The 411 Music Top 5: Week 9
Posted by Brian Berry on 03.06.2007
411 staffers pick their Top 5 MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS EVER in the 9th edition of the Music Zone's Top 5. From Pulp Fiction to High Fidelity and Natural Born Killers, see what soundtracks make us drop our popcorn and start dancing!
Welcome to the 9th edition of 411 Music's Top 5!
In our last column 411 Mania staffers checked in with their Top 5 SAD SONGS (all Top 5's can be found at the very bottom of this page). Since our writers didn't pack in enough tears, our readers let us know what made them cry harder, which brings us to…
READER MAIL
We got so much mail on this one. Here are some snippets (edited for content)…
Emotionally I am stiff as a board, but everytime without fail that I hear "Tears In Heaven" by Eric Clapton I cry. Guaranteed. I can't believe this didn't get mentioned. -Matthew Lloyd
I can't believe you guys didn't put Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt" on the list! Watch the video for an even more somber experience. -Blaine Thompson
Any list without "Black" by Pearl Jam in is incomplete. Listen to it live and hear Eddie wrench the emotion. Good version is Pittsburgh 06 bootleg. -Mark Reed
I figured I'd drop a line and say that a song that wasn't mentioned that makes me emotional is "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" by R.E.M. It has such beautiful lyrics and it really hits home for me. -J.R. Rome
I was quite surprised to not see anyone list any Ben Harper songs. Harper has quite a way with words, as evident in "Another Lonely Day, Give a Man a Home" and "Widow of a Living Man". -Alexander Farmakovski
I can't believe you didn't include like every NIN song ever made! "Hurt", "The Becoming", "The Downward Spiral",etc... -Rob Hudson
Just a few of what I consider the "saddest" songs...Pearl Jam "Black"…My Dying Bride-pick any song…VNV Nation "Left Behind"…Joy Division "Love Will Tear Us Apart"…The Verve "Sonnet/The Drugs Don't Work"… -Scott Sharland
John Frusciante – "Dying Song". This is not in his solo albums, but it's by far his saddest song, as the name implies. Our Lady Peace –"Julia" (piano version). There's a post-grunge version of this song, and a piano one. The piano one is so emotionally driven, and Raine's (the singer) voice hits off keys, etc. which make it even more amazing. Lastly (as I don't wanna go to long here), there's Pearl Jam's "Black". Specifically the unplugged version. This song is just beyond words "I know someday you'll have a beautiful life i know you'll be a star in somebody else's sky but why can't it be mine" is brilliant. -Yoni Regnarok
No Frank Sinatra makes these lists ridiculous. -Johnny Sorrow
Fuck film, let's dance! Turn off the HD monitor but leave the speakers blasting because it's time for our picks of the...
TOP 5 MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS
Brian Berry
[Music Editor/Columnist, "The 411 Music Top 5"/ Reviewer]
5. The Virgin Suicides - Sofia Coppola's first feature length film had two soundtracks, both of which were excellent. The score by French duo Air was haunting and poetic. The alternate soundtrack with ‘70s FM hits by the likes of Heart, Todd Rundgren, and 10cc is almost as spooky when set against the back drop of this morbid film.
4. Grease - The original cast recording of this album is awesome. This reinterpretation of '50s pop as a musical, led by a cast of actors whose voices are mediocre at best, comes off raw and honest. A healthy balance of sincere and witty lyrics drive home one of the best post-MGM studio musicals.
3. Amelie - This disc is a must have for lovers and people in love with being in love. Yann Tiersen crafted a moving score of Parisian café music, which should impose goosebumps on the toughest of folks.
2. Pump Up the Volume - The best underground rockers showed up on the soundtrack of this, the most underrated cult film of the late-‘80s. The who's who of rock acts (Jesus & Mary Chain, Pixies, Sonic Youth) play like a college rock greatest hits.
1. Pulp Fiction- Tarantino took some square ass music (Statler Brothers, Ricky Nelson, a Neil Diamond cover) and made it cooler than cool on this soundtrack. Pair that with some badass dialogue snippets and you've got the best soundtrack of all-time.
