Need Soundtrack

British sci-fi drama Ashes to Ashes, a follow-up to the popular Life on Mars series, follows the adventures of a time-traveling female police officer who suffers a gunshot wound in 2008, and is mysteriously transported back to 1981. The soundtrack for the show’s first season is appropriately retro, offering up one of the better U.K.-themed, early-'80s pop compilations. Highlights from the 24-track collection include cuts from the Teardrop Explodes (“Reward”), Dexy’s Midnight Runners (“Geno”), Ultravox (“Vienna”), and Joe Jackson (“It’s Different for Girls”).

Carter Burwell's score for Joel & Ethan Coen's cinematic version of Charles Portis' novel True Grit (they consciously decided to ignore the original Oscar-winning film because they considered it a bore) is rooted in the world view of its main character, the outrageously self-righteous Mattie Ross (played by Hailee Steinfeld). Burwell used classic Protestant hymns as inspirations; in some cases bits from the classic hymns themselves – “Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand” (by Franklin L. Eiland), “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (by Charles Converse), “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” (by Elisha A. Hoffman & Anthony J. Showalter), “Talk About Suffering” (Traditional), and “The Glory-Land Way” (by J.S. Torbett) – for his cues. These pieces in particular, from the opening theme, "The Wicked Flee," "A Methodist and a Son of a Bitch," and "I Will Carry You," all begin simply, lyrically, almost reverentially before giving way to grander pieces of music that reflect the land and history.

Fledgling film composer Harald Kloser laid waste – musically – to the world for Roland Emmerich's environmental disaster pic The Day After Tomorrow, so it comes as no surprise that he's up to providing the soundtrack for the latest "humans in peril" popcorn diversion, Alien Vs. Predator. Following in the footsteps of previous Alien franchise composers like Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner, Kloser brings the symphonic dread through a winning combination of orchestral vastness and tried and true action-film dynamics. He also introduces a myriad of electronic elements into the mix that bring to mind the works of contemporaries like Hans Zimmer and Thomas Newman – the "Alien vs. Predator Main Theme" is particularly striking and serves as a continuous creative source for the composer to dip his baton in. There's nothing groundbreaking here, and why should there be? Kloser is just building his resumé, and what better way to do it than scoring big-budget – and hopefully big paycheck – Hollywood pap.