Movie Soundtracks

Most music collections have at least one soundtrack in them. For my parents it was The Sound Of Music, for my daughter it's Glee. My CD collection has the grand total of 3 soundtracks:

Stigmata. 

Another one of my school fair $1 purchases, this collection grabbed my attention  as soon as I saw Billy Corgan's name on the back. All good to a man in a Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan phase. Add in Bowie, Bjork and Massive Attack and you've got a tasty musical salad. The instrumental portion is haunting at times but keeping in mind the subject matter of the film, that was always going to be the case. Standout track David Bowie - The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell. He must have written this in Seattle, it's grunge and sneer and good old rock and roll, brill.

 

She's Having A Baby. 

It's easy to look back at the 80s with rosé tinted glasses. Fashion was dodgy and some music from back then is better off left buried. In fact I don't think there were many movie soundtracks from 1988 that weren't padded out with turkey tracks. This one not only manages to avoid the turkeys it includes some real classics. Kirsty MacColl does Morrissey proud with You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby while Everything But The Girl rids the house of dry eyes with Apron Strings. There are a few tracks that remind me of Kevin Bacon and his shoulder pads but that's all good. Standout track, Bryan Ferry covering Van Morrison's Crazy Love. It's not often that a cover version rivals an original, this is one of those rare recordings.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

Strictly speaking I don't have this CD. I bought this on vinyl many moons ago and have the MP3s to make playing easy. Call it my guilty pleasure album if you like, I'm not going to apologise for it. I used to see this at the Hollywood Cinema in Avondale, Auckland. Water pistol, newspaper and rice in hand, a night of viewing and audience participation was a blast. I never got dressed up in fishnets like the regulars but I knew the songs. From geeky Brad singing Dammit Janet to Frankenfurter declaring himself a Sweet Transvestite, I loved, and still love them all. Standout track, that perennial party participation fave, Time Warp.