New releases last two weeks: Classical

Review: South Korean survival drama Squid Game took the post-lockdown viewing world by storm. Depicting 456 financially desperate contestants accepting a mysterious invitation to compete in a series of deadly children's games for a massive cash prize, the series, penned by Hwang Dong-hyuk, seemed to successfully mirror a dour reality that was true even before and despite our pre-COVID collective scotoma: no capitalist subject has the luxury of escaping debt cyclicality. Jung Jaeil's highly idiosyncratic soundtrack is therefore complementarily ridiculous, juxtaposing elephantine trombones and toy flutes with dramatic electronic orchestral buildups, prompting audiences the world over to consider the real stakes behind the otherwise farcical situations depicted in-universe.

Review: Legendary composer Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly remains a towering achievement in film music. Effortlessly blending operatic grandeur with raw Western grit, it fuses whistles, guitars, choral howls and sharp percussion into one of cinema's most iconic themes. Each character receives a unique motif, Wagnerian in concept but rooted in 1960s pop flair. Tracks like 'The Ecstasy of Gold' are emotional epics on their own but really elevate the cinematic scenes into legend. Morricone didn't just score the film-he shaped its soul and this new limited-edition reissue is a great way to relive it.

Review: A quarter of a century is a long time in any form of media or entertainment. But when it comes to video games and music, it might as well be a full century. What feels like a lifetime ago, in 2000 The Sims helped define a playable genre that had only seen niche popularity in the past with titles like Little Computer People and Creatures, and more mainstream attention with the standalone pet-in-your-pocket craze kickstarted by Tamagotchis. Breaking open the barriers between regular folk and the idea of living an entire life through a character on screen - now something we've become very used to - The Sims was revolutionary and appealed across the board. So it needed a soundtrack that could do the same. And that's exactly what it got. Beautifully immersive piano overtures, bouncy chip tunes, the kind of tracks you might find on a home shopping channel interlude... you get the point.