Best movie soundtrack?

[neatoman]

What would you consider the best movie soundtrack ever?

Here's my suggestion:
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[Turnstone]

Tough. Are you talking instrumental music or actual big name songs? Some soundtracks are iconic for just one song. Partial to Top Gun, Karate Kid, Transformers 1986 Soundtrack, TMNT 90.

[neatoman]

I'm mostly just pointing to the opinion of the soundtrack overall, not the fame it has simply due to one song. Although if you have a certain fondness for such a soundtrack you could still nominate it, just think about wheter or not you like the songs on it in general. If there's like one good song amongst crap, then it's not a good soundtrack.

And it doesn't matter if it's instrumental, vocal, made for the movie or lifted from elsewhere, as long as it's a good soundtrack.

[Leo656]

Good lord, this is impossible. I can't even decide which Bill & Ted soundtrack is better on the whole. I'm not even gonna think this over or I'm gonna have an aneurysm. You lunatic.

Somewhat on the subject, Rocky IV is on BBC America and the "No Easy Way Out" montage is on, and holy SH*T they have it sped up so fast that it's absolutely atrocious to listen to. I cannot STAND that kind of abusive bullsh*t. You don't need to run commercials that bad! Up to this point the playback was fine but I guess they figured they could speed-up the montages. In a Rocky movie! Insane! You can't DO that.

All the Rocky movies have great soundtracks. Not "best" in my eyes but really good. I could rattle off several dozen soundtracks that are phenomenal without even blinking. But I could never pick one.

EDIT: Now it's "Burning Hearts" and yeah, WOW, they're keeping all the regular bits normal speed and all the montages are like almost double-speed. In ROCKY IV, the one that's 65% musical montage! They slow it down to normal in the parts where people talk over the music, but then it zips up again when it's "just" the soundtrack. Inexcusable. Blasphemy. BBC America needs to get its sh*t together. This is literally the worst TV airing of Rocky IV I have EVER seen in my life and I've seen this movie more than I've seen my own penis. What a f*cking tragedy.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Superman 1978 soundtrack by John Williams.

[TurtleTitan97]

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse had a lit soundtrack

[sdp]

Movie soundtracks with songs "inspired by the movie" are no longer much of a thing as they used to be mostly because of streaming music and movie fans prefer original soundtracks with the movie including instrumental and other from the actual movie. I always saw them as a cheap cash in but I kinda miss them, sure they still exist but not in the same way, I'm very partial to the Spawn the album soundtrack, some great tracks in there (https://miscrave.com/articles/spawn-the-album/) better than it has any right to be.

But if we go for nostalgic reasons, Pokemon the first movie soundtrack (https://miscrave.com/articles/pokemon-first-movie-soundtrack/) hits all the right cords for me, it's like the last soundtrack I heard as a "kid". I should do reviews of more soundtracks, they're a lost art form in a way.

[Andrew NDB]

Batman (89)
The Crow
Independence Day
Godzilla (97)
Any of the Indiana Jones
Man of Steel
The Dark Knight Rises
Interstellar
Casino

[Voltron]

Forrest Gump or Goodfellas

[joe-eyeball]

The Crow or
Dazed and Confused

[frank_one]

Shining (1980), Taxi driver (1976).

[Andrew NDB]

There's lots of movies that had awesome soundtracks but were terrible movies. Like Godzilla (97) and The Crow: City of Angels.

[IMJ]

That's a really hard call to make and defend over every soundtrack that comes to mind.

The Crow soundtrack is fantastic and literally listenable all the way through. It's also iconic, representative of a generation of movies, and captures 90's alt rock perfectly.

But then you'll have iconic scores like Indiana Jones which is a fantastic score all the way through as well.

The Batman '89 score is actually a full on Prince album in disguise and it's terrific in it's own right, but then you'd have the TMNT soundtrack to the first flick which is one of the best late 80's early 90's techno soundtracks ever produced (think music like Technotronic from that era).

This would be easier yet just as hard to do by music genre.

There's lots of movies that had awesome soundtracks but were terrible movies. Like Godzilla (97) and The Crow: City of Angels.

Man you and I just had such similar experiences and observations growing up, man.

The Crow or
Dazed and Confused

That and another favorite of mine - movie and soundtrack is Empire Records. What a great flick.

I'm very partial to the Spawn the album soundtrack, some great tracks in there (https://miscrave.com/articles/spawn-the-album/) better than it has any right to be.

Several great cuts on that one. Hardly the best of all time but such obscure great cuts - the Filter track and the bizarre but totally metal Silverchair cut from that one. Awesome.

[IMJ]

In addition to the above, I'd say that the Chronicles of Narnia The Lion The Witch and Wardrobe is one of the better ambient, background music soundtracks I've heard, and I'm ashamed to say that I didn't say this in my first post because upon remembering it, it's so obvious, but Daft Punk's Tron Legacy soundtrack is easily one of the most listenable soundtracks of all time.

