Post
by thousandshirts » Mon Sep 29, 2008 10:12 am
Kansas City (1996). Soundtrack for the Robert Altman film. Which, at times, seems to be scripted as an excuse to make a great soundtrack. No question, this soundtrack is great, and, has occupied the top of my soundtrack list since it's release in '96. I don't see anything else displacing it anytime soon. Plenty of people don't enjoy this style of music, though, so I don't get a lot of folks standing with me on this one. Come to think of it I am usually standing alone.
Sneakers (1992). My choice if I had to choose a film score that is born of the weird parallel universe that the Academy Awards inhabit. Nice work by Marsalis. The last James Horner score I like. Also had a great track by Mike Bloomfield ("Really," from the Super Sessions album, showing off what a great old Les Paul into a Blackface Super Reverb sounds like) near the start of the movie that isn't on the Soundtrack.
Slaughterhouse-Five (1972). Glenn Gould put this one together. Great usage of Variation 18 from the Goldbergs, as well as the largo from Bach's F minor Piano Concerto. Maybe this is here just because I liked the book, or because I like Glenn Gould, or Bach. But I thought it all came together nicely.
Touch Me, I'm Dick, by Citizen Dick -- notable because it opened the way for all of the massive modern bands to be in soundtracks. Not really a strong offering in many ways, but dammit, this is the People's Elbow of soundtracks. Before this soundtrack, nobody, or, almost nobody actually bought soundtracks (Singles, 1992). Except for that great uncle who collected soundtracks with extended clarinet solos.
Generally with the classic soundtracks you get a great theme, two at max, and then that's it. Strangers on the Shore, Somewhere my Love, etc.