♣ Top 5 Movie/Television Original Scores: Some tunes just bring out the best memories, don't they?

I’d like to share some of the best original soundtrack from movies and TV series. I’m not talking about Oscar-winning kind of score, no. I’m talking about that random tune playing inside your head whenever you think or feel about something. The same tune that brings out certain memories whenever, wherever you hear it.

1. “Lux Aeterna” by Clint Mansell
Lux aeterna, or “the eternal light” in English, is a composition by Clint Mansell, the leitmotif of a movie from the year 2000, “Requiem for a Dream”, and the penultimate piece in the “Requiem for a Dream” score. The popularity of this piece led to its use in popular culture outside the film, most notably when the track was re-orchestrated with a choir and full orchestra for  “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and was renamed “Requiem for a Tower”. This piece of music got even more popular after in July 2011, a Norway massacre suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, disclosed that he put “Lux Aeterna” on repeat on his iPod and listen to it at the maximum volume while murdering 77 young people at a summer camp (you can google that). He described it as an “incredibly powerful song” that would help suppress his fear. Of coure, on his case, plus the drugs and the amphetamines. But heck, I have to agree with him on the “incredibly powerful song” part. This composition is so intense it makes you feel great, invokes a type of passionate rage within you, and your life suddenly feels so epic, like there’s nothing you can't do. Just please don’t think about killing people when you listen to the song.

2. “Tennessee” by Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer, is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including award winning film scores for The Lion King (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), Gladiator (2000), The Dark Knight (2008), and Inception (2010), but here I’m talking about that one piece he did for Pearl Harbor (2001). Yeah, that one. That one piece of music that will bring you to think about a wide open blue sky, or a sunset orange sky, with planes soaring so high into the sky. Personally, this song reminds me of the happiest feeling I’ve ever had… but in a tragic way, because this is simply one of the sad, sad, saddest compositions ever written. The feeling of this is so complicated, it’s like feeling happy, but at the same time you know that you wouldn’t always stay that way, so all you need is to cherish every moment.

3. “Longing” by Kaoru Wada
I’ll make this quick. Among all anime I’ve watched, Inuyasha has the most beautiful soundtrack of them all. It’s even hard to pick one to be included in this list. But here we go, my choice goes to “Longing” just because it’s the tune you can most easily remember from this Japanese cartoon TV show. Like the title, it makes me longing to my childhood days with all its innocence and its dreams and the people in it and the faces and the places I still recall.

4. “Americana” by Jay Gruska
It was one piece of music written for the Supernatural original television soundtrack. The memory it brings is nothing else but the Season 5 Finale of the show itself, one of the most, or even the only one most emotional episode among the history of Supernatural. Where the five years, five seasons journey of these two ghost-hunting brothers with all their family issues must come to an end in a tragic way where one of the brother had to let go of the other, all for the greater good. Speaking about the music, if the beginning of it has already swooned you, wait till the piano solo part, it’s killing! And yes, it’s another piece of sad music. I love sad music, I guess.

5. “Theme from Armageddon” by Trevor Rabin
It was written for the Armageddon original movie soundtrack. I’m trying my best to describe why I should include this in the list but… I guess I simply love it because I love the movie. After all, this song was probably the closest I ever got to dreaming of becoming an astronaut, looking at the stars and planets everyday, going to the outer space, proving if there’s life on Mars :D

Honorable mention:
“Hymn to the Sea” by James Horner
“Mr. Nobody” by Pierre Van Dormael