Rocks In The Attic #107: Various Artists - ‘Inglourious Basterds (O.S.T.)’ (2009)

Of all of Tarantino’s films so far, this is probably the one I’ve liked the least. Death Proof was pretty poor, for no other reason than it was just plain boring; this film however, was insulting in its revisionist fantasy retelling of WWII events.

The soundtracks jars slightly too, because among snippets of Morricone film scores (which prop up the album), there are odd choices that sit in-between them.  Songs like David Bowie’s Cat People (Putting Out The Fire) or Billy Preston’s Slaughter would have fit into any other Tarantino soundtrack - but as an accompaniment to a period film, which otherwise is well scored with Morricone’s western themes, they feel just a little too much out of place.

The vinyl artwork for this soundtrack is very nice - made to look like a very old 1940s release, with water marks around the edges and publicity shots from the film printed with Ben-Day dots.

Hit: The Verdict - Ennio Morricone

Hidden Gem: White Lightning (Main Title) - Charles Bernstein

Rocks In The Attic #48: Clint Mansell - ‘Moon (O.S.T.)’ (2009)

Soundtracks are a minefield. You can have the great themes by composers like Bernard Hermann and John Williams, but those soundtracks can also be marred by short, unmelodic bursts of score that only serve the purpose of matching cues in the accompanying film. Then there are the soundtracks that just have popular songs on them, starting with American Graffiti and continuing through the John Hughes films of the 1980s. These types of soundtracks are all the rage these days (especially since Tarantino lent an air of cool to the process in the 1990s) as they’re easy to cobble together. Then there are composers who simply try to put across a mood or a feeling in their soundtracks. Clint Mansell is one of those composers.

Looking at the subject matter of this film, and the identity of the film’s director Duncan Jones (also known as Zowie Bowie), it would have been all too easy to plonk Space Oddity on the film’s soundtrack. Thankfully, this fantastic film was made in the UK, away from the clichés of Hollywood.

Hit: Welcome To Lunar Industries

Hidden Gem: Memories (Someone We’ll Never Know)

Rocks In The Attic #2: Various Artists - ‘Jackie Brown O.S.T.’ (1997)

This was the first Tarantino film I saw at the cinema, while on holiday with friends in Omagh, Northern Ireland. I had been far too young to see Reservoir Dogs (and probably unaware of it at the time), and I had narrowly missed seeing Pulp Fiction upon release (although I would later see it at the cinema on a special screening).

It took me a while to really appreciate Jackie Brown as a film. Like most people, I was besotted with Pulp Fiction, and I saw the follow-up as more of a letdown than anything else. Only upon repeated viewings did I realise that it’s a much different beast, much more of a slowburner. I had nearly worn out my VHS copy of Pulp Fiction by the time this was released on video, so this took over as the go-to film I would put on whenever Tarantino was in mind.

In terms of the music, even though I love the soundtracks for his first two films I think this one gels the best of the three. Even though there are a few departures (a Johnny Cash live performance and a rap track from Foxy Brown), the album generally sticks to sickly sweet 70s soul.

Oddly enough, two of the songs on the soundtrack are relatively famous from earlier movies. The film and soundtrack’s opening track Across 110^th Street is the title track from the 1972 blaxpoitation flick of the same name; whilst Randy Crawford’s Street Life had already been well used in Burt Reynold’s otherwise forgettable 1981 film Sharky’s Machine. Maybe Quentin thought he could use these songs better. He did.  

Hit: Across 110^th Street

Hidden Gem: Street Life