Back in stock: Soundtracks

Review: The original Bridgit Mendler soundtrack to the citrine teen drama movie of the same name sees a full version on vinyl LP this spring. Notable not only for its inclusion in the contemporary musical film, but also for its chart-topping success, the ten songs that make up the many acts of this high-school drama were destined to charm the pubescent masses, coinciding with the film's overarching theme of the school's students transcending use of after-school detention to musical effect, in order to overcome their personal struggles. Imagine Glee meets The Breakfast Club; a cabal of songwriters including Ali Dee, Maria Christensen, Bryan Todd and Jeannie Lurie lay down an array of sure-to-be hits for Mendler to perform on behalf of the cast here.

Review: Director Max Kestner's documentary film portrait Copenhagen Dreams is a tribute to the Danish capital. That also happened to be the place acclaimed composer Johann Johannsson was living at the time he was asked to score the movie. As always he does so with real aplomb and devastating emotionality. This now classic soundtrack features celestial keyboard sounds, emotive string quartets, clarinet, subtle electronic and plenty of melodic magic that both swells and breaks the heart. Academy Award winner Hildur Gudnadottir plays on the soundtrack with various other of Johann's favourite Icelandic talents.

Review: A selection of fifteen pieces from the soundtrack of the cult anime Dragon Ball Z, on a limited 2xLP edition, fully licensed, including the main opening track 'CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA'. This soundtrack accompanies the anime's key moment in which Dragon Ball Z resumes five years after Son Goku's wedding. Radditz, a mysterious warrior, arrives on Earth to find Goku, who learns that he comes from a planet of warriors from a planet of warriors, of which only four remain. The plot is based on a succession of increasingly strong opponents to be fought, but there's often a quest or travel motif that adds interest beyond the duels. All this, and more, is bolstered by this electrifying soundtrack edition.

Review: With a superhero like Spiderman being recognised the world over by those who've legitimately never even held a comic book, it makes sense that any film adaption should rely on the current sounds of the modern era to deliver an entertaining and reliably engaging soundtrack. Where 2002's game-changing Sam Raimi adaptation boasted a retrospectively cheesy bevvy of nu-metal adjacent radio rock with the film's lead single even being penned by Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, the music selection on this latest experimental animated series of films; Across The Spider Verse, turns to the current realms of radio dominating pop-rap. Overseen by acclaimed trap producer Metro Boomin and enlisting a who's who of modern artists such as Don Toliver, Lil Uzi Vert, Future, Nas and A$AP Rocky to name just a small handful, the collection serves equally as an of the time and on the pulse soundtrack, but also as a banging collaborative compilation of some of the best hip-hop acts in the scene today.