I am a huge music fan, I have been since I was old enough to listen and since that day, I have had a diverse music taste, I cannot pin point my favourite genre and I find music very uplifting & I especially love music in films.

Essential Soundtracks was released back in 1999, the second year of my A-levels and I bought this CD in Woolies for a mere £4.99 for a 40 track double CD, I purely bought this for the more trendy numbers from Leftfield, Iggy Pop & Orbital, being a bit of a dance freak at the time. What I didn't anticipate at the time it just how many fantastic tracks this album contained and how, 7 years later I'd find myself trawling ebay for another copy because I'd worn it out!

As you can see, a diverse selection on this first CD. You have everything from Lou Reed through Shirley Bassey, this are all original recordings, not cover versions, so no magic is lost at all.
Rather than waffle about 40 tracks, I am going to select 5 favourites from each disc and review them in context with the CD.

2. Big Spender- Shirley Bassey (Little Voice)
How could I resist Shirley Bassey? As a lovely Welsh Diva she picks up the energy from where we left off with Misirlou. Of course, there are so many people who love 'Big Spender' and this track is impossible to not sing along to. In my opinion, it's one of the tracks on this first disc that starts to warm the album to the listener, OK, you had some really good song but you've also had some of the weaker links then you get Ms. Bassey's vocals booming out at you and the attitude of the CD changes, it's not all songs associated with films about guns, drugs and romance, it's also as much about the music as it is about the films from here on in, this CD isn't afraid to delve into the past and pick the best but it's equally not afraid to combine this with today's modern dance acts.
Big Spender really is a stick in the mind track from this album, it hasn't made me a Bassey fan but it has made me appreciate the diversity of music as a whole. This track is shown in this context as much more than a karaoke track!

4. Hundred Mile High City- Ocean Colour Scene (Lock, Stock)
Parallel to my dance music love at age 17, I also loved 'indie' music but much more. I'd go and see every up and coming band at the Guildhall and I'd also see bands like Oasis, Sleeper & of course, Ocean Colour Scene at the well known music venue, 'Gloucester Leisure Centre' (seriously Oasis did play there, 6 Oct 1995, I was at the front!). I remember this song being played when I saw OCS but it wasn't in the form that it appeared in Lock, Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels 3 or so years later. It had been made edgier, grittier and well in keeping with the indie sound. It's not unique on this album, we have already had, thus far in the album, contributions from The Stereophonics,The Stone Roses & Ash but it's equally a contender for the best indie track, maybe only level pegging with The Stone Roses & 'Fools Gold' (also from Lock, Stock) but this track has something about it which really suits the twist this CD takes now, we're being led down the path of The Velvet Underground & Santana and this track smoothly eases this transition, I doubt whether the other indie tracks of the album could do it as well as this track does.
I like the raciness and raw guitar rifting in this track, yes OK it for a film Vinny Jones was in that isn't the greatest film in the world but this track isn't assuming that isn't the case. It sounds just so fitting for Lock Stock & however picked this track for the soundtrack was a genius!

Orbital- The Saint- Again, I like Orbital but there are some things you shouldn't do as a dance act and one of those is put big dance bass over the theme tune to 'The Saint'

1. Born Slippy- Underworld (Trainspotting)
Who can forget the cries of 'Lager, Lager, Lager, Shouting....' in the mid nineties when this reached the top of the charts. For how may people is Born Slippy an anthem of their youth, uni days? I am certainly one of them!
Born Slippy is a brave start to disc 2, it's a bold song, to say the least and of course, the film Trainspotting was equally as bold at the time. I love the fact that someone hasn't been afraid to start the next disc with Born Slippy!
I don't think this is a track you simply associate with Trainspotting and nothing else, it's a track that really hold it's own.
As a dance track, it shows how versatile the genre can be and it certainly doesn't look out of place on this compilation and I like the fact that the inclusion of Born Slippy has showed that where films are concerned, anything goes.

3. You're The First, The Last, My Everything- Barry White (Four Weddings....)
Who can resist this song? How many people have danced at some type of disco to this and not enjoyed themselves? I think this is a fantastic inclusion and it really it worth skipping to really make yourself feel good.
Again this song is a leader into a change of genre, after we have 'Hot Stuff' & 'Best Of My Love' and they couldn't have done it any better than get the good old walrus of love, sadly now departed, to take us into the realms of cheesy feel good.
There's not much I can say about this song as it speaks for itself!

5. Perfect Day- Lou Reed (Trainspotting)
I did try hard not to include 2 songs by the same artist but I think Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground are allowed!
I simply adore the final track of the album and I really feel that a better choice to finish the album off couldn't be found.
I adore the simplicity of this track, the depressed and gritty vocals of Lou Reed, sounding as if he is a 80 a day habit singer, simple melodies and pure meaning in the verses.
With having such a varied compilation, it seems fitting that they have chosen a sort of cleansing track for the finale, a track which actually on the surface doesn't require much thought but really, has the most meaning out off all the tracks on this album.
Essential Soundtracks is much a busy album, running from genre to genre, decade to decade, film to film, I do think as a listener you need something as good as Perfect Day to make you appreciate the album as a whole.
A wonderful finale to an album which crosses so many musical genres, awakens memories of our favourite films and makes us appreciate the music in them we may have missed first time round.

Weaker Links- Disc 2:
Cheryl Lynn- Got To Be Real- A bit TOO much of a good thing on the disco genre here and as it's the last track of the genre, it's easily forgettable when preceded by Barry White & Donna Summer.