re-watched “The Legend of 1900” last night - which I highly recommend to anyone who loves the use of music in film both as a diegetic device for storytelling and as an accessory to set mood.
I presently have these soundtracks ripped from CD, though I’ve a bunch more I’ve been meaning to add to the mix:
7th Voyage of Sinbad
13th Warrior
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Destroyer
Mists of Avalon
Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas
Star Wars 1
Star Wars 2
Star Wars 3
I’ve been on a bit of a computer game music kick lately; here are my favorites:
Crimson Skies PC
Crimson Skies Xbox
Grim Fandango
Heart of Darkness
Homeworld
Mass Effect
Mexican Motor Mafia
The Longest Journey
Here are some honorable mentions, worth a listen occasionally:
Arcanum
Fantasy General
Myth
Okami
Psychonauts
Samurai Shodown 2
Sins of a Solar Empire
Star Control 2
The Dig
The Witcher
I listen to practically nothing BUT soundtracks, though I favor video game soundtracks over movie soundtracks. My iPod, which has all of the music I own on it, has… let’s see.
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy VIII Piano Collections
Final Fantasy VIII: Fithos Lusec Vinos Winosec (symphonic instead of midi)
Final Fantasy IX: Piano Collections
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X: Piano Collections
Final Fantasy X-2 Piano Collections
Final Fantasy XII
Dissidia Final Fantasy
Tales of Vesperia
Kingdom Hearts I
Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts: Piano Collections
Demon’s Souls
Okami
Shadow of the Colossus
The Last Remnant
Soul Calibur IV
Drammatica - The Best of Yoko Shimomura
Valkyria Chronicles
The Witcher
And probably a bunch more that aren’t labeled right. Oh, and everything ever done by Overlocked, the remix site. Some 2000 songs.
The only one that I listen to regularly is Patrick Doyle’s amazing score for Kenneth Branaugh’s Hamlet. Cormac, based on your list, I suspect this one would be right up your ally. Amazon has it for $7.99.
The World of Goo and There Will Be Blood soundtracks don’t fit much with this thread, but they’re the only ones I really have on rotation now (that aren’t Spawn).
Thanks for the tip, will definately check it out! Really enjoyed his Much Ado about Nothing.
Not really that big into gaming soundtracks or the more electronic side of the soundtrack spectrum. I guess it helps if you’ve played the game and from those lists, I’m only familiar with the witcher.
Movie Soundtracks: The 5th Element: Eric Serra
I bought the soundtrack to The Transporter for my wife, only to find out that in America the “soundtrack” features absolutely zero songs from the fucking movie, and instead is a compilation of really shitty rap music that has nothing at all to do with the movie. I tossed it out my car window when that became apparent. It was the trashy Eurobeats we were after, not gangsta rap or whatever.
Game Soundtracks: Lords of Magic: Keith Zizza – I supplant other soundtracks with this one on a regular basis in most fantasy games (since so many games have crap for music) Eve Online: John Hallur Nile: Keith Zizza Demigod: Don’t know who
Finally, we get a John Carpenter mention! I’ve always liked his work, in terms of moody, synthy soundscapes. Also, Goblin’s work with/for Dario Argento, especially the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack. Though they’re not exactly the sort of grand, Wagnerian film scores you seem to have in mind. Giorgio Moroder is okay, too, if you’re in the mood for electronic film scores.
As for games, my favorite soundtrack is by far that of Grim Fandango (Peter O’Connell, but I’m also quite fond of the Morricone-esque score from Outlaws (Clint Bajakian). And I would be remiss not to mention Eric Heberling’s wonderful soundtrack for Daggerfall.
Lot of good stuff mentioned here, but I’ll mention those that currently stick out in my mind.
Sunshine (John Murphy & Underworld) - Love this soundtrack, was reason enough for me to install itunes, a program I hate more than mayonnaise. “Mercury” is probably my favorite track.
The Dark Knight (Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard)
The John Williams Trifecta:
Catch Me If You Can - Star Wars, Indy, and Jaws might be his most well-known works, but I absolutely love it when he does something different. The jazz-infused score is just so damn charming that I can’t help but smile while listening.
Minority Report - I’m sure I’m completely wrong on this label, but I think it does a great job at blending noir-like mood with bombastic aggression.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - I’m a believer that none of the Harry Potter movies are great, or even particularly good, but that each one has at least one great element. For the third, I thought the music was stunning. It felt like a great big poem made entirely of music. I think I’m in the minority on this one, though: nobody I know seems to really agree with me that the music stood out.
There are tons of videogame scores I love, but that’s for a different topic. The only one I’ll mention is FF VII: Advent Children, since it technically is a movie. The movie is crap, but the music is great.
I listen more to soundtracks than any other type of music.
BSG and Conan have been mentioned and I love those soundtracks. Also Star Wars, especially “The Battle of Endro II” track, because it includes the theme played when Luke is beating Vader in rage in the Emperor’s throne room.
I also love occasionally listening to the Deus Ex main theme, especially if I’m somewhere I could picture being VersaLife or any megacorp.
