Pretty great soundtrack to flawed, yet memorable film., 20 April 2002

By	Jason Parkes "We're all Frankies'" (Worcester, UK) - See all my reviews

There are some tragic omissions from the film's soundtrack- such as the Cowboy Junkies track or 'Nag Nag Nag' by Cabaret Voltaire. But this soundtrack does represent what's heard in the film pretty well.

There are nasty AOR tracks- perfectly suited to suburbia and proof of kitsch aspirations in suburbia in the 70's (think of 'Abigail's Party'). Songs like 'January-February', 'I've Never Been to Me' and 'White Horses'. But these contrast well with the other songs- showing the differences between the generations. There is no excuse to include 'I Got You Babe'- I feel the same way about that as Bill Murray does in 'Groundhog Day'!...There are some great tracks from punk/new wave: two fine songs from The Clash, 'Peaches' by The Stranglers (also used in adverts and 'Sexy Beast')and the brilliant 'Whole Wide World' by Wreckless Eric- surely one of the greatest singles ever? Not content with that some more great singles from this-or any-period: 'Another Girl,Another Planet', 'Kings of the Wild Frontier' & 'The Cutter'.Mute-founder Daniel Miller contributes his classic electronic ode to JG Ballard's 'Crash': 'Warm Leatherette'- which is almost as great as it gets.Then there's Vince Clarke's brilliant 'Just Can't Get Enough'-one of the fine three singles he wrote for Depeche Mode. Not to forget the mindblowing 'The 'Sweetest Girl' 'by Scritti Politti- a sublime wonder featuring Robert Wyatt. Green Garside's vocals are gorgeous and the line "When the Government Falls/I wish I could tell" says more about life in the 80's than anything else: choose love and hedonism and transcend the yuppie conceptions. There are also a few oddities: 'Cocaine in My Brain' by Dilinger (I'd have preferred something by The Specials or 'Handsworth Revolution')- which shows how important dub/reggae was to these times (see the Lee Perry boxset or the recent Don Letts compilation). We go back to two dead,cult singers- Tim Buckley's 'Strange Feelin'- from 'Happy Sad' (though I think the 'Dream Letter' version is better) and Nick Drake's divine 'Cello Song' from 'Five Leaves Left'. Both these singers translate the uncertain worlds of vanishing youth and altered states- tying in with some of the films themes. After a vast jumpp cut of time periods we get the theme to the closing credits- 'Rings Around the World' by SFA- which sounds like Status Quo doing 'Pumping on Your Stereo' and is far from their great singles like 'Hometown Unicorn', 'The Man Don't Gi