Movie Soundtracks

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm on sort of a movie soundtrack kick lately and I wondered - what are some of the better soundtracks out there (in your opinion)? I'm speaking instrumental mostly, but the other kind is good too.

My current favorites (in no paticular order):

Instrumental
Jurassic Park
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Return of the King / Lord of the Rings
Star Wars
Braveheart (don't actually have it)
Gladiator (don't actually have it)
The Hunt for Red October (don't actually have it)Songs
Garden State
Moulin RougeWhat're yours?

[Delia Rose]

Both Trainspotting soundtracks - Orange for songs from the film (my favorite track on it is "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed), Green for songs they wanted in the film/inspired by the film ("Temptation" by Heaven 17 :love).

[Oriadin]

The Superman theme!!

Others I like would have to include:

James Bond
ET
Back to the Future
Harry Potter
Gladiator

Probably worth looking up anything by John Williams and Hans Zimmerman.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Instrumental:
* Gladiator (Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerard)
* Edward Scissorhands (Danny Elfman)
* The Virgin Suicides (Air)
* Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Klaus Badelt)
* Requiem for a Dream (Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet)

Songs:
* Garden State
* Kill Bill, Vol 1 & 2
* Wicker Park
* Vanilla Sky
* Queen of the Damned
* Batman Forever

:)

[Razielle Alastor]

I have a few soundtracks myself.

I'm partial to:

Braveheart
Gladiator
The Fellowship of the Ring
Moulin Rogue
Star Wars
The Last of the Mohicans
The Mummy Returns
Harry Potter

not to mention the slew of Andrew Lloyd Weber stuff I have.. LOL

[Darth McBain]

Some of my favorites:

All of the Star Wars (obviously)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Natural
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Braveheart
Last of the Mohicans
Sleepless in Seattle

[Shawn]

Instrumental:
* Requiem for a Dream (Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet)

Songs:
* Batman ForeverThis. Batman Forever has the best non-instrumental soundtrack ever. I still listen to it all the time.

[Ryan Pode]

Aladdin.

Friend Like Me, One Jump Ahead, and A Whole New World. 'Nuff Said.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I collect soundtracks, so I've got a long list of favorites.

Escaflowne
Aeon Flux (double disc set, baby :D)
Steamboy
The Mexican
Farscape
Waterworld
ID4
Lilo and Stitch (I lucked out and was able to snag the pure instrumental album)
Battlefield Earth (the music, contrary to the actual movie, was actually good)
The Fifth Element
Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country (No words to describe the awesome on this album)
The Rocketeer
PotC:Curse of the Black Pearl
Starship Troopers
Serenity
Hidalgo
The Mummy
The Blues Brothers (1 and 2)


... and there's more, but I can't remember them all.

[Park Kraken]

Oh man. I've so many of them....

Well I'll point out a few of my top ones. Instrument wise, the Star Wars themes, Last of the Mohicians, but mainly the one in the beginning of the movie, and the violin one, Braveheart, the ending scene song for Dragonheart, as for animation, I agree with Christin on Escaflowne, and I also like the opening song for Samurai Champloo. EDIT: And some of the themes from Rourini Kenshin.

[Dimitri Vojslav]

Lost in Translation (Various artists)
Aliens (James Horner)
Batman (Danny Elfman/Prince (there was 2 different albums released.)

[Quay Rakai-Ewan]

Any Pirates of the Caribbean
Any Star Wars
Return of the King
Beauty and the Beast (we sang it in choir)

[Gabriel Archangel]

Hero
House of Flying Daggers
Meet Joe Black

[Wyl Staedtler]

The Out of Africa soundtrack is beautiful, and so is An Unfinished Life, although it's got the country-ish twang to it that I normally don't enjoy. Forrest Gump is gorgeous.

As far as song soundtracks, Elizabethtown has some nifty tunes and A Love Song for Bobby Long has got some great New Orleans blues on it. Also if you can track it down A Slipping Down Life is awesome--Guy Pearce rockin'!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Forrest Gump IS great, and I love the soundtrack to Little Women (the newest version with Susan Sarandon, Christian Bale and Winona Ryder in it).

