VA Virtuosity Music From The Motion Picture (1995)

The soundtrack to the Hughes Brothers' tribute to early-'70s blaxploitation gets the sound of the era right, featuring hits by the O'Jays, the Spinners, Isaac Hayes, Al Green, and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, among others. The inclusion of Danny Elfman's instrumental theme interrupts the flow of the album, but for the most part, Dead Presidents is a first-rate collection of prime soul.

The soundtrack to director Ron Howard's 1995 blockbuster Apollo 13 effectively blends dialogue, actual audio clips from newscasts, classic songs, and portions of conductor James Horner's original score, creating a worthy aural companion. Included are songs from the period of the titular spacecraft's peril-fraught mission, such as the Young Rascals' "Groovin'," Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love," the Who's "I Can See for Miles," and a classy version of the oft-covered "Blue Moon" by the Mavericks (produced by Nick Lowe). The orchestrated score manages to capture the drama of the events in a manner that ranges from quietly stirring to sweepingly epic, with Eurythmic Annie Lennox adding her distinctive, ethereal vocal accompaniment to several of the cuts.

There are some really nice tunes on this soundtrack to the excellent film "Grumpier Old Men". The highlights for me are the songs by Louis Armstrong, Dean Martin, Harry Belafonte, Doris Day, Nat King Cole and the couple of instrumentals by composer Alan Silvestri. These are the recordings that will remind you of the fun that GOM provided to those fortunate to see legends Lemmon, Matthau, Meredith, Ann-Margaret and Sophia Loren (holy moly) in their last great film together. The only pity is that because the first films soundtrack is not available to buy, that the song from that film "We're Having A Heatwave" is not here. Sound quality is excellent and joyous.

Too bad the film "Sliver" wasn't a hit, or else this could've been one of the greatest film soundtracks of all-time. While most soundtracks just throw songs together without much thought, there's a theme on this album. You can feel the atmosphere of loneliness, lust, and mystery even if you've never seen the film. Enigma's haunting "Carly's Song" and "Carly's Loneliness" are great tracks to get you in a trance, Massive Attack's "Unfinished Symphony" is downright sexy, and Aftershock's "Slave To The Vibe" is the album's showstopper. The film (which was beautifully shot in an MTV style) could rightfully be a showcase just for these songs, kinda like "Purple Rain".