Craig ArmstrongFilm Works 1995-2005Review

Pop maven, classical composer, scorer of preposterously expensive perfume commercials: Craig Armstrong is your genuine Renaissance musician. But it's his film soundtracks that really do the business.

Armstrong's signature sound is funky and flamboyant, mixing gigawatts of electronics with massed choirs and orchestras. Take the baroque opening to Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet, or the Gothic-pop sentimentality of his arrangements for Moulin Rouge -Nicole Kidman's voice floundering woefully below his flights of fancy.

But there's a more minimal, darker strain too, revealed in his work for The Quiet American, Ray and The Negotiator, featuring spooky keyboard and electronic pulses. It may be less fun, but it's sometimes more affecting.

Whatever your preference, this disc includes some of the most distinctive mainstream film music of the last decade: incontestable reason to have it on your iPod.