Michael Melchor
[Music Editor/Reviewer/Contributor To Most 411 Mania Zones]
5. Fight Club- The Dust Brothers come up with a soundscape just as disjointed and infectious as the movie is. I'm not even sure it can be called music at times; some of it just throws a sample and half a beat out there to go along with whatever may be happening at the time. Not that that's even a bad thing - the Dust Brothers are masters of the cut-and-paste school of electronic music, and this is a near-masterpiece in minimalism. The mood changes at the drop of a hat and wraps itself perfectly around the surreal yet all-too-grittily-real vibe that encompasses Fincher's film.
4. The Rocky Horror Picture Show- The movie and record that defined audience participation. Hell, I bet more people drive around in their cars with this on reciting the audience parts than singing the actual songs. Nonetheless, some of the melodies Richard O'Brien crafts here fall right in line with everything the movie represents – camp, sci-fi, sexual hi-jinks, loss of innocence and irrevocable change. Few have been the same after seeing this movie; the soundtrack just serves to remind how pure they were before seeing the Show.
3. Judgment Night- I've yet to see this movie. There are only a couple reasons I'd want to (Denis Leary and Everlast as gangsters? I'm in), but I'm in no real hurry. However, this soundtrack broke HUGE ground in 1993 as the first all-out collaboration between metal and rap. Bear in mind the two had been experimented with up to this point, but aside from "Bring Tha Noize", there was no real marriage between the two. A host of people fixed that problem – De La Soul and Teenage Fanclub; Dinosaur Jr. and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien; Living Colour and Run-DMC; Slayer and Ice-T; Sir Mix-A-Lot and Mudhoney; Faith No More and Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.; Sonic Youth and Cypress Hill; Pearl Jam and Cypress Hill; Helmet and House Of Pain; Biohazard and Onyx; Therapy? and Fatal. (Yes, these are all actual pairings.) The result is one I could literally leave on repeat for days and not get tired of.
2. Natural Born Killers- Trent Reznor does his best to keep up with the Dust Brothers in style, but takes a different approach. Reznor, instead of creating samples to cut-and-paste, takes from already established sources – and man, does he travel the spectrum. Nothing is sacred here – Duane Eddy, L7. Lard, Peter Gabriel, Patsy Cline, Tha Dogg Pound, Bob Dylan...even his own shit was fair game in compiling the perfect aural companion to Oliver Stone's blitzkrieg examination our culture's obsession with ne'er-do-wells. Reznor's assembly here is brilliant, as the soundtrack leaves you as breathless and scared as the film does.
1. The Crow- This list took some difficulty for me, because there are a wealth of good soundtracks out there. I had to leave the "Honorable Mention" list off because they outnumbered the actual Top 5 picks here 3-to-1 (and that's just a little much, if you ask me). In the end, it came down to not what my favorite soundtracks were, but how well each did the job they were intended to do – be the perfect accompaniment, in mood and sound, to the film they were made for (okay, okay, so #3 was an obvious exception). That's exactly why The Crow took the top spot here. Every top-notch track is dripping with anger, revenge, pathos, lamentation, melancholy, longing, violence, or a combination thereof and nothing sounding like a castoff track for the sake of exposure alone. The music matches the movie so well that I'm almost convinced that the film could have been made without dialogue to tell the story and, instead, simply played with the music.
Honorable Mention: Friday When it came time to look at the endless list of soundtracks that produced one great song and endless amounts of filler, I tried hard to come up with a handful of soundtracks I'm proud to own that aren't just marketing tools for one song and a bunch of sub-par b-sides from artists looking for dumping ground. This collection brought together Bootsy Collins, The Isley Brothers, and Cypress Hill. Bonus points for the fantastic Dr. Dre song "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" and the title track by Ice Cube.
5. Natural Born Killers - I always have the same conversation with a friend of mine that if Trent Reznor weren't making music, he would be the perfect artist to score a soundtrack for a movie. Enter Natural Born Killers. Certainly not a great movie (it especially starts to crap out in the last half), the soundtrack is outstanding. Spliced with excerpts of Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson are great songs by L7, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, and Nine Inch Nails. Also included is a fantastic cover of "Sweet Jane" by the Cowboy Junkies.
4. High Fidelity - This is a movie I enjoy, but a majority of my friends loathe. That doesn't mean the soundtrack isn't amazing. Roky & the 13th Floor Elevators, The Beta Band (who contribute the sublime "Dry the Rain") and Stereolab make this a record collector's fantasy soundtrack.