That one is much like the Batman/Prince soundtrack - it's a really a secret Daft Punk album with thematic content. The only reason I'd take the Tron Legacy soundtrack down a notch is for the considerable use of voiceover from the movie here or there, which should be omitted completely. Also, it's sister soundtrack from the short lived animated show Tron: Uprising is pretty good too.

[Andrew NDB]

Yeah, Tron Legacy definitely deserves a mention.

Also I would say Mission Impossible: Fallout. I find myself listening to it often.

*Edit: Also, from the Star Trek movies. I really like the score to "First Contact" but as to the best? I'd say Star Trek VI. Thrilling score, high energy.

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[TheBlueTurtle1]

"The breaking of the fellowship" Lord of the rings:cry:

[Mayhem]

Star Wars (as in A New Hope), Superman, or Tron Legacy.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

My picks for Best Instrumental/Score would be John Williams' Jurassic Park, Star Wars IV, and Morricone's Red Sonya scores, but for Best Vocal Anthology ST, Heavy Metal, The Lost Boys, and TMNT 90 get my otes. Also I have to mention the Indiana Jones and Superman 1-3 scores, Jaws, The Exorcist (aka Tubular Bells), and E.T. for scores, and Top Gun, Dirty Dancing, Pretty Woman, and all of the early Marvel movie ST's ( ie, the original Spider-Man trilogy, both FF movies, Blade, and Daredevil, mostly). Fame, Batman, Labyrinth, and the Dark Crystal were also good.

[Leo656]

Everybody puts over the John Williams Superman scores - with pretty good reason, granted - but I almost never hear anyone talk about the incredible John Ottman score for "Superman Returns". Granted, in places (like the title theme) it's so similar on the very surface of things that some people probably don't even know that it's entirely new composition by a different guy, but it is. And yes, it's a derivative work - it couldn't exist without the Williams original - but it greatly benefits from having a bigger orchestra as well as more modern recording techniques. As such, it is very much an evolution of those original scores as much as a re-working.

The larger orchestra and better recording really enriches the sound of the entire composition, giving it a much deeper and more bombastic feel, especially at high volumes (and let's be honest, if you're not completely blasting the "Superman March", why even bother playing it? :trazz:). The fact is, the "Superman Returns" version of the title theme is the way you remember hearing the theme, not the way it actually sounded back in the 70s and 80s. If you compare them one-to-another, the modern re-working is louder, thicker, deeper, and has a LOT more bass and brass; the original recording is much more "thinned out" by comparison. There are also more textural effects, like "star swoosh" effects in the background and more reverb during the deep, slow build at the very beginning; if you're in your car, that "low hum" in the very beginning vibrates the glass on the windows (and that's just the initial build part before the horns even kick in). Then when the "big part" kicks in, it's a lot more jubilant and hits much harder than the original. It's a very triumphant recording of the theme, and completely captures the "He's Back!" vibe they were trying to put forward with not just the score but the entire film project at that time.

And that's just the theme march; the rest of the album continues to go to familiar but in some parts very drastically different places than the original scores. There's a much broader emotional spectrum covered in the movie and the score captures all of that as well. There's uplifting parts, quiet and poignant parts, sinister and foreboding parts, and of course the triumphant and jubilant parts. All benefited greatly from that larger orchestra, especially the horn and string sections. And of course, the modern sound recording techniques.

It's not altogether fair to "compare" them since the "Returns" score simply wouldn't exist without the original Williams score. BUT, what Ottman's score does is springboard off of the original music and rather than merely copy it, it takes it into a dozen new and different directions over the two-plus hour running time. It's a very, very exciting score with a lot of dramatic flourishes. It's my go-to for background music whenever I play any Superman video games; for that, it works far better than the originals because it has more dramatic highs and lows, which go great with boss battles and such. And again, the thicker sound plays better at high volume. The tracks are so diverse, yet organically familiar, that after hours and hours on a loop you simply can't get bored of it.

I feel like since it's a derivative work it kind of doesn't get its due, but it's a very great classical score. I admit that after getting so used to it over the years, the older recordings sound almost flat by comparison. They just lack a lot of the texture that the Ottman score added into it. By no means are the Williams scores "boring", but they kind of are if you play them after playing the Returns score. There's just SO much more going on, in the foreground and the background. It's derivative work, but it's also an evolution an I dare say an improvement on the original. How much of an improvement would remain up to the individual, but if absolutely nothing else, the modern recording of the march is definitely better than the original, as unfair as it may be to compare two versions of the same song recorded almost 30 years apart. But them's the breaks! That bigger orchestra and all the little flourishes added makes a whole world of difference.
-----------------

Same topical vein, entirely different composition, but Hans Zimmer's "Man of Steel" soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. It's far more poignant than bombastic, but then so was the film. "Flight" will always, always give me chills. The way it starts off so humbly, with just the softest plink of the higher keys and the long, dramatic pauses, and the way it just slowly swells and builds and then the way that piano and those strings go together when it finally hits the crescendo... Jesus. The song itself becomes an unstoppable force by the midpoint, just this driving forward momentum totally befitting the character it heralds. It makes you wait for the eruption, but by the time it gets you there it's positively triumphant. It sets the entire story of the character in motion without words: "From humble beginnings... a grand and epic destiny." It's so, so good.

