Soundtrack Gems

Soundtracks are a great way to discover new music but sometimes it can be really annoying as you can't find out what a track is or get hold of it. Often they aren't available on iTunes or only as a full album. The most annoying of all is buying the soundtrack for a film and then finding the song you liked isn't even on there. Clint Mansell's Dead Reckoning is one example of this which I included on What's wrong with the mainstream's May playlist. You can download that here.

I've put together a playlist of some of my favourite tracks from soundtracks below, not all of them are rare or even unusual but I thought you'd like to hear them anyway. Some of course appear in more than one film, I've just commented where I heard them from.

I'll start off with Pixies and Where Is My Mind?. Played in Fight Club at the end when Tyler and Martha are stood together in the sky scrapper. - I'm going to try not to spoil any films for people who haven't seen them before. Surely everyone's seen Fight Club? If not, why not? It's got to be in my top ten films of all time.

MP3: Where Is My Mind - Pixies

Next up is the main song used in the Borne series. I have to say that after enjoying the first Bourne film (The Bourne Identity) I was a bit disappointed by the follow up. However, having recently watched The Bourne Supremacy again and the third film, The Bourne Ultimatum I now cannot wait for them to do another one. I'm told there are lots of books in the series so lets hope there are loads more films to come.

Anyway the main track used is by Moby, taken from his 18 album and is called Extreme Ways.

MP3: Extreme Ways - Moby

Ah, Shallow Grave. Christopher Ecclestone and Ewan McGregor's first major film and a great film at that. It certainly gets your heart rate up and the soundtrack is a key contributor to that. I think if I do another soundtrack post sometime then I'll be putting another one on from Shallow Grave. The main theme is by Simon Boswell, he did the majority of the soundtrack with notable mentions to Nina Simone and Leftfield tracks.

MP3: Shallow Grave Theme - Simon Boswell

The Matrix soundtrack contains some fantastic tracks and deciding which one to put on here was tough. In the end Rob D's brilliant Clubbed to death (kurayamino mix) just edged it. Enjoy.

Mp3: Clubbed to death (kurayamino mix) - Rob D

Which came first the chicken or the egg, Bill & Ted's or Wayne's World - all great philosophical questions of our time but I think if Socrates had been around he would have gone for the boys from San Demas. Party On Dudes.

MP3: Play With Me - Extreme

Now depending on which rules you play by the next track is from one of my favourite Christmas films. Sadly not everyone agrees that Gremlins is a Christmas film, they say that just because it's set at Christmas it's not a Christmas film (Die Hard would then also be a Christmas film). So as the track's not Christmas related I can post it up in June. Just think about poor Billy and his favourite little Mogwai, Gizmo when you're listening to it. If I had the skills I'd do a remix of this track.

MP3: Gremlins Credits - Jerry Goldsmith

OK, I realise that by posting the next track I'm leaving myself open to be called a big girl but I don't know what it is about this track but I really like it. It starts off as usual girly pap but then really gets me with the hook. I don't normally like female voices that much so whatever it is I like about it maybe you will too. Oh, it's from (cough) Bridget Jones' Diary, no really you might like it.

MP3: Pretender Got My Heart - Alisha's Attic

The Kill Bill 1 soundtrack is a great soundtrack to discover new music from. I think lots of advertising people did too as you will now hear lots of them over your favourite lager etc. adverts. This track is less used and yet is a great track. It was originally released in the 60s (I think, don't hold me to that) and is a firm favourite whenever I put it on playlists for people.

MP3: Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Santa Esmeralda

Limp Bizit. Mission Impossible, theme from the second one. Nuff said.

MP3: Take A Look Around - Limp Bizkit

One of my friends can do a great impression of the guy in the film performing the next track. A great quality to have you would think, well if I tell you the film is Deliverance and the guy is the inbred who plays the banjo then maybe not. Put that tennis racquet down Pie Man.