[Kale]

Star Wars by John Williams - ranked from 1-6:

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. A New Hope
3. The Revenge of the Sith
4. The Return of the Jedi
5. The Phantom Menace
6. Attack of the Clones

I've got two-disc sets of the original trilogy soundtracks, and they're WELL worth it. My copies of ANH and ESB also have extensive liner notes about the development of the themes, but I couldn't find ROTJ in the same edition. :(

I have several favorites, many which have already been mentioned, so I'll mention a few different ones.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan by James Horner - My favorite ST soundtracks (with VI a close second). Granted, a lot of Horner's stuff all sounds alike, and parts will you of Alien, but the music easily matches and enhances the emotional level of the best of the ST movies. Epic, whimsical, adventurous.

Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams - was my favorite of the books, too. :D I think John Williams had a lot of fun writing this one judging from the sheer variety of the music. The ubiquitous HP theme shows up here and there, but we get to explore several other great themes. "Buckbeak's Flight" will take your breath away, and "A Window to the Past" is hauntingly beautiful. Plus, there are some really fun tracks, like "The Knight Bus" and "Double Trouble."

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl by Klaus Badelt - I have Jedi Knight II on GameCube, and my brother and I have found that this is an awesome soundtrack to play during lightsaber duels. :D The music is the spirit of the movie -- rollicking, intense, and fun from beginning to end. If you don't own this one, what the heck is wrong with you?

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest by Hans Zimmer - Not as good as its predecessor, but I was pleasantly surprised that Zimmer did some new things with the music rather than merely riding on Black Pearl's success, and while the movie recycled a lot of incidental music from the first, the CD is almost exclusively new stuff. Great organ pieces in "The Kraken" and "Davy Jones," and a surprisingly fun re-imagination of the swordfighting theme in "Wheel of Fortune." And the waltz in "Dinner is Served" makes me smile every time. I bought the soundtrack on iTunes, and it was well worth the $9.99.

X-Men 3: The Last Stand by John Powell - Far and away my favorite of the X-Men soundtracks, it has a surprising level of depth for a comic-book movie soundtrack. The Phoenix theme in "Dark Phoenix's Tragedy" and "The Last Stand" will give you goosebumps. Impressively, the soundtrack ends with over 21 minutes of continuous music covering the movie's climax, resolution, and end credits. My main complaint is that it doesn't include the whole end credits suite.

The Incredibles by Michael Giacchino - This one is just pure fun. Does the action/jazz spy thriller genre as well as any of the Bond soundtracks, which it was clearly emulating. While it uses only a handful of themes, Giacchino changes up the presentation so often they never get old. A little underwhelming toward the end, but the body of the soundtrack more than makes up for it. Too many great tracks to list.

The Lord of the Rings by Howard Shore - 'nuff said. RotK is the best, followed by FotR and TTT. If I've got a long task in front of me, I'll often listen to all three in a row. They flow together seamlessly.

[Oriadin]

I can't belive I forgot the Braveheart theme :(

[Kajeela Tarruurri]

Remember the Titans soundtrack
Hunt for Red October - the russian anthems are awesome.

Of the ones mentioned, have to say Gladiator and POTC are winners for me.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The Hunt for Red October is one I've always wanted to get my hands on. The soundtrack for The Rock isn't too bad, either. :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

*bump!*

Three years since this thread was active... I'm sure there have been some awesome new movie soundtracks released since then.

:love Steve Jablonsky

[Rutabaga]

OMG, I listen to mostly soundtracks and have a huge number of them on my iPod, so it would be hard to pick out favorite scores right off the top of my head. My favorite composers overall, though, are John Williams, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner.

But I will tell you which soundtrack recently just blew me away and got many, many plays on the iPod...Michael Giacchino's score for Star Trek. :love

[Crusader]

Just to add some more:
Conan the Barbarian OST
Anything by Enrioc Moricone

The Matrix OST! + 160+ km/h on the Autobahn! :)
American Pie 1&2 OST
Eurotrip OST

Videogame Nerd:
Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 theme
Halo 1-3 OSTs
Hitman 2 OST

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

OMG, I listen to mostly soundtracks and have a huge number of them on my iPod, so it would be hard to pick out favorite scores right off the top of my head. My favorite composers overall, though, are John Williams, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner.

But I will tell you which soundtrack recently just blew me away and got many, many plays on the iPod...Michael Giacchino's score for Star Trek. :love




Giacchino is AMAZING. I'd say that along with Star Trek, his music for Up was so much beyond wonderful.


It's nice to know I'm not the only movie score nerd around here, hehe. My favorites list is alot like yours, along with some James Newton Howard, Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri, and David Newman (Firefly/Serenity) added in.