Favorite Soundtrack: Movie Edition

[Dagger Dias]

I love soundtracks. The music playing in the background a given scene in a movie adds an important layer to the viewing experience. A pleasant sounding soft instrumental can make a romantic scene all the more special while you enjoy watching it with a significant other of your own. A catchy or heavy piece makes a moment full of action all the more exciting. They assist in bringing out the emotions that the scenes themselves are meant to make you feel, thus improving the overall experience of watching the film.

What I want to do in this topic is tell us one or more of your favorite movie soundtracks. It could be a symphonic score created to play during the movie or an album of "songs inspired by the movie" released as its soundtrack, as long as it is officially connected to the film somehow. I'd like you to share why you like this particular soundtrack also. What makes it stand out to you above all the rest? What are some of your favorite songs on it?

My collection of soundtracks consists of multiple genres. Here are some of my favorites amongst the ones I own a copy of:

Avengers Assemble
8 Mile
Fantastic Four
Forrest Gump
Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Volume 1
Imaginaerum: The Score
Rocky 4
The Scorpion King
Snakes On A Plane
Spiderman 1
Spiderman 2
Spiderman 3
Top Gun
xXx Soundtrack & The Xander Xone

My personal favorite is The Top Gun Soundtrack. The music on it might be a little cheesy by today's standards, but I feel it has stood the test of time. The film is almost 30 years old but despite its age there were some amazing pieces of music to be found on the soundtrack, nearly all of which appeared in the movie somehow. I like everything on it. Whether it be Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone", Teena Marie's "Lead Me On", or even "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis, it's difficult to find a song on this soundtrack that isn't great. The track that stands out to me the most though is Berlin's song "Take My Breath Away". Such a beautiful song.... no wonder it was used as the love theme in the movie.


What are one or more of your favorite movie soundtracks? Why do you like these soundtracks, what are some of the songs on there that you like the most? Any other thoughts on topic within the forum rules are welcome.

Discuss!

 

[Wolf Pac]

I was listening to Hearts On Fire just as I saw this thread. Nothing tops Rocky IV for me, a solid soundtrack with epic songs. They go perfect with the training montages in the movie, and to this day, I still work out to most of the songs in the gym to motivate me. The soundtrack never gets old.

My other favourite soundtracks are from White Men Can't Jump, good blend of hip-hop, R&B, and pop. From Dusk Till Dawn, another good blend of rock, country, western, and blues. La Bamba, great cover versions of Ritchie Valen songs by Los Lobos. Dumb and Dumber, I really hope the sequel retains most of the tracks from the original cause I just can't imagine a D&D movie without them. And Desperado, Los Lobos and the band that created some of the songs for From Dusk Till Dawn, Tito & Tarantula, mainly contribute to the soundtrack.

 

[Alex]

I actually only have two movie soundtracks. Sure I've got songs from loads of movies such as Top Gun, Rocky, etc but I only have two entire albums dedicated to one movie.

The first one

Spoiler

I fucking love this soundtrack. It's dirty, it's dark, it's a bit gothic, it's basically me.

it was this album that I heard my first Cure song (Burn) my first Stone Temple Pilots song (Big Empty) my first Pantera song, (The Badge) Rage Against The Machine (Darkness) it was where I first heard Nine Inch Nails and their cover of Joy Division's Dead Souls which made me check out Joy Division. It's got some great obscure people like Machines of Loving Grace (Golotha Tenement Blues), For Love Not Lisa (Slipe Slide Melting). It's just a great compilation in it's own right.

The other one

Spoiler

Say what you want about the movie (I actually enjoyed it) it's hard to fault the soundtrack and it's re-imagining of popular songs such as Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), Where Is My Mind and others

 

[Freddy4190]

My favorite soundtrack is without a doubt the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I loved the movies so much and I think a key element in my love for them is the amazing soundtrack. The music can just suck you into the film, and it sort of takes you into the world and makes you really wanna wander around Middle Earth. I can turn on the LOTR soundtrack and fall right asleep to it, which is a big plus for me. It calms me down too, and that's also a big plus. I give a close second to the Harry Potter soundtrack because I am a massive HP nerd and even have a HP tattoo. Reasons are pretty much the same as LOTR, the LOTR soundtrack just edges past it though.

 

[Starkist]

My favorite movie sound track is the 2003 version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Sound track is heavy thought and all the songs on it are kick ass. Hell, it has Ivan Moody with Motograter on it. The song Suffocate which is simply awesome. I also enjoyed The Devils reject sound track as well. My top two sound tracks of my liking.

 

[Slash-LN]

Juno I guess.

It introduced me to Kimya Dawson and her other bands Moldy Peaches and Antsy Pants.

It had Sonic Youth on it which is pretty awesome in itself.

An ex girlfriend and I used to ride around and listen to that Belle and Sebastian song Piazza New York Catcher from there.

A good friend of mine and I were making mix cd's for each other at the time and she put the Antsy Pants song "Vampire" on the disc so that makes me think of her every time I hear it.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

One that sticks out is the soundtrack for Dead Presidents.

It's one of the few soundtracks, where each song is a perfect fit for certain scenes throughout the movie, and the timing is impeccable. A prime example of perfect timing is the scene after the botched robbery with Anthony, Kirby, Skip, and Cleon. Before they show up on screen, they show a few shots of the money sitting on the table with Issac Hayes' "Walk On By" in the background, and as the music fades, you see a devastated Anthony (Larenz Tate), a greedy Kirby (Keith David), an angry Skip (Chris Tucker), and Cleon (Bokeem Woodbine) is a nervous wreck.

Spoiler

A few spoilers, but Al Green's "Tired Of Being Alone" is playing in the background during a scene towards the very end. It's the scene, where the cops burst through the door at Skip's apartment to arrest him, but they're too late, because he's sitting in the apartment alone with a needle in his arm (he died of a heroin overdose).

And they use Walk On By again during the final moments of the movie. They use the song in two parts. It starts, when the judge gives Anthony his life sentence, and in the next shot you see a close-up shot of Tate riding on the prison bus with an empty and hopeless look on his face.

Jackie Brown's soundtrack is another one of my favorites. It's loaded from top to bottom, it's another good example of a soundtrack working as the perfect companion for the movie, and Booby Womack's Across 110th Street sticks out as one of the top tracks. You'll hear it more than once, but Tarantino uses Across 110th Street during the opening with Pam Grier, when see enters the airport, and the song adds an easy and smooth feel to the sequence from start to finish. Can you imagine that scene without music, while Pam Grier is running through the airport?

More favorites from other films:

Insidious
Night Of The Demons 1988
Night Of The Demons 2009
Kill Bill Vol. 1
The Dark Knight Rises
Pulp Fiction
Halloween III: Season Of The Witch
The Thing (1982)
American Gangster
Predator (1987)
Aliens