All good stuff so far. Interesting to see what people think of as good soundtracks.
The Dark Knight is currently on my ipod
Somewhere I’ve got the fifth element soundtrack kicking around
The Lock Stock soundtrack is ok for a collection of songs, but it tries a bit hard to be a Tarantino soundtrack in that it likes to break the songs up with lots of dialogue snippets from the film.
The Two Towers soundtrack is also pretty good and honourable mention to just about anything Basil Poledouris releases.
I have been listening to movie soundtracks for years, I have almost 150 of those on vinyl, a bunch more on CD.
Since many of the typical recommandations have probably been made and since you already have mentioned some of the things I love, I’d stick to my essentials :
John Barry, including his early James Bond work (Thunderball, Goldfinger, etc), The Chase, which are absolutely phenomenal, his music oozes class, style and talent
Henry Mancini, same as Barry, too many to mention
Jerry Goldsmith, particularily Alien, which is one of the best soundtracks ever imho, The Omen, Planet of the Apes (great modernist/experimental soundtrack), Poltergeist…
Bernard Herrmann, one of the true masters (Psycho, Cape Fear, Vertigo, Taxi Driver)
Christopher Young (Hellraiser’s soundtrack is also one of the most beautiful ever imho), The Fly II, A nightmare on Elm Street II which is great if you want to ruin a party
almost everything from Thomas Newman and Mychael Danna (The Ice Storm is beautiful)
John Carpenter, I love his electronic/moody music (Prince of Darkness, They Live, Escape from N.Y and Big Trouble in Little China are personal favorites of mine)
Howard Shore (the Fly, Silence of the Lambs, Videodrome)
David Holmes, his Ocean’s Eleven soundtracks are a blast, Out of sight is also very good
Basil Poledouris (Conan, Robocop)
Nino Rota (8 1/2, The Godfather)
someone has mentioned Akira, and I must concur
Angelo Badalamenti (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, the TV series and the movie)
I also have a knack for italian 70’s and 80’s soundtracks like Goblin’s (Suspiria, Tenebrae) or Fabio Frizzi’s (some of Lucio Fulci’s movies), and blaxploitation soundtracks, which are brillant musical pieces made by very known musicians like James Brown, Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield.
Of course the obvious John Williams (Superman, Close Encounters, and even his Harry Potter), some of James Horner’s work, when it is his and not a photocopy of his previous work which should limit you to 4/5 soundtracks at best)…
I must mention that I absolutely hate Media Ventures/whatever their new name may be, i.e. the typical Hans Zimmer big action movie muzak. I can’t stand the Klaus Badelt, Steve Jablonksy and other yes men of replacable music with their pompous patriotic sub-Wagnerian crap. Zimmer has done two beautiful things imho, The Thin Red Line and Hannibal. Some of his earlier works are quite good, but I can’t stand his music in recent movies. So take that as you will :)
Clint Mansell’s The Fountain is about the best movie soundtrack I have ever heard, the last two songs are ecstatic compositions.
Right now I am loving Moon, also from Mansell.His Requiem for a Dream is also incredible, as is Pi (yeah I consider that guy to be the best movie composer right now).
I also love Dark Knight and Batman Begins OST, Memento from David Julyan, Lola Rennt from Tom Tykwer,Anything by Eric Serra (LEON!)…too many to list.
Oh yea, and I’ll be buying the sound-track to the Jonah Hex movie the minute it hits the shelves. I’ve been looking forward to this since I heard the news.
I don’t know anything about the movie, or the comic book story, but I can say this is the first time I’ve ever planned to go watch a movie based on the soundtrack alone.
Bernard Herman: Mysterious Island, Jason and the Argonauts, Journey to the Center of the Earth in addition to the previously mentioned Hitchcock classics (lots of Harryhausen collaborations).
Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Errol Flynn extravaganzas, The Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Michel Legrand: The Three and Four Musketeers (Richard Lester versions).
Jerry Goldsmith: Way too many to mention, but my favorites are Alien and Patton.
John Williams: Beyond way too many to mention (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Jaws, etc. etc.).
Miklos Rozsa: Ben-Hur, Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Harryhausen), Ivanhoe.
Fantasia and Fantasia 2000: Numerous classical composers often chopped up and rearranged, but hey, it’s a nice starting point.
Trevor Jones: Dark City (and Excalibur, I suppose, but so much of what I remember from that was Carl Orf and Richard Wagner).
I love me some Zimmer, thin red line, blackhawk down and gladiator come to mind.
My favorite two soundtracks are the one to Everything is Illuminated and Requiem for a Dream. These two are just awesome. On par with the better morricone work imo.
I have exactly two musical scores. One is Edward Scissorhands (Elfman), which is so powerful it can make my eyes mist up. The other is to the underrated game Outcast. No idea who composed it, but it was played by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra (IIRC).
I listen to “normal” music more than soundtracks… but through the years there have been a handful of soundtracks that were important to me. Apologies if I’m repeating entries from other users…
Jerry Goldsmith - In particular Chinatown(!) and Alien.
Ennio Morricone - Just about all of his stuff… any of Leone’s westerns.
Angelo Badalamenti - In particular his work with David Lynch. There’s also a beautiful track with Marianne Faithful on the City of Lost Children soundtrack.
Cliff Martinez - Solaris
Vangelis - Blade Runner
Peter Gabriel - Passion (soundtrack to Scorcese’s Last Temptation of Christ)
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi
Trevor Jones - Dark Crystal
… final one that comes to mind is John Carpenter. But I think that’s more of an acquired taste and the good tracks are interspersed among his movies.
Thats alot of great stuff there, will try to check out some of those!
Isn’t he the guy who did the Neverending Story Soundtrack?
That was actually the reason I started this thread! I’d stumbled across one of the sunshine tracks on youtube (surface of the sun) and thought it was pretty cool. Reminded me of The Fountain soundtrack.
Actually, ya there are three soundtracks that were so good (to me) when I saw the movies, that I had to have 'em. Excellent ambient music for reading, etc
The Hot Spot - Miles Davis/John Lee Hooker/Taj Mahal/Ry Cooder. This one’s the true find, as I’m a huge blues fan (John Lee Hooker in particular.) It’s those titanic musicians working together on original music that makes this cd so significant. It’s like a once a millenium planetary alignment or something. Plus, I thought that movie was awesome. Solaris - Cliff Martinez. I’m one of an apparently very small crowd of people that thought that movie was outstanding. And amazingly enough; George Clooney actually does things that come darn close to approaching the clinical definition of acting at a couple points in that movie. Blade Runner - Vangelis
The Ravenous soundtrack, by Michael Nyman (most famous for the Piano soundtrack, which is mentioned above and lovely) and Damon Albarn (yes that Damon Albarn, of Blur and Gorillaz) is worth checking out. Weird, great soundtrack for a weird, underrated movie.
Not mentioned yet, but I did like the soundtrack for the Thomas Jane version of the Punisher movie.
The movie, to me was awful, but the soundtrack was awesome.
Some really good recommendations, especially the “golden age” stuff.
Speaking of Nino Rota, he wrote some concert works that are worth checking out. Chandos recently put out a recording of a couple of his symphonies that is very interesting listening.
