Why I love soundtracks

Guardian UK ^ | 12.12.09 | Jon Savage

[Perdogg]

Soundtrack albums are the hidden pleasures of pop. Composed and performed to accompany moving images, they're emotional enhancers. This dramatic quality, coupled with the depth of sound-field in full cinema reproduction, ensures that many soundtracks stand apart from their parent films as a listening experience.

[Perdogg]

I have about 55 individual soundtrack cuts, 51 from James Bond movies.

[Marie2]

Some of my favorite soundtracks:

Cold Mountain
Jesus Christ Superstar
Phantom of the Opera

I guess the latter two may not be soundtracks, since they are both operas.

[wastedyears]

[GeronL]

oh come on... your fav is “Y...M...CA!”

lol. just kidding!!

[FrdmLvr]

My favorite soundtrack: Braveheart

[Signalman]

Patton. Jerry Goldsmith.

[dfwgator]

My favorites are the two Yann Tiersen soundtracks, Amelie and Goodbye, Lenin.

[Perdogg]

Individual tracks I have come from Out of Africa, Ipcress File, Somewhere in Time (Main Title), Escape from NY and Phantom Menace; From Russia with love, Thunderball, Goldfinger; You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret service;Diamonds are forever; The man with the golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For your eyes only;Octopussy, A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights, Die Another Die, and Casino Royale.

[Perdogg]

and Quantum of Solace.

[buccaneer81]

Best soundtracks:

For Your Eyes Only

Moonraker

Star Trek II

Star Trek III

To Live and Die in LA

Apollo 13

And Justice For All

2001 A Space Odyssey

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Blues Brothers

[Perdogg]

That was in “Can’t Stop the Music” with Valerie Perrine.

[RandallFlagg]

Transformers (The first one)
Battlestar Galactica (The new one), all seasons
The Final Conflict (Omen III)

[UB355]

Thomas Newman Road to Perdition one of my favorites

[moehoward]

The soundtrack from Apocalypse Now, is the actual sound track. Interesting to listen to a movie.

[GeronL]

wait a sec... you do have that one? heh.

[Poe White Trash]

Almost anything by Jerry Goldsmith is worth listening to.

Alfred Schnittke apparently made a lot of soundtracks for Soviet movies. What I've heard is pretty good.

[Alkhin]

All time favorite: soundtrack from "Master & Commander - The Far Side of the World" in particular the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughn Williams.

Have recently fallen in love with the soundtrack to "Little Women" (the recent one with Winona Ryder as Jo)

[Darkwolf377]

Thank God someone mentioned Goldsmith, The Master.

I have several thousand soundtracks, or should I specify film scores--I probably have fewer than 300 soundtracks as most think of them (songs in movies).

My favorites? Depends on which day you're asking. But Goldsmith scores will always be among my favorites. He wasn't as lush as Williams (or as sappy), and his modernistic tendencies are just more appealing to me. The action cues in Papillon, Planet of the Apes, The Chairman are mind-crunchingly good.

Among my faves, though...

Star Trek-The Motion Picture (Goldsmith)

The Empire Strikes Back (Williams)

Conan the Barbarian (Poledouris)

Jungle Book/Golden Voyage of Sinbad/Ben Hur (Rozsa)

Ghost & Mrs. Muir (Herrmann)

Ghost & the Darkness, First Knight, Total Recall, Capricorn One, Under Fire (Goldsmith)

Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Guns for San Sebastian (Morricone)

Quest for Fire (Sarde)

The Agony and the Ecstacy (North)

Many, many more but my fingers are tired.

When you start a FR film score list, add me!

[Darkwolf377]

You owe it to yourself to look for more Vaughan Williams, gorgeous, gorgeous stuff, very spiritual (from an agnostic).

Thomas Newman is one of my favorites, and Little Women is one of his best. He's very versatile--his score for Salton Sea is amazing, and completely different from LW. You might try American Beauty or The Good German.