That whole record is a triumph, really, but "Flight" is just so empowering and cathartic. Every note is in the exact right place for maximum effect. When the strings are just building everything up and up and then finally at the midpoint they drop those three piano notes with the high keys... "Dun... DUN... dun... (dramatic pause, shift to the lower keys) Dun... DUN... dun..." And then the horn section kicks in alongside and underneath and it's like the sky opening up.

Deep chills, every single time.

I, uh... ahem. I kinda have a thing for classical music. :lol: And I used to play keyboards. As such, I'm always quite highly impressed whenever there's a really good piano-driven classical composition. Zimmer's a magician with keyboards and strings, no question. I love just about all of his stuff, really. He's tough to beat.

[Andrew NDB]

I like the Williams Superman theme itself but on the whole I like the Man of Steel score better.

[Leo656]

I like the Williams Superman theme itself but on the whole I like the Man of Steel score better.

On some days I definitely agree, but not every day.

That's not a conversation either of us would ever win with anyone else, though. After 40+ years, with the score just like the film itself, you can tell someone why X is objectively better at certain things it attempts to do, but they'll generally just tell you you're wrong without giving it any thought. It's what they grew up with, it's what they love... there's just no getting around it. If you say out loud "I prefer the Zimmer score", 9 out of 10 people look at you like you have two heads.

And I'm not really sure I do prefer it. Some days yes, some days no. But I definitely think it does SOME things better, and at the very least is absolutely AS good from an entirely different direction. They take entirely different musical directions to get their point across, and a lot of a person's preference comes down to whether they personally prefer strings or trumpets, poignancy or bombast.

Plenty of room for both. BUT, what I ultimately appreciate about Zimmer's score over Williams's, is that for as awesome as the Williams theme march is, it was in itself a derivative work because it still leaned on multiple other Superman themes. It basically took the 1940s Fleischer theme from the animated shorts, the theme from the George Reeves TV series, the 1960s Filmation cartoon, plus some of his Star Wars stuff, and did a very awesome "remix" of those things by taking all the elements and weaving them into something far greater than the earlier Superman works. The Williams march is absolutely the "ultimate" version of every Superman theme that had ever come before it.

BUT. Zimmer's score was composed under the directive to be an entirely original piece of work, as if it were the very first Superman score ever written and not beholden to anything familiar. That had to be an insane challenge. And not only do I respect the hell out of him taking things into a completely different direction than anything that had ever come before, but I also feel he knocked it out of the park considering how difficult the project had to have been. Like how does a person NOT have the old music in their head when trying to compose new Superman music? I'm quite sure that he had the same problem when working on Batman, and again, he managed to create something totally unique and fresh and wonderful.

I mean, if we're talking classical scores as "movie soundtracks", Williams and Zimmer are pretty much going to dominate that conversation anyway while Danny Elfman makes an appearance just off to the side. But what I like about Zimmer over the others - and I'm not saying I don't love the work of Williams and Elfman, I'm just making a point - is that Zimmer is less inclined to "borrow" from himself, which Williams and Elfman have always done very liberally over the years. It's like Zimmer tries a little harder to break some new ground every time out. That's very hard to do.

His BvS score was also really good, which unfortunately gets overshadowed in the controversy about the movie itself. Although he didn't work on it by himself, but I still count it. His music for Lex and Wonder Woman were fantastic. But he also did a great job of revisiting many of the motifs from the MoS score without recycling them outright.

First time I ever paid attention to Zimmer was The Lion King, same as most people probably. That was really good, too. It was like "Come for the Elton John and the cheesy kids sing-along songs that were used in the film... but STAY for the awesome world music." I had that tape in my Walkman for months back then. Before too long I'd skip most of the in-movie songs and jump straight to the instrumentals.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

See, Williams may dominate in the score department, but I think you are overlooking Morricone (whom I mentioned). I mean, c'mon, what would The Good, Bad, and The Ugly be without that incredible music? Not to mention some of the other famous film scores he did. Elfman doesn't get enough credit, either. Not just for Batman, but pretty much every score he's ever done.

I am a big lover of movie music of all kinds, so this is a subject I am fairly knowledgeable in. Another ST I think isn't given nearly enough credit is Spawn, or heck, Cool World.

[frank_one]

Can you imagine the original Star Wars trilogy scored by Morricone?

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Not really, his style is very different. On an interesting side-note, I recently discovered that among Williams's early works was the theme for the original Lost in Space series. Although it is clearly not as polished or epic as his movie scores, his heavy use of brass and talent for creating memorable themes is very obvious in it.