Billy Preston

Quentin Tarantino rethought how soundtrack albums were put together, turning them into stoner mix tapes for his own amusement. For this violent war opus, Tarantino drops rock songs and even a traditional score in favor of movie instrumentals lifted from old spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation movies and Italian sex/violence epics. The surprise is how good the numbers are -- offerings from Ennio Morricone and Lalo Schifrin are as rock solid as you'd expect, but the lesser-known names also dazzle (the theme to White Lightning should make anyone want to run moonshine).