The masterpiece of the soundtrack is the cover of Howling Wolfs – Smokestack Lightnin’ by mostly unknown actor Eamonn Walker. Walker literally stole the show during the movie, playing one of the most mysterious bluesman of the 50^th and the same thing happened in the soundtrack. Also it is hard not to mention spectacular vocal talents of Beyoncé who sung such Etta James classics as At Last, I’d Rather Go Blind and All I Could Do Was Cry. She really gave them some modern energy, while preserving the original spirit of the good old soul music. Famous rapper Mos Def who played Chuck Berry also gave a good twist to oldies like Maybellene and No Particular Place To Go. And of course one of the main stars – famous Muddy Waters, played by Jeffrey Wright, has half a dozen songs on the soundtrack, with hits like I’m A Man, Hoochie Coochie Man and I Can’t Be Satisfied.

And oh… if you are already running of to the CD shop don’t forget to lay your hands on the Deluxe Version, it’s the one worth buying.

The soundtrack consists of instrumental parts by Gustavo Santaolalla and songs that were played in the movie. The songs were actually not needed here, the instrumental pieces are spectacular. The music is a mix between ambient, latin folk, electronics and post-rock. It is a depressive mix influenced by Astor Piazzolla’s early tango soundtracks, by modern depressive bands like Bohren And The Club Of Gore and ambient bands like Elivium. Most of the atmosphere is varying from grief to depression and it is fueled by folk instruments that are played in non traditional way, post-folk maybe. The best one is Can Dry Leaves Help Us, when a sample from the movie is played in the end of the song it just shakes your heart.

The soundtrack was made by Danny Boyle’s “brother in sound” John Murphy, who made spectacular soundtracks to 28 Days Later and the follow-up 28 Month Later. Main part was written by the band Underworld and then sent to John who composed this masterpiece. As music the soundtrack is space ambient electronica, but it resembles the movie completely and tells the same story in sound, the story of hope and despair, of genius and madness, of losing and gaining. The last stand of humanity in vibes and clicks. Sunshine is truly one of the best works in musical scores for last few years.

The soundtrack itself resembles parts of the movie; the best song is The Kraken, a massive beast of composing with not only classically influenced main part but with modern near-rock interludes. The song shows exactly how close rock and classical music are. Another great part is Jack Sparrow the theme of the wacko Captain, it is more vintage Victorian influenced pirate theme, showing a tricky adventurer. In general the whole soundrack is a must have for the fans of this great movie.

The only bad part is a remix by Tiesto added to the tracklist, but I had this track erased after first scrobble.

The first track (the Joker theme) is starting with near classical strings but immediately crashes into more electronic drum part. It is like the new Joker portrayed by Heath Ledger (R.I.P.) nothing you could expect. A bassy ambient middle part is just a small pause before the Jokers Nine Inch Nails styled ending strike. It is a robbery and they stole everything. The ongoing soundtrack crashes into new Gotham, not the fairy old one portrayed by Tim Burton, its raw and dark new Gotham, get used or get out. The following Batman theme is great also. After impressive 9 minute intro the soundtrack moves to a series of shorter song with an impressive ending The 16 minute ending theme has everything from The Dark Knight together, forget the trailers, listen to it and you already have the movie in your heart.

Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard… these guys are planting dynamite with a grin!

Kicking of with marching main titles the movie crashes into a big story of alien invasion and human resistance. While the humans are portrayed with more classical tunes with influences from classical and modern composers, the most interesting part are the Martians. Their parts include the Theremin, synths, minimal string arrangements, a bit tribal percussion and ambient stuff. The masterpiece is the Martian Lounge, great relaxing lounge, Spanish influences and a truly retro-space vibe moving into a dramatic middle part.

One of my favorite soundtracks.

Many people claim them to be very annoying, but I don’t think so, they can tell a lot about their owners. Some ringtones are unique, some are just super. The story of ringtones is long and interesting. The first of them was sold is Finland. Yeah, you’ve got me right, this country is extremely quick in implementing new technologies. In fact, the first ringtone was Vesa Matti Paananen.

Ringtones as well as new models of phones and everything else were born thanks to tight competition between countries and markets. When Nokia made her phones slimmer, Japan companies invited theme based ringtones like – Girls just wanna have fun -. Believe it or not, ringtones bring money and I really love them!

Another made in heaven thing.

Arcanum as an old steampunk computer game. In case you don’t know steampunk is a genre between fantasy and science fiction. In case of Arcanum is like elves and orcs meeting the industrial revolution and steam machinery.

Most fans think that the soundtrack was composed by Finnish chello-metalists Apocalyptica but the composer is actually Ben Houge. A small string quartet is creating a sound that ranges from spectacular to “Oh my god it is one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard”.

Steampunk, that is now forming into a subculture, is generally hard to catch. Music has to be a combination of old and new. This soundtrack is combining classical composing style reminiscent of Victorian Era England with a more modern approach presented as string quartet. In the end of the soundtrack the music slips into bit of an ambient thing. But all the time it is very dramatic and gloomy. It is the soundtrack of the sewers, the symphony of old stone roads and the serenade of crashing zeppelins.

Thanks to the authors you can download it for free here.

PS. If you will catch the feeling you should check out the game too!

They both say that they don’t even need to discuss the sound, Elfman always gets the vibe. Nightmare is a real rock opera, stylistically and lyrically between Halloween and Christmas and musically just genius. The movie is about magic holiday towns and the main idea is “people” from Halloween Town discovering the Christmas Town and organizing their own Christmas. So the music is an incredible mix of positive melodies and gloomy parts.

Elfman (who is from Russian descent) takes a lot of inspiration from old works of Russian classical composers. Also he is guy who totally understands the vibe of goth culture. By the way he sings one of the main roles (Jack Skellington) in this masterpiece filled with orchestral overtures, choral Halloween songs and even jazzy parts. Not forgetting the lyrics… a true masterpiece, recently re-released. So if bands like Marilyn Manson, Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco cite Danny Elfman as one of their major influences you should check it out, maybe it will inspire you as well.

I’m personally a fan of different zombie stuff. Mostly zombie sound is something like from the 50^th some early rock and roll or swing or jazz. This is a soundtrack to a retro zombie game. Tunes from the 50^th and modern independent bands = omg it’s a success!

The bands include: Death Cab For Cutie, The Dandy Warhols, Ben Kweller, Phantom Planet etc.

The tunes are mostly well known from movies like back to future and cry baby, you can even find “Strangers in the Night Here”. The whole idea is brilliant and the realization is also great. It’s really cool to see that game developers are interested in keeping the retro horror style and not like in making a standard game. As for the best songs from this plate I can name Earth Angel by Death Cab For Cutie, Shakin’ All Over by Rose Hill Drive and Mr. Sandman by Oranger.