Back catalogue: Soundtracks

Review: We thought they didn't make them like this anymore. Then they made four seasons like this, and we all remembered what it meant to combine fantasy, horror, coming of age, and stick the lot in the most nostalgic decade for many people aged between mid-20s and late-50s. An age that, even if memories are hazy or you weren't even born ye, still manages to reflect the way the world was and had been for some time. The culmination of half a century's progress in mechanics and engineering, the final hurrah before the tech revolution got underway and changed our lives for good.

A key part of what makes Stranger Things so evocative is the music itself. Each instalment is littered with great chart tracks from the year in which they are set - not least this time round, with Kate Bush rocketing to the top of the charts with 'Running Up That Hill' thanks to its use in the show. Nevertheless, the finest sounds on offer are the original tracks, which come in the form of these synth heavy masterpieces, which should be longer, but instead opt for a 'keep them wanting more' philosophy.

Review: First released more than two decades ago in 2004, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone features the renowned cellist performing pieces from the legendary composer's very many iconic film scores. It was recorded with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and pianist Gilda Butta and Morricone himself served as orchestrator, conductor and producer. The album remained on the Billboard Top Classical Albums chart for 105 weeks after its initial release and now this resisted and stunning collection again offers up music from Once Upon a Time in America, The Legend of 1900, The Untouchables, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and more. It is a masterful tribute done with sheer class and beautifully orchestrated collaboration.

Review: With its iconic and hugely emotive violin main theme presented in a number of iterations set amid a series of electronic moments and moods that would make the great downbeat giants such as David Holmes proud, it's fair to say the soundtrack to Requiem For A Dream is a genuine delight. Or at least it is when heard alone, far from the trauma of the movie's deeply scarring narrative and visuals.

But then this is the legendary Kronos Quartet, one of the finest contemporary ensembles working today which claims a 40-year-plus history having worked with countless classical, pop and electronic talent. Clint Mansell, multi-instrumentalist of Pop Will Eat Itself and latter day composer, is just one of those names, but the results of those combined efforts are among their finest hours of all involved.

Review: Cliff Martinez's soundtrack is a full realised musical world that is defined by eerie synths and pulsating rhythms, all of which perfectly capture The Neon Demon hypnotic and unsettling atmosphere. Martinez is well known for his work on Drive and Only God Forgives and here once more delivers a score that is both haunting and seductive while mirroring the neon-lit world of fashion and obsession. The soundtrack weaves dreamy, ambient textures with dark, throbbing electronic undercurrents that draw you in and highlights include 'Neon Demon' and 'Mine' which pulse with icy beauty and mean this one stands as one of Martinez's most evocative and chilling compositions.

Review: Hiroshi Miyagawa would have been a fascinating person to sit down and talk with. A prolific and prominent jazz-pop musician in the 1960s, a decade most people would have enjoyed working in the music industry, he picked up a lot of awards during this time playing alongside vocalists such as The Peanuts. This was before he was drafted by producer and promoter Yoshinobu Nishizaki to score a new TV series about a WWII battleship restored, upgraded and sent into space to safeguard humans from extinction. Introducing Space Battleship Yamato, a show that came with a grand symphony which would go on to be one of Miyagawa's crowning legacies, soundtracks to a huge catalogue of episodes, feature length adventures, cash-ins and more. Symphonic Suite Yamato brings much of this together, from the sweeping and romantic to the bombastic, triumphant and tense.

Review: This exclusive Record Store Day Limited Edition of Ennio Morricone's score to The Blue-eyed Bandit has been restored and remastered from the original tapes, preserved in the historical CAM Sugar archives. It is the first time the soundtrack has been released on vinyl since its original release in 1982, and quite possibly the only chance to listen to the genius of Morricone engaging with the world of jazz. He was famously suspicious of jazz improvisation, yet let his musicians be free in this setting, allowing them to add their solos to the original structure. The band featured his friend and collaborator Enrico Pieranunzi on piano, drummer Roberto Gatto and double bassist Riccardo Del Fra.

Review: RECOMMENDED
It has been just over 12 months since Ennio Morricone passed away, aged 91, and if it were up to use there would have been a non-stop stream of reissues from the Italian maestro's back catalogue to help people either remember or discover what made his work so important. It's hard to comprehend, but during his career he wrote more than 400 scores for TV and cinema, alongside around 100 classical works. That's some contribution.

Giu' La Testa is one of many he worked on to accompany a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western - with the pair collaborating on all but the latter's directorial debut. From whichever angle you're listening, this is the epitome of that relationship, with tracks veering from deeply atmospheric to playful, Romantic and wistful to cautiously adventurous. Exceptional stuff from a genuinely irreplaceable practitioner.

Review: Soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone is back with Psycho, the second in a series of five double vinyl releases that collect his best filmic work. This volume is focussed on his work with Italian directors from the late 1960s up to the 1980s and the music was made for dark films and the occasional horror. This is the Italian's milieu, though, where he feels most at home and gets his best results. This limited pressing on translucent red vinyl includes a four page insert with liner notes written by Claudio Fuiano and plenty of eerie tracks that will have you looking over your shoulder.

Review: Alzati Spia is one of countless soundtracks from Ennio Morricone that expose his masterful ability to elevate film through music. This one from 1982 blends suspenseful orchestrations, dramatic tension and avant-garde experimentation that mirror the titular espionage thriller's atmosphere with real precision. Morricone's signature use of unconventional instrumentation and haunting melodies keeps you gripped while the eerie intrigue comes from string arrangements and bold bass. These are emotionally charged compositions that evoke rich mental imagery to the point that even without the film playing they unfold like an immersive mind movie.

