Ennio Morricone
The Hateful Eight (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
(Verve)

From Clint Eastwood to Metallica, the influence of long-overdue Oscar award-winning composer and conductor Ennio Morricone is as far reaching as it is expansive. Having written iconic soundtracks for such directors as spaghetti westerner Sergio Leone to horror maestro John Carpenter, it was a matter of time until he was recruited by Quentin Tarantino (adjective not needed) to bring us back once again to the wild west. The pacing of the soundtrack moves at exactly the right speed providing plenty of moments of great intensity and subtly.  The album is mostly comprised of Morricone’s original score, dialogue excerpts from the film and additional songs by Roy Orbison, David Hess and Jack White (the latter of which is fitting since the score has been issued on vinyl courtesy of White’s label, Third Man Records). While in retrospect one could argue the compositions are less memorable than that of Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the Oscar awarding-winning soundtrack composed by a true master of a craft should be appreciated as an art form. For someone to boast composing 500 film scores is no small feat, but to still be able to make fresh-sounding compositions is truly impressive.