Our favorite movie soundtracks aren't on Spotify
Revisiting classic movie soundtracks we’ve owned, a few of which aren’t available to stream. Plus: A playlist with some choice cuts from our favorite soundtracks that are.
Movie soundtracks are often a mixed bag. All it takes is one bad song to kill the vibe, and it’s rare to come across a movie soundtrack that is truly “no skips.” That said, I still bought my fair share back in the day. It wasn’t entirely my fault. Unbeknownst to me at the time, movie studios used to slap those “official soundtracks” together in a lame attempt at cross-promo corporate synergy, luring in unsuspecting tweens like me with a hit single, only to pad out the remaining tracks with forgettable A&R slop.
Early tie-in soundtrack purchases for me included (but were not limited to): Mission: Impossible, Batman Forever, Forrest Gump and The Mask. The less said about The Mask soundtrack the better — its “jump, jive and wail,” Zoot suit-wearing aesthetic hits different in the year 2025 — and the Forrest Gump soundtrack that felt so essential to a 90s kid like me now reeks of stale Boomer nostalgia porn. But those first two albums have aged slightly better. Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose” and The Cranberries’ “Dreams” are the obvious stand-outs, but they also feature tracks from iconic 90s artists like U2, Björk, Pulp, The Flaming Lips, PJ Harvey, Massive Attack, Nick Cave, and Mazzy Star. Speaking of, this song from the Batman Forever soundtrack jumped out to me on my most recent listen, and as far as I can tell it’s not available on Spotify or Apple Music.
By my senior year of high school, I had graduated to more sophisticated, “adult” fare like Dazed and Confused (and its follow-up, Even More Dazed and Confused), Boogie Nights (Volume 1 and 2), Magnolia, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Fight Club, Donnie Darko, The Virgin Suicides (both the official soundtrack and the original score), as well as my personal favorite, Vanilla Sky, which arguably holds up better than the film itself (and I do love that film). The only soundtrack that isn’t available on Spotify or Apple Music is The Virgin Suicides. You can, however, find all of the individual tracks on streaming and compile your own version, with the exception of Track 12 — Air’s “Playground Love (Vibraphone version)” — but here’s a high quality version I found on YouTube.
My soundtrack buying started to peter out in college, mainly because I was broke and MP3s were free and readily available, but before I stopped buying music altogether I did manage to cop I Heart Huckabees, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Punch-Drunk Love, The Squid and the Whale, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Dreamers, Garden State and The Rules of Attraction. While many of these may feel a little twee by today’s standards, one cannot deny their cultural influence. The only one that still feels under-appreciated in my opinion is The Rules of Attraction.
I haven’t seen the film in a minute, but I remember it being hugely influential among my film school friends, and yet it isn’t talked about nearly as much as those other movies I mentioned. The soundtrack itself is unavailable on Spotify but, as with The Virgin Suicides, many of the individual tracks are, with one glaring exception — Donovan’s “Colours.” There are many versions of this song available to stream, but the version that appears in the film (and the one I prefer) is not. So here it is, along with the sequence it plays underneath, which features Shannyn Sossamon going full “manic pixie dream girl” mode and James Van Der Beek playing against his wholesome-teen-soap-star persona by smoking weed and taking a sh*t. Enjoy!
After college, I stopped buying soundtracks altogether. That is, until a few years ago when I started getting into vinyl again. This is where my “no skips” policy came into play — if I buy it on vinyl, there truly has to be no skip-worthy songs — and the number of “no skip” soundtracks is disturbingly low. However, there are a few exceptions. Licorice Pizza and Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood are great examples of “no skip” soundtracks and, considering the eras in which they take place, are perfect for listening to on vinyl.
But my latest obsession is finding soundtracks that are only available on physical media and aren’t on Spotify or Apple Music. Sadly, there are way too many in this category to name in one measly post, but here are some of my all-time faves:
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, DAYS OF BEING WILD and 2046 // Various Artists
Technically, these are three different soundtracks, but they have kind of a similar vibe so I lumped them together. I was tempted to throw in Chungking Express too — which, like Mission: Impossible, also features The Cranberries’ “Dreams” — but I had to draw the line somewhere. I first discovered Wong Kar-wai in college and to say his films made an impression on me would be putting it lightly. I delayed quitting smoking for years simply because he made it look that cool. But the thing that really stuck with me about his films was the music, which was often a unique blend of sweeping orchestral tracks, American pop songs, Nat King Cole, and vintage cha-cha music.