Review: Dietro il Processo is a TV investigation series directed by Franco Biancacci that was broadcast by RAI in Italy from 1978 to 1980 as part of the Storie allo Specchio series. The legendary Ennio Morricone composed the main theme and scored three episodes: L'urlo, L'ultima notte di Pier Paolo Pasolini and Il caso Montesi. Although the tracks were not initially released in any format, the soundtrack became available on CD in 2009. For Record Store Day 2025, this first-ever LP edition has been assembled and comes on white vinyl so allows a chance to revisit to these most dramatic pieces.

Review: RECOMMENDED
Ennio Morricone's legacy is well known across the world, or at least the world of cinephiles. The legendary film composer is responsible or no less than 400 movie and TV scores (in fact, he's made a few more), with a 100-strong oeuvre of classical compositions to add to that storied back catalogue. Sadly lost last year at the age of 91- unrelated to coronavirus - much of his work is now rightfully returning to the release schedule.

Of course, none of his output can match the music he created to accompany Spaghetti Westerns - Italian made cowboy movies from directors such as another late-great, Sergio Leone, including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars. 134 of the finest arrangements from that part of his life are included on this mammoth collector's item, which proves you don't really need visuals to be transported to the wild frontier towns of yesterday.

Review: The Dirt Soundtrack was released in 2019 and accompanied the Netflix biopic The Dirt, chronicling the wild and chaotic rise of Motley Crue. The album features 18 tracks and blends classic hits like 'Dr. Feelgood,' 'Kickstart My Heart,' and 'Girls, Girls, Girls' with four new songs, including the title track 'The Dirt (Est. 1981)' featuring Machine Gun Kelly. The soundtrack captures the band's famously hard-hitting, rebellious spirit while highlighting their influence on the glam metal scene of the 80s. With a mix of nostalgia and fresh material, this one serves as both a tribute and introduction to Motley Crue's legacy.

Review: If you've been paying attention then Augustus Muller will be familiar thanks to the wonders of Boy Harsher. Here casting off the expectations that live act create to focus instead on a debut solo feature film score, those who really have been studying will also know this is actually his third soundtrack following music created for two experimental porn movies a little earlier. Focusing on My Animal, the flick itself is a genre (and mind-)bending romantic horror about a woman tormented by a family curse. Sonically, this translates as tracks which at once play out like an homage to the glory days of atmospheric synth sounds made for movies, from Phantasm to Assault On Precinct 13, while also feeling genuinely fresh and innovative. Suspense by the background refrain and curious key-load, you can listen to it with or without the visuals and still feel immersed.

Review: In the right circles,, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori are living legends. Working with the iconic US video game company Bungie Inc, the pair put their names on the map - or maybe maps? - by creating soundtracks to a number of high profile titles, either as a duo or individually. O'Donnell is arguably the better known, or at least has the bigger online persona, but both composers deserve plenty of credit. Halo: Combat Evolved was the first title in what is now a huge and genre-defining first person shooter franchise, and the score reflects the emergence of video game music as an integral part of the on-screen action. O'Donnell and Savatori's efforts to ensure instrumentation dramatically changed with events in the game, which is by nature relatively non-linear, was a revelation. While their efforts to separate these into individual suites foresaw the rise of playable stories as films in their own right.

Review: It's been a long time since Halo: Combat Evolved revolutionised the word of first-person shooter video games. Graphically superior to anything that had come before it, the franchise also benefits from a spectacularly gripping storyline in which humans are outgunned and out-teched by a ruthless and uncompromising alliance of superiorly equipped alien races united as The Covenant. The titular Halo adds a kind of Prometheus air of uncertainty, as nobody really knows what it does until attempts to activate the galaxy-destroying weapon reveal something worse than death - a parasitic breed called the Flood. If all that was enough to blow everyone away in 2001, 2004 brought us to a whole new level of immersion in this future scape. Just like its predecessor, a big part of the impact was the visionary score by gaming soundtrack masters Martin O'Donnell and Michael Savatori. Now here it is in all its Gregorian chanting glory.

Review: This release marks the first offical vinyl outing for Gustavo Santaolalla and Mac Quayle's soundtrack. It is the highly anticipated 2020 sequel, The Last Of Us Part II and features stunning new artwork by Tula Lotay and liner notes by Co-Writer and Director Neil Druckmann. Musically it is a striking and emotive listen that takes in moments of bass heavy impending doom next to gentler tracks of acoustic guitar that soundtrack tearful moments. The dual narratives of revenge and differing perspectives of the game all shine through in beautiful fashion.

Review: Final Symphony II delves deeper into the cherished melodies of the Final Fantasy series. Renowned composers Roger Wanamo and Jonne Valtonen skillfully craft rich and intricate arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu's iconic compositions from FF5, 8 & 9. Additionally, Masashi Hamauzu offers a captivating suite inspired by his monumental original score for Final Fantasy XIII, while Valtonen sets the tone with his atmospheric opening piece 'In a Roundabout Way - Fanfare'. Pianist Mischa Cheung shines brightly in the spotlight, captivating audiences with his masterful performances in 'For the People of Gaia' and the emotive solo arrangement 'You Are Not Alone'.