inspiration.

I love film soundtracks. Always have. It goes back at least as far as 1977, when I bought the double LP of the "Star Wars" soundtrack and pretty much wore it out. Film music is special because it gets to have images add to its own musical power in delivering messages. Most people tend to think that a soundtrack serves the film, and for the most part I agree with this viewpoint. However, every so often, a soundtrack is so brilliant, so transcendent, that it stands on its own and even sometimes outshines the film it was written to support.

I often watch movies solely to listen to the soundtrack. "Friday Night Lights" is a fairly recent example of this. I knew going in that the movie wasn't going to be anything special, but I knew David Torn did the soundtrack, and I wanted to hear it in context. Obviously, the soundtrack is helped immensely if the film is good, but it doesn't have to be that way for me to enjoy it, and I am thankful for that. Great pieces of music can indeed be worth the price of admission.

Some might think that as a predominantly electronic composer I would not be into classically styled soundtracks, but that is definitely not the case. As mentioned above, "Star Wars" (and really only the first two of the series) has excellent music; and I found the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy to have great scores as well. Add these to my enthusiasm for the soundtracks from "American Beauty" by Thomas Newman and "Donnie Darko" by Michael Andrews and you may think I am a little difficult to peg as far as what I like.

In my world, the crown jewel goes to the "Blade Runner" soundtrack by Vangelis. As any fan of this soundtrack knows, the best music from the score was not available for many years, until finally, Vangelis was allowed to release it. Before this happened, I had bought the movie and made a cassette from the VHS tape, complete with the dialog and sound effects, just so I could hear the fantastic music more often. And even though the long-awaited CD release from "Blade Runner" contains a cut or two that are not in the movie (they were written later, for the release of the CD), I still contend that it is some of the finest movie scoring I have ever seen & heard.

Perhaps the scene in the movie which most amazes me from a creative point of view is the scene in which Deckert (Harrison Ford) is playing the piano in a very lonely, contemplative moment, and the score begins creeping in and then actually incorporates the notes that Deckert is playing into the score. It is a simply brilliant moment in time, something that moves me deeply every time I watch it. It is masterful artwork by masterful artists, who thankfully were given the creative freedom to weave the two sides of audio and video together beautifully. All I can say is that director Ridley Scott and Vangelis got on the same wavelength, and the result was magical.

So what soundtracks do you love, and why? Feel free to drop me a line at contact@lastlamb.com and let me know. I'd enjoy hearing from you. Here's a short list of some of my favorite soundtracks:

Blade Runner
Star Wars (IV)
Birdy
Finding Forrester
Chariots of Fire
Antarctica
Donnie Darko
American Beauty
Field of Dreams
Flatliners
Miami Vice (original TV series)
The Last Temptation of Christ (I have to state, as a Christian, that I hate this film and the lies it presents about my God, but the soundtrack is excellent.)