Soundtracks, Part 9

Album: ‘A Knight’s Tale‘
Year: 2001

Ordinarily, I would bitch when a soundtrack does not align with the movie it supports, but now will not be one of those times. Sure, it might seem odd to score a movie set in the middle ages with classic rock tunes, but this movie pulls it off by doing it boldly and with no pretense. Neither the movie nor the soundtrack take themselves too seriously and that’s kind of their charms. While you might think seeing a castle dance scene set to David Bowie’s “Golden Years” or a joust backed by the strains of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” absurd, the way it is pulled off makes it seem absurd if anything else were in those places.

Track of Distinction: “Get Ready,” by the Rare Earth is just a great song and deserves a bit of respect here.

Album: ‘Ladder 49‘
Year: 2004

Like a good amount of the music I have in my collection, I often times rip copies of things that look interesting from friends and family. My parents, who really enjoyed this film, bought the soundtrack. I liked the movie (though I have only seen it once) and decided to give this a try. What we have is the quintessential soundtrack for a movie trying to make action and heroism sell to the Baby Boomer generation. When the album strikes gold, like with “Fire” and “If I Should Fall from Grace With God,” it does it well. But the rest of it is aduld contemporary dreck that should have been left in the blaze.

Track of Distinction: “Cannonball,” by The Breeders is one of those songs I’ve heard in the background of commercials for years but never could put a name on. Now, I can.

Album: ‘Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man‘
Year: 2006

Here is another album I ripped from a friend. This time, it’s the soundtrack to a film about the life of legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen. While the album is predominantly made up of live covers from a live festival of these works, it does illustrate the immense amount of love and respect these people have for him. Every track sounds like it was lovingly rehearsed and supremely orchestrated ahead of time and is quite a beautiful collection of covers. I just wish Leonard’s voice was more a part of this collection.

Track of Distinction: Teddy Thompson’s take on “The Future” is bold, invigorating, and really suitable for this time in our collective history.

Album: ‘The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou‘
Year: 2004

Whether you loved or hated Wes Anderson’s quirky nautical adventure with Bill Murray, it’s hard to deny that the music was something quite special. Sure, there’s more score on this album than I would like, but whether the parts with Seu Jorge singing David Bowie songs in Portugese or some of the more esoteric offerings from bands like Devo, there’s really something for everyone to take away from this album with a sense that they may know the movie that much better now. It almost makes me forget the two young ladies heckling the movie from the back row of the theater. Almost.

Track of Distinction: Cinema score-master Ennio Morricone and folk goddess Joan Baez compliment one another’s styles with “Here’s To You.”

Albums: ‘Mad Men: Music from the Series’ Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
Years: 2008 and 2009 (respectively)

Woo! Pour me a stiff drink on the rocks and get me a pretty thing to rub up against because the 60s are back! Wait, they’re not? That’s not what this music tells me. Whenever I hear “Make America Great Again,” I think of the early-to-late 60s landscape of Mad Men where life seemed simple because we, as a people, we so entranced with our lives, the rapidly approaching future, and basked in the blissful ignorance of either being on top (read: white folks) or fighting to come up from the bottom (read: everyone else) and these albums were part of that collective soundtrack. Sure, the music is good, but it it shows how needy our society was, almost begging to be wrapped up in good times and memories that we didn’t really want tomorrow to ever come. Sound familiar?

Track of Distinction: Sorry to get all political. Hopefully the soothing sounds of Ella Fitzgerald’s “Manhattan” will make up for it.