3. Kill Bill Volume 1 & 2 - Quentin Tarantino has always had a knack for putting together movie soundtracks. In a movie like Kill Bill, no songs go to waste in this eclectic mix of Johnny Cash, The RZA, The 5,6,7,8's, Nancy Sinatra, and Isaac Hayes. Volume I is slightly better, but both are essential.
2. Repo Man - I can't recall if I even liked this movie (or if it was one of those I appreciated for its badness). Nevertheless, the soundtrack is fast and furious. Iggy Pop, Black Flag, and Circle Jerks all make appearances as well as understated classic "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies.
1. Pulp Fiction - Tarantino makes the list for a second time with one of the soundtracks that never gets old, even following repeated listens. Dick Dale's career boosted because of "Misirlou" being used in the opening credits. "Jungle Boogie" and "Let's Stay Together" are just as memorable. But the inclusion of the Statler Brothers' "Flowers on the Wall" and Dusty's "Son of a Preacher Man" solidify this collection's place in greatest film soundtracks.
Honorable Mention: Purple Rain, Pulp Fiction, Rock ‘n' Roll High School, Garden State, The Basketball Diaries (this one should actually be in the top 5, but I thought of it too late and don't have time to revise – Jim Carroll f***ing rocks – clearly I'm the idiot).
5. Pump Up the Volume - This is the first soundtrack I can remember buying. And probably the first movie I was ever completely obsessed with growing up, for some reason. (This, and The Princess Bride, of course – I never claimed I was not a dork.) I'm actually pretty amazed that I had the sense at that age to appreciate some of the bands on this soundtrack that I would rock out to years later: Bad Brains, Above The Law, Pixies, Concrete Blonde, Sonic Youth…the list goes on.
4. Good Will Hunting - Elliott Smith all over the place – that itself is enough for me. In fact I think it was this soundtrack that boosted the late word and songsmith into the (semi-)mainstream. Smith's ultra-depressing Miss Misery was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song – but lost to the vomit-inducing My Heart Will Go On from Titanic. Thrown in is also one of my favorite Waterboys songs, some Dandy Warhols, and even a little Al Green, among other mainly mellow tunes, supporting the mood of the movie.
3. High Fidelity - Ahhhh, one of my favorite movies of all time with a soundtrack that plays like a mix tape your best friend made for your road trip – which is actually appropriate given the recurrent mix tape theme in the film itself. Dylan, Stereolab, The Kinks, The Beta Band (which gets the ultimate shout out in the film itself), Velvet Underground – all helping to tell this particular audiophile's love-ish story.
2. SLC Punk! - Who knew there were punks in Salt Lake City, Utah? This flick is one of my biggest guilty pleasures that I don't think I will ever outgrow, and with a soundtrack including the likes of Adolescents, The Suicide Machines, Dead Kennedys, Ramones, Velvet Underground, Fear, The Stooges, Generation X – even Blondie – actually, what is there to feel guilty about? Pure pleasure.
1. Grosse Point Blank - Arguably the best soundtrack on this list, but by far the best use of music on this list, which is not exactly shocking considering it was composed by the late great Mr. Joe Strummer. Unfortunately the soundtrack itself doesn't begin to cover all of the great music interspersed throughout the film, but you do get a double dose of The Clash (shocker), along with tunes from the likes of The English Beat, The Jam, Faith No More, Pete Townshend, The Specials, Violent Femmes, Queen & David Bowie, and more. During one of the best scenes of the movie, you hear Live and Let Die - Guns N' Roses - while John Cusack stands in front of the mini-mart that lives where his house used to, and then, upon entering the mini-mart, you hear the same song, but this time the muzak version – in a seamless, and hilarious, transition.
5. Reality Bites - I love this album because it has the best compilation of the 90's grunge/alternative rock right when it was on the verge of blowing up, and it introduced me to a few under-the-radar bands.
4. Reservoir Dogs - Best collection of cheeky old tunes. I used to ride around in my car in high school and listen to it on repeat.
3. Romeo + Juliet - This is another one from the 90's that had some good alternative and a few pop tracks. I mean, if Radiohead is going to contribute to something, you know it has to be a good thing.
