Well, this is the soundtrack to a western, but it's also the soundtrack to the bloody new vision of Quentin Tarantino so while it hints at it, it's not exactly the most classical collection of dusty old desert songs you could imagine. It's a soundtrack that packs just as many punches as his movie and brands those wincingly visceral scenes into your mind as if it was an 'r' on Jamie Foxx's face.
From Ennio Morricone to Rick Ross it's a thrilling OST that somehow manages to modernise the western without completely ruining it in the process, I mean perhaps Rick Ross out of context is a little jarring, but John Legend's 'Who Did That to You?' is the smarmy second gun in Foxx's hand after you think he's all out of bullets. It's drawling guitar line wails with a lone gunman swagger as Legend's R&B vocals cry out with an over the top pulp. This more than any other song on the soundtrack encapsulates your thoughts of not what a Tarantino western is, but what it should be.
It's difficult to pick out tracks here that are better than the rest, they're all good, but this isn't a record in the usual sense, it's a soundtrack, obviously, and therefore it's about the feeling it brings with it and Tarantino's choices of tracks like 'Freedom' ring with the authenticity of classic slavery hymnals. It's a record that feels as sadistic and redemptive as the tale is on screen and it's a testament to these musicians that you don't need to see the film to understand the tale. It's spliced with some of the finest cuts of dialogue and death from the movie which add an extra layer of texture to this inspired collection and mean that you get to hear Christoph Waltz say, 'five thousand dollar n***a, that's practically my middle name' as much as you bloody well please.
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