Strictly Ballroom (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Listen to the soundtrack for 1992’s Strictly Ballroom and you get a pretty good idea of where Baz Luhrmann was going. It’s flashy, it’s theatrical, it’s cheeky, it’s fun. Most importantly, though, it introduces Luhrmann as an artist who can consolidate disparate styles and eras—’60s Doris Day singing a ’40s Cuban song (“Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”), Viennese waltzes and disco (“Love Is in the Air”), a cast-driven rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time”—into a coherent whole, a quality obvious in just about everything he’s done since, from his grunge-era Romeo and Juliet on. The box isn’t what’s important—it’s the feeling inside.