Inspired partly by last Sunday's Morricone-fest, and partly by having had what I now know (in a twist which would be embarrassing if I were ever embarrassed about these kinds of things) to be the melody from Zamfir's "The Lonely Shepherd" floating around in my head for the few days before that, I picked this CD up on my way home from aforementioned Sunday gig.
The most immediately striking thing about it is how evocative the individual pieces are - nearly all are, in my mind, closely tied to their accompanying scenes from the film (a network of ties which is, of course, strengthened by the visual impact of the film itself). More generally, the soundtrack seems very well suited to the film; it's similarly a patchwork of vivid, disparate elements - a pastiche, woven from quotations, puns and all that good stuff - and is similarly colourful and dynamic (all tres Tarantino); relatedly, it shares the film's trait of being immediately engaging yet retaining its charms on subsequent exposures.
The music is great in its own right, too. The Morricone elements are there, of course, and the j-pop is fab, but there are bits and pieces of sundry other styles (I'm reluctant to say 'genres') thrown into the mix, and somehow the soundtrack works as a dramatic whole, almost because - rather than in spite - of its remarkable diversity.