2. Love Actually - Yeah, it's mostly for Christmas time based on the movie's content, but all the songs are good, so it belongs on this list.
1. Pulp Fiction - Still, to this day, I listen to this one. There's something to be said about the retro nature of it, and the occasional conversation included from the movie just adds to it.
Fuck it, these are all tied. No HMs because if it's not good enough for MM, it's not good enough for EM. Actually, screw that. The soundtracks for Trespass and Waiting To Exhale also deserve mention, as both are very, very good. I am also disqualifying KISS' Music From The Elder, as there was never a movie there to begin with.
* Pulp Fiction: The combination of this soundtrack + the movie led people to the idea that Quentin Tarantino could do not wrong, a fiction that he dispelled quickly enough.
* Tales From The Hood: Somewhat of an idiotic movie, though the songs alone make this worthwhile. Back when rap still mattered and gangsta rap in particular was riding an all-time high, this was an assemblage of excellence.
* Natural Born Killers: Continuing our theme of soundtracks that are better than the movies, we have the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. The movie was nearly as entirely useless as it is possible to be but the soundtrack stands alone (see also Judgment Night & Dangerous Ground, for an example of a good movie with somewhat crappy soundtrack, see Demon Knight) and gave people the idea that Trent Reznor could do no wrong, a fiction that would be resolved, though it would take a while...
* Lost Highway: Speaking of Trent Reznor, it was largely through his magic that the Lost Highway soundtrack came off as well as it did, despite the fact that the video for The Perfect Drug was considerably better than this movie.
*Maximum Overdrive: Yet another soundtrack that was better than the movie and that was Maximum Overdrive, which was basically a collection of songs from AC/DC. This was as bulletproof of an idea as ever exists. AC/DC greatest hits package with a few "bonus" songs masquerading as a soundtrack is sheer brilliance. With very few exceptions, it seems like either the soundtracks are great or the movies are, with precious few that cover both solidly...food for thought.
Deniz Kuypers
[Reviewer]
Honorable mentions: Masked and Anonymous, if only to hear Bob Dylan's awkward interpretation of "Dixie." And Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus, a foray into the sinister boondocks of Southern folk rock.
5. Million Dollar Hotel- The problem with this soundtrack is that it is the companion piece to a crappy movie and, on top of that, it contains a lot of rubbish. Yet, what makes this album so intriguing is that the idea behind it could have been so wonderful. U2 and filmmaker Wim Wenders already had somewhat of a collaborative history together (check the gorgeous "Stay" on the band's Zooropa) when they thought to team up for an entire soundtrack and, to make things even better, bring in Daniel Lanois, record a song penned by Salman Rushdie, and cover an old Lou Reed tune. Approximately 50% of this record is as captivating as those ideas may sound. At their best, the songs here are hypnotizing, mysterious, slightly erotic with a pinch of derangement—something the movie attempted but failed to be. "The Ground beneath Her Feet" and "Falling at Her Feet" are classic U2. Some of the instrumental pieces are real gems. But toward the second half of the disc, the project derails in an uninspired mess of unfortunate collaborations (Milla Jovovich singing "Satellite of Love" just doesn't do it for me) and trifle performances that are as boring as the movie itself.
4. Blush Music- Who said we had to limit ourselves to movie soundtracks? Wovenhand's Blush Music was written for a Belgian dance company. Alongside new compositions, the album contains reimagined tracks from its self-titled debut album. Wovenhand's droning, spine-chilling sounds are stretched to the max on songs like the epic "Animalitos," a fourteen minute cover of "Ain't No Sunshine." The result is an album so dark and stifling in tone, it's hard to put into words exactly what it sounds like. It's like an old plantation house you stumble upon, abandoned and overgrown with all kinds of weeds, riddled with rot and mold, haunted by souls of a bygone age, sweltering in the muggy Mississippi heat, that reveals its secrets only very slowly.
3. Angels of the Universe- Sigur Ros's music could add a glacial grandeur to any movie, and the band will undoubtedly release a proper soundtrack at some point. Angels of the Universe is only a teaser, for although the disc is advertised as a collaboration between Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson and Sigur Ros, the latter really only contributed two songs. But it's not hard to believe the album could have been recorded by Sigur Ros, for it's a collection of crystalline, ambient compositions full of swirling guitars, repeating patterns, and electronics bleeps that, we should perhaps assume, are no longer just a trademark of Sigur Ros but of their (and Hilmarsson's) home country, Iceland.
