Violence, verbosity and killer tunes are the three cornerstones of any Tarantino film. Whether you enjoy the movies or not, his soundtracks are always essential listening. Each one plays like a lovingly-compiled mixtape in the key of whichever genre he’s working in, be it neo-noir, blaxploitation, kung-fu or spaghetti western. Along with Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson, he’s one of a handful of directors who innately knows how to use pop music to elevate scenes from being simply memorable to being unforgettable. Think of the Reservoir Dogs walking down the street to ‘Little Green Bag’, or Vincent Vega cruising in his convertible, strung out on heroin, listening to ‘Bullwinkle Part II’. There’s nothing immediately iconic about either the songs or the images they respectively soundtrack, but, in Tarantino’s own words, picking the right song for the right scene.. is about as cinematic a thing as you can do. It works in this visceral, emotional, cinematic way that’s special. And when you do it right and you hit it right, then you can never really hear that song again without thinking about that image from the movie.
Quentin Tarantino and the Art of the Badass Soundtrack (via NME)