Soundtracks, Part 6

Album: ‘Forrest Gump‘
Year: 1994

Though not the catalyst for my love of classic rock, this certainly helped me expand my horizons beyond the realm of contemporary music during my formative years. This soundtrack, like the film, has mass appeal written all over it with every track a household sound that was sure to please. My dad took a look at the track listing and simply said, “Wow.” It sounds like a time capsule of when American rock music finally came into its own.

Track of Distinction: Jefferson Airplane’s “Volunteers” is a rocking good time that I keep overlooking. No longer.

Album: ‘Friday‘
Year: 1995

I didn’t watch this movie until I was in college and, when I did, I was immediately attracted to the music. Still being a relative rap newbie (not to mention the whitest person in the county), I find this soundtrack welcoming showing me the personality of the film in song form. Like the neighborhood in the film, the soundtrack has its overly-masculine side, its smooth old school side, and even its soft side that all ring genuine. A well-crafted album for a surprisingly poignant movie.

Track of Distinction: Rose Royce’s “I Wanna Get Next to You” is the softest offering on the album but it also resonates the most.

Album: ‘Godzilla: The Album‘
Year: 1998

While most of us would be fine with going about our lives like this turd of a movie never happened, we tend to forget about the dumpster fire that is the soundtrack. Built up around power singles from Puff Daddy and an above-average David Bowie cover by The Wallflowers, the album is a hodge-podge of music that likely didn’t make the movie and was included to build up the albums credentials with its target audience. I was part of said audience in 1998 and, therefore, handed several dollars to my local Target for this CD. I defended it at the time, but time did not treat this well with many sub-par offerings by bands lucky to make the undercard at Lollapalooza. Not time well-spent.

Track of Distinction: I didn’t star a single track off this album for distinction. HAHAHAHAHA! Fuck it, I’ll give it to The Wallflowers just for the hell of it.

Album: ‘The Great Gatsby‘
Year: 2013

Another in a shockingly long list of soundtracks for films I have never seen, I come to a heavy-R&B soundtrack to a movie based on the whiniest white privilege book of all time (read: not a fan). The album is good, though. Executive producer Jay-Z takes some chances with an above-average cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” a soaring Florence + The Machine track, a Lana Del Rey song that could double as a Bond movie song, and even a rocker by Jack White making it an album that truly keeps you on your toes. While I could have done without Beyonce’s speakeasy version of “Crazy in Love,” the album does its job and (probably) compliments the film rather well.

Track of Distinction: Jay-Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and The Dream get together and knock “No Church In the Wild” out of the freaking park! This track is head and shoulders above everything else on the album, and that’s quite a feat.

Album: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix, Vol. 1‘
Year: 2014

My wife affectionately calls this movie, “The Movie Where Chris Pratt Got Hot.” She’s never seen it. She doesn’t like “comic book movies” so I watched this alone in our basement one night and immediately loved it. The soundtrack, based on a mixtape the mother of Pratt’s character  gave him full of good 70s and 80s pop classics, is freaking great except my wife couldn’t stand it. Well, if I had known that, I would have listened to this album in the basement without her. But hearing it while driving was definitely worth it.

Track of Distinction: From an album with no stars to one where nearly every track was starred, this was one tough choice. In the end, Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love” won out for being smooth and insanely catchy.