Sadly, many of these soundtracks are unavailable on streaming in their original form and physical copies are hard to come by, but they are out there for those willing to pay top dollar. I managed to snag a brand-new vinyl copy of 2046 for $99 a few years ago and I consider myself lucky. But the ultimate WKW grail in my opinion is this collector’s set of cassette tapes featuring the soundtracks to every one of his movies. It sold out immediately and has been out of stock ever since, so if you ever come across one in the wild, please let me know. Thankfully, I still have all my old MP3s.
OVER THE EDGE // Various Artists
I watched this movie years ago when I heard it was not only one of Kurt Cobain’s favorites, but that it also inspired Richard Linklater to make Dazed and Confused. I don’t know for a fact if either of those things are true, but I don’t care because it’s since become one of my favorite movies. Featuring a young Matt Dillon in his big screen debut, the film is about a bunch of suburban teens who start a riot when a local cop kills one of their friends. While technically accurate, this description doesn’t capture how fun and weird the movie is, not to mention the incredible soundtrack, which is wall-to-wall 70s rock with artists like Cheap Trick, Van Halen and The Ramones. It’s not available on Spotify, but you can buy a copy on vinyl here.
THE PARALLAX VIEW // Michael Small
In the 1970s, director Alan Pakula snapped and made three of my favorite films of all time, or what is frequently referred to as his “paranoia trilogy” — Klute, The Parallax View and All the President’s Men. That middle film is my favorite of the three, mainly because it features this incredible montage that is not only one of the most impressive feats of editing in film history — especially considering they cut this thing together by hand on a flatbed using actual 35mm film strips — but also a perfect marriage of picture and sound that places you inside the POV of Warren Beatty’s character, who has allowed himself to be “tested” by the mysterious Parallax Corporation that he believes is training (or brainwashing) political assassins to do their bidding.
The film was scored by Michael Small, who also did the score for Klute, and it’s the perfect blend of eerie and patriotic, which compliments the underlying themes and adds to the overall sense of unease. The score isn’t available to stream, but thanks to the good people at indie label Cinema Paradiso, you can buy it on vinyl here.
THIEF // Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream achieved legendary status with their song “Love on a Real Train” from the Risky Business soundtrack, but even before that they had churned out a pair of excellent scores for films by equally-legendary directors — William Friedkin’s Sorcerer and Michael Mann’s Thief — that happen to be two of my favorite scores of all time. Sorcerer is available on Spotify and Apple Music but (perhaps ironically?) Thief is a tad more elusive. Mondo Records put out a gorgeous limited edition vinyl a few years ago that is currently sold out and I still kick myself for not buying when I had the chance, but I do own a well-worn copy of the original LP, which you can find on eBay here.
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN // Thomas Newman
Thomas Newman is one of the most famous film composers of the last 40 years, having scored such classics as The Player, The Shawshank Redemption, Erin Brockovich, In the Bedroom, Little Children, and WALL·E. But despite his success, many of Newman’s early scores have never received a standalone physical release, including this gem from 1985. At some point, it was issued on compact disc alongside the soundtrack to another Susan Seidelman film, Making Mr. Right, which had a completely different composer and vibe, so… not ideal. You can try to track down a hard copy on eBay (like this one here), or you can just listen to it on YouTube.
DON’T TELL MOM THE BABYSITTER’S DEAD // David Newman
Another of my favorite 80s film scores that isn’t available on Spotify and just so happens to have been written by Thomas Newman’s brother, who is also a composer. Not only was Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead one of my favorite movies growing up, but the score always stood out to me in a good way. Not the entire score, mind you. It does contain a lot of traditional “oompah oompah”-style orchestral music that was popular in comedies of that era but sounds dated by today’s standards. What I really love are the synth-y parts that play underneath the scenes of Sue Ellen (played by a young Christina Applegate) working at General Apparel West and using her teenage fashion sense to revamp their line of boring student uniforms. As of now, the score isn’t available on physical media of any kind, but you can listen to it on YouTube via the link below.
As I said before, many of the songs from the soundtracks listed above are available on Spotify even if the soundtracks themselves are not, so I threw together a playlist with a selection of some of my favorite tracks, including some from other soundtracks I haven’t talked about. Check it out.
As an added bonus, see if you can identify which song is from what movie. And feel free to comment below with any of your favorite soundtracks we forgot to mention, especially any that aren’t available to stream.
That’s it for now. See you next time.
- MS