Blade Runner Soundtracks (most of them)

Blade Runner is one of those movies that everybody either saw of heard of it. It was a peculiar little film that I find very dear to my heart. It's perhaps my favorite movie of all times. I won't talk about the movie in great detail mostly because it would just go on and on. What I want to talk about it is its soundtrack. There are a lot of versions and interpretations of it so I'll just share every version I have.

If you're not familiar with the soundtrack I would suggest that you start with the initial 1994 release of the soundtrack as it contains most of the compositions that were in the movie and is performed by Vangelis. 

I'll start chronologically.

Okay, so back when Blade Runner got out and made a name for itself the soundtrack never really was released by itself. Or more exactly it wasn't released in its original format. Vangelis was the guy who made it but in fact the first official soundtrack was done by an orchestra adapting scores that Vangelis made for the film.

I'm not sure why they did it but this is the end result:

New American Orchestra

Orchestral adaptation of music composed for the motion picture by Vangelis

1982

Despite the lengthy title it really is what it says. Vangelis songs adapted by an orchestra and it feels actually quite natural. I thought this would be terrible but it's enjoyable. The tracks are made with orchestral instrumentation which makes it a thrill to listen if you already know the Vangelis soundtrack because of the apparent lack of keyboards. The only non full orchestral song is the End Titles which seem really out of place here since it combines keyboards and funky guitar riffs. To further annoy the listener they included another version of the same track. But yeah, for the most part it gives a new insight at the songs. The best part of this release, in my opinion, is that it features One More Kiss that's sung by a female vocalist (that sounds better than the original version). Its runtime is barely past 30 minutes so to no surprise this pissed off a lot fans who expected a Vangelis full hour album which in turn caused numerous bootleg releases (a theme I'll address at the end of the post.

Tracklist for this would be:

1. Love Theme (4:12)
2. Main Title (5:01)
3. One More Kiss, Dear (4:00)
4. Memories of Green (4:50)
5. End Title (4:17)
6. Blade Runner Blues (4:38)
7. Farewell (3:10)
8. End Title Reprise (3:08)

Download.

After the initial "official" soundtrack more than 10 years passed before the actual soundtrack was released. This was in 1994 and it is probably the most widespread version of this soundtrack.

Vangelis

Blade Runner

 1994

The soundtrack itself is really Vangelis at its heart. Heavy keyboard music that just screams of 80s music. Thankfully it's not that kitsch as his other soundtracks due to the nature of the movie. Because the movie was so melancholic and dark there really is no room for any happy jittery music. Most of the tracks are very atmospheric and slow to fit the theme and he got it just right.

Along with the songs that were used in the film Vangelis also added a bunch of songs that were made for the movie but never ended up in it. Even with all these tracks there were still a lot of unpublished tracks. Despite that this is probably the best release if you want the standard version of the movie soundtrack and the length is at reasonable 57 minutes. Did I ever mention that this is the perfect music while going to bed aside from Stars of the Lid?

The tracks are:

1. Main Titles (3:42)

2. Blush Response (5:47)
3. Wait for Me (5:27)
4. Rachel's Song (4:46)
5. Love Theme (4:56)
6. One More Kiss, Dear (3:58)
7. Blade Runner Blues (8:53)
8. Memories of Green (5:05)
9. Tales of the Future (4:46)
10. Damask Rose (2:32)
11. Blade Runner (End Titles) (4:40)
12. Tears in Rain (3:00)

This is the first cd of the Blade Runner Trilogy so just download that instead.

Vangelis

Blade Runner Trilogy

2007

As far as the original releases go this is the definitive collection of the soundtrack released along with the collectors edition of the movie. Accompanied by the exact same 1994 soundtrack on the first CD there are two extra CDs included. 

The second CD includes a lot of previously unreleased material that were and were not used in the movie. Probably the most notable from this bunch is "Tears In The Rain" which is now called "Fading Away" and is the same but without the voice. So it's more ambient bliss by Vangelis. A lot of these songs were not meant to be "songs" but ambient passages in the movie which makes this pretty much ambient music devoid of long synth solos and crap like that.

The third CD is music that was inspired by the movie. This whole CD feels like a filler to ramp up the price tag of the Movies Collector Edition. There are some good tracks but for the most part I didn't really enjoy it. Maybe you will.

Download:

 Mp3: Part 1, 2 and 3.

Flac: Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Booklet scans.

Bootlegs

Esper Edition

As I have mentioned earlier there are a lot of bootlegs that were released ever since the movie got out. Roger posted the Esper edition in the comments a while back when I originally posted the 1994 version of the soundtack. It contains two CDs with a fair share of the music that can't be found on the originals. I'd say that this is the most complete bootleg version. Although there are a lot of rereleases of the Esper version so I'm not really sure which version is this one.

Wikipedia notes that there's an updated Esper edition called The Retirement Edition with improved sound and better versions of various songs. It also has more material that spans over 5 cds. If someone has it please share it!

Download it 1 and 2.

Deck Art Limited Edition

This is the second bootleg version that I have and it's probably the strangest. It's just one big track that goes on for about an hour with tracks seamlessly joined and chronologically sorted with the scenes of the movie. So it's like an audio journey of the movie, for the most part. It does not contain much new stuff (aside from maybe the longest versions of the Japanese traditional themes and some weird Arabian music) but it's very enjoyable if you know the movie and the soundtrack well. A cool little novelty. Apparently it's from Japan.

Part 1, 2 and 3. It's in flac.

Again, if someone has (of if you can find it) the previously mentioned The Retirement Edition of the Esper bootleg please share it because I would love to hear it. 

I don't know why I love this soundtrack so much, don't give me that worried strange look. :D