It's a Soundtrack Life
Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 4:46PM 
Just what is it about movie soundtracks that makes us all buy them in abundance? I have been doing a major iTunes re-org lately and found that some of the albums I listen to the most are compilation soundtracks from different films - and I don't think I'm alone. I finally made a list of all of them and shocked myself at how long it was in the end. Soundtracks are fantastic; they unite well-known artists with up-and-comers, while they carry on the overall mood of the film. This is the reason why I think we buy them: we want to re-live the movie moments again and again, and what better way to do that than with the exact music used in the film?
Of course, film soundtracks are the means by which modern composers also earn a living. Without original scores, or at least a few original songs on a compilation, classically-trained musicians would be more of a dying breed than they already are.
Personally, I have learned a lot about music, composers, and film via soundtracks. The music is the way a film comes together, gets polished, and completes its aesthetic. A great soundtrack is the key to the film's delivery.
Also, since we are in the age of iTunes, playlists, and mix CDs (don't you miss tapes?) I posit that all of us are creating our own "soundtracks" all the time. How did we learn to be such mix-masters? From movies... So, in a show of complete self-indulgence, I've created a not-so-short short list of my favorites...beginning at the beginning. Of course, there are "the big three" that everyone of a certain age probably still has on a dusty cassette someplace: Flashdance, Footloose, and Saturday Night Fever, so I'll state those gratis, but here's the real list...
The Breakfast at Tiffany's soundtrack is one of the first albums I ever purchased, and this was only after I'd exhausted my father's vinyl version. Henri Mancini's score is still vibrant, jaunty, and romantic, even over forty years later. You could throw this album on for a cocktail party today and people would love it - I know from experience...especially the strong ending of Moon River Cha Cha.
Singles - 1992The Singles soundtrack came into my life and blew my mind. It was the early nineties, I was in high school, and everyone thought that Guns N'Roses was "hard rock"...then came Nirvana. This album pre-dates the Grunge explosion only slightly, bringing together the Seattle scene in a loud, tripped-out, underground club sort of a way...just the way the movie did. Didn't you love Eddie Vedder as an actor?
Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud - 1957When I lived in Paris I learned very quickly that the French take classic film far more seriously than Americans. It is their art form after all, and there are little cinemas in the most unlikely of places around that city. At one point, my friend and I went to see Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud, an early new wave film by Louis Malle, featuring a totally organic jazz soundtrack recorded in three days by the great Miles Davis. Every evening afterward we'd listen to the soundtrack - it became our own soundtrack to our own days in Paris.
There are a few films & soundtracks from the college years that I shall always enjoy fondly, but they are probably not the ones you'd think of immediately.
Great Expectations - 1998
Swingers - 1996
Basquiat - 1996
I am certain that most people would call me out for not including Trainspotting or Romeo + Juliet in this group, and I should state that this was a tough call. While I like Romeo + Juliet, the soundtrack isn't edited quite as well as I'd have liked, and I find it inconsistent as a whole. Trainspotting is indeed masterful however. This was a time when most of us Americans hadn't yet heard the hard-driving club beats featured on that soundtrack, and the mix with old Iggy Pop and New Order was perfect. This was another arresting collection of music that changed things for me, but to be perfectly honest, I am still haunted by the film, so I had to put the soundtrack away for a while to not think of its disturbing images.
By the same token, I still go back to Basquiat, Great Expectations, and Swingers. These three are soundtracks in the best sense - vintage tracks and new tracks refreshingly combined, reinforcing the film's imagery. Tori Amos's Siren on Great Expectations is one of her lesser-known tunes, and one of my absolute favorites, and you can still hear the Swingers soundtrack played on the party circuit over ten years later.
Next Stop Wonderland - 1998Sigh! Next Stop Wonderland! How much do I love this film? How much do I love the film's music? This album is pure bliss just like this adorable little indie film - featuring the most adorable puffer fish ever. The romantic tribulations of a singleton in modern-day Boston are paired with the breezy, beautiful sounds of 1960s Brazilian Bossa Nova. In truth, whenever I play this album I'm instantly in a good mood - AND it's yet another opportunity to hear yet another cover of Mas Que Nada...
Snatch - 2001
High Fidelity - 2000
Groove - 2000
Good times, good times... These next three are all about being a young adult in the big city somehow. They're synonymous with the time in life when my first job, first apartment, and the responsibility paying of my own bills. High Fidelity is a soundtrack of a film about music, and how it's the soundtrack to our lives. It's a pretty-darn perfect "mix tape" paralleling the storyline on another level. Not many people know the film Groove - another little indie gem filmed in San Francisco. As such, it's a great compilation of dancey-trancey tracks that I love every time I turn it on. It's the same with Snatch - just hearing the music makes me fall in love with a cockney Jason Straitham all over again. It's fun, unexpected, and literally covers all the bases: funk, 80s pop, and techno. Guy Ritchie knows how to put music to film.
CQ - 2002Okay, I know this is an unusual choice, but it's still here. I loved every moment of Roman Coppola's CQ - Paris in the 1960s, the Barbarella overtones, the portrait of an artist as a young man... The vintage Citroens and Peugeots always make me think of my father's slides (remember slides?) from his days in Europe, and although this soundtrack is largely composed by Mellow, it's era-appropriate, and totally transporting. The inclusion of rock/pop tunes by Claude Francois as well as Jacques Dutronc help Mellow's lilting melodies simmer down into fast French.
Wicker Park - 2004
Marie Antoinette - 2006
Layer Cake - 2004
Don't hate me for omitting Garden State - I love it, don't get me wrong, but I found that most of the tunes featured were songs I already had on other albums. What I love about a soundtrack is finding the still-unknown gems that are perched on the edge of stardom. This is why I adore the Wicker Park soundtrack. It's unusual, haunting, atmospheric, and includes tracks from Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Death Cab for Cutie, The Shins, and Postal Service. The movie is so good, so romantic and modern, and the music is just the same. Layer Cake looks to classic Brit-pop to round out its very serious score pieces, including The Cult, Duran Duran, and Kylie Minogue. Somehow the whole thing works - the darkness of the film is balanced by these snippets of frenetic music that are always strong wherever they're played. And so to Marie Antoinette. What can I say? The film was opulently appealing, especially visually, but the magic was created when 18th-century Versailles met late 20th-century punk and trance. This soundtrack has been in my car for months now, and I still cannot stop listening to it - especially New Order's Ceremony... God bless New Order.
I'm sure there will be much dissention among the ranks about some of these choices, yet this is what lists are all about - hence the drivel that is VH1...an entire network of lists. As I said, this was the "short" list and it was already very long. There's a lot left that I would like to include, but thought I should limit it to my preferred stand-bys. I left out all of Broadway, which is a whole other topic, as well as classical scores or soundtracks - believe me there are a few I love! Of course, the whole point of lists is to generate discussion and banter...so banter away. I'd love to hear your choices!
Reader Comments (3)
A River Runs Through It --- pure bliss!
Disney's Fantasia is fabulous. I remember the huge dark theater I first saw it in, and those hippo's tiptoeing to classical music.
Almost Famous --- and not just for the Tiny Dancer scene. I loved ALL of those music choices.
Say Anything --- Lloyd Dobler breaks my heart again and again with that boombox.
Beautiful Girls --- Sweet Caroline et al.
Pretty in Pink. That's all. Good night. Turn out the lights.
Other favorites of mine are "Legends Of The Fall," "Forrest Gump," "The Last Kiss," and "Pride & Prejudice..."