Inglourious Basterds Soundtrack
Various Artists





Kiwi Rating: 3 out of 5 Kiwis




Since 1992, Quentin Tarantino has been creating odd, interesting and unforgettable soundtracks. First, the soundtrack for Reservoir Dogs used cheerful, peaceful songs in a violent way. Then the 1994 soundtrack for Pulp Fiction bravely used songs that most of us had never heard of. While listening to this year's Inglourious Basterds soundtrack, two words come to mind: quirky and eclectic.

The album includes many instrumental score pieces; most of which can be considered as epic in their own right. Although it may be grim, I feel that these instrumentals can best be described as the soundtrack of a patriotic funeral. But this trend is broken about a quarter of the way through with Billy Preston's disco-era hit "Slaughter". The second half of the album includes some French and German pieces with an extremely vintage sound. These tracks caught me by surprise because they continued to get a bit stranger with each new song. Once I was finally in the mindset of these foreign tracks, I was caught off-guard again by a vintage David Bowie song.



The difference between this album and any other Tarantino soundtrack is the lack of any dialogue tracks. Anyone who has ever owned one of Tarantino's soundtracks knows that he was one of the first people to use voice snippets from his films on soundtracks. This has become a popular trend with him, and it shows up faithfully on every one of his soundtracks until this one. I personally feel that this was a poor decision since a bit of dialogue from the movie would have helped to better tie the songs together.

I'd recommend listening to this album more than once in order to get the feel of it. The first time around, it creates a chaotic and almost unsettling feeling. On it's second chance, it makes more sense and feels a lot more comfortable. Somehow this album is quite fitting; even though the tracks themselves are complete oddballs, the arrangement of the album makes for a good listen.