Lost Highway [Explicit Lyrics] [Soundtrack]

Trent Reznor organizing the soundtrack to a Lynch film makes shockingly perfect sense to me, and upon seeing the track listing for the album, I was further enthused - 23 tracks, obviously set off in the right direction with rare and unusual songs by the greats Reznor, Lou Reed, David Bowie and Smashing Pumpkins (perhaps Manson, but that's another debate) and a plethora of intriguingly-titled songs by artists I didn't know.

Upon listening, the album is a brilliant and captivating experience, even if you're playing it while about other activities. Bowie's deep and sombre I'm Deranged, aptly followed by the artsy Reznor snipet, Videodrones Questions and The Perfect Drug, set a strange mood of a kind of insecure, inadequate hope or clinging positive energy in a distinctly dark and unknown zone.

From here on, the album spaces a selection of industrial tracks between carefully selected and varied jazz songs without ever losing continuity. The mood isn't static or generic as to produce the same feeling all the way through (as in The Matrix soundtrack) - instead it drifts across fear, unease, and occasionally a kind of hysteric, hypermanic joy, as if desensitized or driven mad by the enclosing depth of the rest of the album.

For those who aren't too great fans of NIN, Smashing Pumpkins or Manson, their respective tracks on the album distance themselves from any kind of stereotype or general style attributed to the creators. Rammstein may still not be a particularly good addition in my mind, but it would seem that the other more recent contributors all put in decidedly different and appropriate material.

It was Trent's name who atracted myself to the soundtrack, because I haven't managed to see the film as yet. He has already stated he would like to venture further into the production of movie soundtracks etc, and I think this was a perfect way to make himself known in the movie industry. Perhaps the soundtrack is even more well known than the movie itself?!

With superb dark instrumental tracks supplied by Angelo Badalamenti - who has worked on other soundtracks such as Arlington Road and The Beach's Original Score, Lost Highway is a must buy for any industrial/gothic musical fan.

As with the film it begins (and ends) with Bowie's 'I'm Deranged' from his mostly good album '1.Outside' ('The Heart's Filthy Lesson' would feature in 'Se7en'). Imagine a blend of 'Sons of the Silent Age' and Tricky's 'Pre-Millennium Tension'...Reznor's brief Beckett-inspired series of breath's 'Videodrones,Questions' segues into NIN's excellent 'The Perfect Drug'. I kinda went off them with the concept album- pity Reznor didn't make another mini-album a la 'Broken' around this time- fusing his drum'n'bass influences. He was very much into Goldie & Wagon Christ at the time & this song fuses the style of 'Last' with the experimentation of Digital Hardcore. Next we have Lynch's original scorer, Angelo Badalamenti providing the jazzy-'Red Bats with Teeth' (think Ornette Coleman's 'Naked Lunch' score) & the palatial 'Haunting & Heartbreaking' (between Julee Cruise's 'The Swan' & the theme to 'Mulholland Drive')...Smashing Pumpkins go all depeche mode to varying degrees of success, prior to Badalamenti's 'Dub Driving' (any Badalamenti soundtrack is worth getting). Lynch was also enthralled with Barry Adamson's eclectic 'Oedipus Scmoedipus' & got him to contribute his Ray Bradbury-inspired 'Something Wicked this Way Comes' & to contribute some new tracks: the two 'Mr Eddy's Themes' & 'Hollywood Sunset'. These are as good as any tracks on his 'Delusion' soundtrack- though the music is as good as the film,not screamingly better as with 'Delusion's case...Lou Reed's 'This Magic Moment' is OK- fitting in with the sound of the 'Set the Twilight Reeling' album. Badalemnti contributes 'Fred & Renee Make Love', a sinister piece leading to Marilyn Manson's not bad 'Apple of Sodom' (very nice production- almost a song-which makes a change) & Jobim's 'Insensatez'. We get another Manson track- a cover of 'I Put a Spell on You'. Manson is OK in small doses- but very untalented as an interpreter (see 'Sweet Dreams' & 'Tainted Love')...Badalamenti erases the horrors of the pseudo-Satanist with 'Fats Revisited' & 'Fred's World'...Rammstein offer their eponymous classic- very influenced by Einsturzende Neubauten's 'Was Ist Ist' (as is the later 'Heirate Mich'). Again,find in small doses- but a bit industrial Spinal Tap!...Finally we get Badalamenti's 'Police' leading to Reznor's excellent instrumental 'Driver Down' (he ought to dispense with the sub-Foetus vocals more frequently). Finally we have a reprise of 'I'm Deranged' & one of the most interesting soundtracks of recent years is over.