Serpico (Soundtrack) (Record Store Day 2020) vinyl

It's probably quite important to watch the 1973 movie Serpico in order to fully understand the moods Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis was thinking of when he wrote this accompanying score. The story of a hard but fair cop, the eponymous hero who takes on the New York Police Department's legions of corrupt officers in order to clean things up, that ruthless backdrop isn't exactly the image conjured by arrangements like 'Shoe Shop', which sounds like you're strolling through Central Park falling in love with a jazz trumpet.

Simply put, this is the perfect example of how circumstance and context define our emotional response to music. Sure, quintessentially 1970s funk-disco pieces like 'On The Streets' were made to be a pimp's walk-in theme, and the slick strings and groove of 'Meeting In The Park' is ideal for covert cop sequences, but the standout moments here are where classical meets Hellenic, and they really do shine.