Trainspotting - Soundtrack

MINE

I have a bit of a weird feeling about this soundtrack.  On the one hand it features some great songs by some fantastic artists, songs I love to listen to over and over again.

On the other hand, it's the soundtrack to Trainspotting, a movie that has the honour of being the only movie with a scene in it I just can't watch.  Don't make me tell you which one.  But it involves Ewen Macgregor and a very dirty.... ooops, nearly threw up there.

I mean, I have no problem with Begbie glassing people and babies crawling across ceilings and heaps of the other totally gross-out stuff the movie's packed with.  But that scene?  I started watching it once, and only managed to get through it by closing my eyes and having someone tell me when it was safe to open them.  I've promised myself I'll never watch it again.

OK, I'll just listen to Lust For Life and wonder how I ever managed to walk the line between not choosing the three-piece suite on hire purchase - and not choosing heroin.  Glad I did.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

Some soundtracks are just background music used in order to add ambience or atmosphere to the visuals on screen.  Others help the viewer identify with the times the movie is representing.  Very few, however, can claim to be defining of a generation.  Like the movie, the Trainspotting soundtrack is one such set of songs.  Just as the movie consistently makes top lists around the globe, the soundtrack too has become one of the most popular of all time.

Director Danny Boyle used Iggy Pop's seminal Lust For Life to accompany the opening scene of the movie, so to use it to open the soundtrack was a no-brainer.  This track fairly pumps with urgent energy and as a scene-accompaniment, sets a very particular tone for the movie. 

However, the problem with soundtracks is that while particular songs go well with the visuals, it can mean the dynamics for an album can be all over the place.  For example, after starting with such a bang, track two, Brian Eno's Deep Blue Day, effectively dampens the energy of the first track.  This isn't to say it's a bad song, just misplaced.  This is followed by the seemingly Eno-inspired Primal Scream title track, a lengthy instrumental, again a great track, but at 10 plus minutes, overly long and out of place.

This is a small complaint, though, as Trainspotting features some of the best Britpop bands of the time such as Blur, Pulp and Elastica. While I'm a fan of Blur, it is actually Pulp's Mile End that is a surprising delight as is Elastica's 2:1.  But what Sleeper's cover of Blondie's Atomic is doing there is beyond me as it is almost a note-for-note copy of the original.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trainspotting_(soundtrack) (the only information source available, folks)

Pulp - Different Class

MINE

I love this album - but I don't often listen to all of it.  That's because I love, love, love Common People, Disco 2000 and Sorted for E's and Wizz.  Now I will admit, Jarvis occasionally does that beat-poetry type singing - but not all the time, not all the way through the song, and he really can sing.  Like anything.

Pulp do that lovely electronica-guitar-dance-rock crossover stuff and were firm favourites when this came out, in 1995.  As I recall, I didn't actually buy this until a couple of years later.  It spent a lot of time in the CD player - but I will admit it's those three songs that get the most traffic.

I love the sardonic tones Jarvis gives to Common People, and the almost-fragility he imparts to lines in Sorted ('Cause I seem to have left an important part of my brain/ somewhere, somewhere in a field in Hampshire).  But Disco 2000 is my favourite.  I really, really wanted the DJ to play it for my 20th high school reunion 10 years ago, but the guy hadn't even heard of it.  Funny thing, next month is my 30th reunion.  But even though this time I have the job of putting together the music (I'm currently awash in bad late 70s-early80s pop) I don't think Disco 2000 has any relevance there any more.  Shame, because it's a damn good song.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

YOURZ

I’ve never been much of a fan of Pulp.  They were kind of on the radar back in the early 90s due more to the people I was sharing a house with than anything else.  They were big fans of just about everything British.  To be honest, lead vocalist Jarvis Cocker’s mannerisms annoyed me. 

But Mine reintroduced them to me.  While I still couldn’t exactly call myself a fan, I do now have a bit more respect for them.  They were kind of lumped into the Brit Pop category, along with a whole swag of bands and maybe this was why I never had much interest.  I’ve always been a big Blur fan but not many other bands in that list cut it for me.

There are some good tracks on Different Class, no doubt.  I think Mine has probably mentioned these already.  And there are a few album tracks that remind me of the Bowie during his Aladdin Sane period, which is cool.  But am I the only one who thinks Cocker is a bit of a wanker?

VERDICT: TURN IT DOWN

For more information: http://www.pulppeople.plus.com/

Lush - Lovelife

MINE

Here we go, hanging out in Camden/ Drinking with my girlfriends on a Saturday night

Every time I think of this CD, the opening words to Ladykillers just run through my head on repeat.  I. Love. This. Album.  I used to have the chorus from Ladykillers as my email signoff.  Ciao! has gotten me through many a dark day.  Single Girl was me many a time.  If ever I'm feeling blue, Lovelife is certain to cheer me up.

Of course, the band came to an early end after this album, when their drummer committed suicide.  A point a recent commenter on an article in the Guardian about the death of former Stereophonics band member Stuart Cable chose to call "the curse of the 90's indie drummer" also mentioning Space and the Wonderstuff.  Kind of gruesome, but it makes you think...

VERDICT: TURN IT UP (I know the score I've heard it all before)

YOURZ

While Mine clearly has a great love for this album, I must confess that *gasp* I don't know it that well.  In the very early 90s, I had friends who were huge fans of just about everything 4AD (hi Nadine and Tim) but by the time this album came out, they'd moved away and I'd was more interested in lo-fi and slacker rock than the Brit-pop stylings of Lush.

But there was a time when shoegazer was a big thing with my friends and I and Lush, along with bands like Ride, Curve, Pale Saints, Charlatans, My Bloody Valentine and, particularly for me, Swervedriver (see our review of Mezcal Head here) were played and discussed with much fervour.  In fact, friendships were made and lost depending on which shoegazer band you liked or hated.  Such was our completely irrational, unfounded belief in the power of such bands.  (I'm feeling a little smug as the only survivors of that period were my favourite - Swervedriver.  Who's the cool one now, huh?)

For the most part, Lovelife lives up to its reputation for being one of the classic mid-90s British albums, with those gorgeous soaring harmonies and jangly-pop stylings.  I particularly like the opener, Ladykiller, Single Girl and the vaguely trip hoppy Last Night.  But the big surprise and the track of the album for me, is Ciao!, a duo between lead Lushette, Miki, and Pulp's Jarvis cocker.  Worth the price of the album, this one.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP particularly track 7

For more information: http://www.4ad.com/lush

Shamen - Boss Drum

MINE

Oh, urgh.  I really only bought this because I liked LSI (Love Sex Intelligence) which is still a kickin' choon to this day.  I really didn't like the tongue-in-cheek drug references in Ebeneezer Goode because frankly?  If you want to say you like taking ecstasy, then just say it.  Pulp managed to with Sorted for E's and Wizz a few years later.  The rest of album's just dreck.  And I paid a horrible import-CD price for it, too! (YourZ sez: that'll learn ya!)

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT


YOURZ

Excuse me... 

blaaaaahahgggghhhggghh... 

Sorry about that, much better now... 

No wait...

blaaaaggggghhhhaaaggghhh...

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT


For more information: http://www.myspace.com/shamen1