Various - Kill Bill (Music From The Film) [Volume 1]

Quentin Tarantino has earned a reputation as a director for whom a quirky soundtrack is as essential as an unconventional script. Not surprisingly, the songs heard in Tarantino's fourth film, Kill Bill, are as eclectic as anything found on Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs.

The soundtrack follows a subtly Far East theme for this homage to the martial arts flicks Tarantino adores. Kill Bill tells the tale of a betrayed assassin (Uma Thurman) who seeks vengeance against her former co-workers (Lucy Liu, Vivica Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen) and, ultimately, her boss, Bill (David Carradine). Fellow kung fu enthusiast RZA of the Wu Tang Clan offers "Ode to Oren Ishii," which nods to the plot amid a bed of swelling orchestration, and Tomoyasu Hotei's "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" is a thunderous collision of brassy horns that captures the intensity of the fight sequences.

Elsewhere, Tarantino flavors the soundtrack with other nostalgic musical preferences, including Nancy Sinatra's cover of Sonny Bono's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and Dixieland trumpeter Al Hirt's instrumental "Green Hornet," which incorporates more than a little bit of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee." Other tasty quirks include Santa Esmeralda's sweeping, disco-flamenco take on "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," rockabilly legend Charlie Feathers's chugging "That Certain Female," and pan flute master Zamfir's ethereal instrumental "The Lonely Shepherd."

With the requisite movie dialogue featuring Thurman and Carradine slipped in between songs, Kill Bill is the sprawling collection of hip musical references that Tarantino fans have come to expect.

Vinyl soundtrack pressed by Maverick Records.