MP3: Dueling Banjos - Eric Weissberg

My old house mate used to be in to Orbital in a big way but I never really got it until I heard this track. The film it's taken from, The Beach, was based on one of my favourite books and was a little disappointing (don't you find that's always the case when you've read the book beforehand) but the soundtracks great. A summer CD without Mungo Jerry, always a good start...

MP3: Beached - Orbital

Badly Drawn Boy is a great song writer and so I was excited when I heard he was going to be writing the sound track for About A Boy (I know this was a long time ago now). Sadly most of the tracks are musical score numbers and not actually songs. This is one of the few actual songs on the soundtrack and I assume he singing about the fact that Hugh Grant's character does nothing and therefore has nothing to say to women when he's chatting them up so he invents a child.

MP3: Something To Talk About - Badly Drawn Boy

Now True Romance is a FILM. It's so enjoyable to watch and people who haven't seen it before always laugh at me when I say it's one of my favourite films. When I explain it's written by Quentin Tarantino they tend to stop laughing. QT actually put together a list of songs for the soundtrack and all were dropped by director Tony Scott which is a shame. Actually that's not 100% true, he did leave in the song that Dennis Hopper's character sings when he first appears in the film. True to soundtrack form though it doesn't appear on the CD.

Anyway this track by Hans Zimmer runs throughout the film and really ads to the feel of the it. If you've not seen the film you will wonder why I like this track, maybe it's time you saw it.

MP3: True Romance Theme - Hans Zimmer

I mentioned In The House - In A Heartbeat briefly in my May playlist. It's a song that's been used in a Peugeot advert but it was composed by John Murphy for the film 28 Days Later. I think in a way the film has a similar feel to Shallow Grave (probably because it was directed by the same person Danny Boyle). The title refers to how one person says to another that they would kill them "in a heartbeat" if they had to. In the house is where we find out whether they would...

MP3: In The House - In A Heart Beat - John Murphy

Road Trip is a one of a number of great "gross-out" films that we own in our house. Stupid, banal and great to put on when you get in from the pub. I now associate this track with road trips so much that I decided to put together a road trip playlist only for my brain to fail me. All I could think about was this track. Eels are greatly underrated (the band not the slimy wriggly things) and this is a clear indication of why they should have more fame.

MP3: Mr E's Beautiful Blues - Eels

The Trainspotting soundtrack is probably owned by 50% of the people who grew up in the nineties but if you ask anyone what songs are on there they will cite the usual ones: Underworld, Lou Read, Iggy Pop... but there are some other great tracks on there. This never appeared on a Pulp album but is another well written track from Mr Cocker (Jarvis not Joe, keep up kids).

MP3: Mile End - Pulp

A friend of mine, Jim, used to send me a batch of compilation tapes every so often and it was like a real treasure trove. His taste was always close to mine while still introducing me to lots of new music. One of the tracks on there was off American Pie, or so he told me. I hunted high and low but whenever I saw the soundtrack in the shops it was not on it. As I now know, this happens all the time but it took me ages at the time to get hold of this track. I've never really heard it on the radio so if it'd not been for Jim I wouldn't have been in to this track.

American Pie THE all time classic gross-out film? Probably.

MP3: Flagpole Sitta - Harvey Danger

Haddaway, all time dance gurus. A Night At The Roxbury all time best film. OK, maybe not on both counts but once you've seen the film you can't help but smile when this track comes on.

MP3: What Is Love - Haddaway

50 First Dates. A silly, easy going film that is great to watch on a Sunday. It may be Adam Sandler by numbers but add Drew Barrymore and you're already half way to making it a film I'd like to watch. This track has been used for many slots on TV but I only managed to get my hands on it this morning. Sit back and imagine you're on a boat in the middle of an ocean somewhere.

MP3: Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Brother IZ

Ever wondered, like Red, what those ladies were singing about in Shawshank Redemption? Well listen to this opera track and you'll feel just like Red, clueless. Great film, but I didn't need to say that, did I?

MP3: http://www.zshare.net/audio/136632920414eeac/