Since a lot of the DLP recommendations (other books to read for instance), have been a lot to my liking, I decided to ask you all about your recommendations on good film scores to listen too. Not sure if anyone else actually downloads the OST's to various movies, but if you do I'd love to hear your recommendations.

I'm looking for mostly instrumental, and I include background choruses when I say that. Some of my favorite include the Lord of the Rings Score (Howard Shore), Kingdom of Heaven (Harry Gregson), and Gladiator (Hans Zimmer). Some of the HP movie soundtrack stuff is good, though I usually just find myself listening to one track on the score. I'm a big fan of Hans Zimmer but I notice that he re-uses a lot of his old themes in his scores (I swear I heard a part of Gladiator in Pirates of the Caribbean, might have just been me though...)

Those of you who enjoy listening to film scores, let me know what your personal favorites are! I'll definitely take a look.

 

This. I know it's not a well known movie, but it is one of my favorites. Also I choose one where there is no talking, because it's in hungarian, but the others from this movie are also awesome.

 

Trainspotting has a really fun Sound Track that I listen too as often as some of my favorite bands.

 

The Tron: Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk is pretty awesome. End of Line, Derezzed and Fall make for an epic buildup.

 

This is true indeed. The Dark Knight should be a given but I guess I should toss it out there just in case. Also Char's Counter Attack (Mobile Suit Gundam movie from the late 80's or so) has amazing music but I think it might be a bit tougher to find than most other STs. The only other ones I can think of right now is Kick-Ass and the Man With No Name Trilogy (look under Ennio Morricone). All of these are great movies as well.

 

I just remembered one more: Clubbed to the death from matrix.

 

Inception.

 

The Lion King. Fin

 

Parts of John Williams' Star Wars score, i.e. the background of the figth with Darth Maul.

Ennio Morricone (Once upon a time in America, several western, The Untouchables)

Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings (the best film music I know)

 

Anything by Hans Zimmer is a safe bet - Lion King, Prince of Egypt, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean (I favor the third OST), and Gladiator are the ones I can name off the top of my head. (Addendum: Listening to the Prince of Egypt songs (not the score) in Hebrew is fantastic. Ofra Haza was an incredible singer.)

Disney has a great musical track record: Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tarzan, Lilo and Stitch, Treasure Planet, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Finding Nemo, and Tangled are the best of the lot from the past twenty five years. (Sidenote: I think Mulan was also composed by the same individual who did the Poltergeist soundtrack, also recommendable.)

The Chronicles of Narnia movies had good soundtracks, and were made by the same people who did Shrek. The '09 Trek is good, and was done by the same dude who did Pixar's The Incredibles and Up (which is a fantastically bawl worthy movie, go watch the first 15 minutes somewhere if you haven't seen it already). Jurassic Park, Stargate (the original film), Iron Man, Transformers '07, Spirit: Stallion of the Cim-a-what-it, The Road to El Dorado, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, and The Mask of Zorro all fall under miscellaneous recs. People have already mentioned the Tron and Lord of the Rings soundtracks.

And then there's Danny Elfman, who, like Hans Zimmer, is infinitely recommendable, especially in the soundtracks to the most recent Alice in Wonderland film and the Nightmare Before Christmas OST.

 

Not a film, another anime, but if you know the "right places" then get the full Cowboy Bebop OST, it's fucking amazing.

 

My list of some favorite OSTs, excluding the ones already mentioned, but including anime and TV series:
- 28 Days Later,
- 127 Hours,
- American Beauty,
- Angels and Demons,
- August Rush,
- Code Geass,
- Dexter,
- Doctor Who (series after 2005),
- Donnie Dark,
- Good Bye Lenin!,
- .hack//Sign,
- Howl's Moving Castle,
- Leon The Professional,
- Lord Of War,
- Rocky,
- Schindlers List,
- Sherlock,
- Stardust,
- Sunshine,
- Sweeney Todd,
- Tenacious D - POD,
- The Four Feathers,
- Watchmen.

And many more, but this list is already long enough.

Also, yes, Hans Zimmer tends to reuse some of his scores in different movies, but that's problem with not only him.

 

The Watchmen soundtrack is the best on I've ever heard.

 

Requiem for a Dream has a great soundtrack. Can't go wrong with that.

 

Yes, you can. Especially if you have a fever high enough to stop you from getting up and your roommate forgets to turn off his computer repeatedly playing this OST. That was probably the most surreal night of my life.

 

Anything by Clint Mansell, really, but his soundtrack for the Fountain was astonishing, particularly Death is the Road to Awe.

 

Clint Mansell is God. Especially Moon

 

A lot of what I have has already been mentioned. I'll throw these out there:

- Blade Runner
- Ghost in the Shell & Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (anime movies)

 

Wow, most people already covered what I wanted to say. That's refreshing, albeit I'm a little surprised by the lack of inclusion of the soundtracks of some of the better modern musicals (outside of Sweeney Todd, obviously). No love for Reefer Madness: The Musical, or South Park? And hell, I can't believe this thread has gone on as long as it has without a mention of Grease.

For more of an indy twist to your soundtracks, take a look at the one for Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - all of the track's the lead character's band plays were actually recorded by Beck in his basement because he wanted to get the perfect lo-fi sound - or hell, if you want to get a little old-school, go dig up the Garden State soundtrack, it's actually pretty great.

A highly underrated film soundtrack I'd also mention is the Superbad soundtrack. I know, but it's actually damn great in terms of the songs featured there. And while we're on the topic of overlooked soundtracks, dig up the actual film score for Watchmen. Not the soundtrack, the film score by Tyler Bates. Epic in every way that it should be.

And if you're willing to dart into TV soundtracks, grab the Community soundtrack album for Season 1 - it features all the music from the first season of the show, and it's awesome.

 

The first song on the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack (The Seatbelts) is outstanding, as are a few of the other tracks on the album. The soundtrack to the first Matrix (various artists) is quite good, though maybe a little dated now.

I still find the soundtrack to Braveheart to be some of the best cross-country driving music extant.