It’s been a while since we got anything up here, but big things are on the way. Trust me. Anyways, here’s a new “Top 5” and this time Dan and I are talking film scores and soundtracks. God damn I love movies.
-Billy
Dan’s Top 5
Note: *This Top 5 list contains mostly modern films and shouldn’t take away anything from older soundtracks*
5.Tron Legacy - A different twist of sounds than the others, but this electronic mix is full of energy.
4.Back to the Future - I absolutely love all of these films. The soundtrack (along with a sensational plot) makes this movie. Includes hits such as, “The Power of Love,” as well as the brilliantly composed music by Alan Silvestri.
3.Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith - These films changed the film industry, not only through the technology and animation, but the soundtrack, by John Williams, is phenomenal.
2.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Hard to pickup where John Williams left off from the first Harry Potter. Nonetheless, Alexandre Desplat does a beautiful job of ending the epic series in an emotional way.
1.School of Rock - enough said.
Billy’s Top 5
5. Mortal Kombat- Up until just about high school my CD collection consisted of two things: Queen and movie soundtracks. While I initially bought the soundtrack to Mortal Kombat for the awesomely cheesy theme song (“Techno-Syndrome” by the Immortals) this soundtrack (and the one to the sequel) would be my first introduction to bands that—more than a decade later—would become a huge part of my musical identity: Rammstein and KMFDM. In fact, the soundtrack to Annihilation included Rammstein’s “Engel” and KMFDM’s “Megalomaniac”, easily making it 1000x better than the actual film. On the first movie’s soundtrack, “Control” by pornstar-turned-musician/actress Traci Lords is the black horse pick and the coolest track by far.
4. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly- Ennio Morricone is a genius of a composer and this is his masterwork. Whereas some of his other spaghetti western scores border on annoying (what’s with that theme in “A Fistful of Dynamite”), this one is iconic across all genres. It doesn’t hurt that Clint Eastwood is the biggest badass this side of Godzilla and the movie deserves its own religion. I just watched it this weekend. Twice.
3. A Kind of Magic (Queen)- This might be a tiny stretch, but this Queen CD is a de facto soundtrack to the movie Highlander. The film didn’t do so well when it premiered so Queen released the album under a different title and without soundtrack credit, but just about every track is in the movie and some even feature clips from the film. Highlander and the song “Princes of the Universe” got me into Queen and life has never been the same since.
1B. Jurassic Park - John Williams is the biggest of the bigtime film composers and his music, whether you’re aware of it or not, has thoroughly pervaded American culture. As Dan noted, he did Star Wars films. He did Jaws; Indiana Jones; and on. But Jurassic Park is my favorite. It’s fucking majestic. Check out my previous homage to JP and Mr. Williams.
1A. Gojira- So, I couldn’t really choose a true favorite. To go alongside John Williams, I have (in my mind) his Japanese counterpart: Akira Ifukube. The man is likewise an absolute legend who’s reach spans the globe. Even non-Godzilla fans know his theme and as a Godzilla-holic, I think his score to the original 1954 Japanese is the crown jewel. I’ve got chills just thinking about it.
