Steve Jablonsky: Transformers

The power of the internet catapulted this classical soundtrack into public consciousness, thanks to a few angry fans and an online petition. A new entry in the chart for 2014.

After its release in 2007, film music fans rushed to buy 'Transformers: The Album', hoping to hear the instrumental tracks composed by Steve Jablonsky. Instead, the soundtrack featured a selection of rap and rock music - some of which hadn't appeared in the original film. Cue internet outrage, and an angry mob of petition-signing classical fans, who lobbied the record company to release 'Transformers: The Score'. Two months, and 5,505 signatures later, Warner Bros. Records announced the classical album release, and Jablonsky's powerful score stormed the chart.

The cool critical reception that Michael Bay's Transformers saga has endured has little bearing on the reception of the soundtrack, however. As the campaigning fans will testify, this is bombastic, superbly orchestrated stuff from start to finish. Breathless moments of technical virtuosity fly past your ears, percussion thudding mercilessly like the mechanised characters that inspired it - Jablonsky's scores are not for the faint-hearted, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty enjoy.