2. No Direction Home- Though one could argue that the seventh installment of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series doesn't really qualify as a soundtrack, this two-disc treasure trove of rare Dylan recordings in fact accompanied the Scorsese-helmed No Direction Home documentary. Though the first four installments of the series are still the best (unearthing mostly unreleased or hard-to-find recordings rather than different versions of well-known Dylan songs; and offering us what is perhaps the best live concert caught on tape in the last half-century), the No Direction Home piece offers a tantalizing glimpse of the creative process behind Dylan's 1960s' songwriting peak. The entire second disc offers alternative versions of some of his best-known songs from Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. Disc one, which maps out Dylan's early career, is only icing on an already magnificently rich cake.
1. Tom Waits's The Black Rider is a song cycle accompanying the creepy William Burroughs play of the same title. The play focuses on a young man who gets tricked by the Devil into shooting his bride on their wedding day. Waits' songs rightly capture the freakish, Sleepy Hollow-ish Gothic darkness of the story (one which would have made Nathaniel Hawthorne, another master of backwoods, Puritan eeriness): the songs wheeze and hiss and lumber along like a rusty ghost train. There's murder in these songs and despair and a host of unspeakable things that go bump in the night. Waits portrays the Devil, the poor gullible young man, the wronged bride and presents them so spot-on and maniacally heartfelt that their stories make for some of the best songs in the man's back catalogue. With The Black Rider Waits actually pulls off something that can't be said of many soundtracks: it tops the production it accompanies.
Samuel Berman
[Wrestling Columnist, "The Independent Mid-Card"]
Honorable Mention:
Almost Famous – Both the classic and original tracks are strong, highlighted by Elton John's "Tiny Dancer".
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 & 2 – Has made a number of songs instantly identifiable and defines saturation.
Garden State – Won a Grammy for effectively being an Emo mix tape, but it didn't happen by accident.
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle – So I'm a sucker for Wilson Phillips. Sue me.
Jerry Maguire – So I'm a sucker for Tom Petty. Sue me.
5. Star Wars –Some of the most recognizable orchestral music of the film era, if not all time. I'd bet big money that more people could identify the Star Wars theme than can identify the Pastoral Symphony. That's a credit to Star Wars, by the way, not a knock on Beethoven. Also, beyond the title theme, there's the incredible Empire theme and the funky cantina music that are just as familiar to audiences worldwide.
4. Pulp Fiction – I just have one question: is there anyone left that can hear "Son of a Preacher Man" without thinking of this film? Yeah, I thought not.
3. Dave Chappelle's Block Party – I know that hip-hop isn't everyone's cup of tea, but when I played a handful of songs from this for my mom (who defines "doesn't like hip-hop"), even she agreed that the talent displayed by the performers was at an incredibly high level. This album single-handedly disproves the ‘hip-hop artists can't sing' theory. The sad part is that the soundtrack itself doesn't contain some of the film's best performances, namely those of Kanye West and the reunited Fugees. Still, powerful numbers by Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Jill Scott carry the soundtrack well in the absence of complete film representation.
2. High Fidelity – This would probably have been at least fifth on my list just for the Jack Black cover of "Let's Get It On". When you add in music from The Beta Band, The Velvet Underground, Stereolab and Stevie Wonder, you've turned the album version of this music-centric film into an audio junkie's wet dream. The fun part is counting all of the great songs that are mentioned in the film but not actually heard. Some may call that cheating, but any film that mentions Nirvana and The Clash within like five seconds of each other deserves to be on this list.
1. Forrest Gump – I mean, it's pretty much the most eclectic mix of American music written before 1985 that exists. Everything from Elvis Presley to Buffalo Springfield to The Doors to Three Dog Night to Bob Seger is on this two disc powerhouse. This is basically the ultimate classic rock mix tape, with the best part being how seamlessly the music was actually integrated into the film itself.
Did we miss a soundtrack from one of your favorite movies? Send us a line and let us know!
…and don't forget to click on each writer's name to see what else they've been writing at 411 Mania!
That's it for The Top 5 this week. Check us out this time next week for another Top 5 list!
