Matthew Reine
Movies give us great pleasure. Music gives us this feeling as well. A film that includes an inspiring musical soundtrack that makes it all the more memorable. A lot of films strive on their melodies. Some well known artists recorded songs exclusively for certain films while some lesser known musicians made a career out of it. Let’s browse some films and pick out the best of the best that appeal to our ears:
The Crow
Not only is “The Crow” one of my favorite films but it also possesses one of my favorite soundtracks. With tunes from some of the hottest rock and metal acts of that day such as Rage Against the Machine, Pantera, and Rollins Band, it’s no shock why the album is so well received by the general public. The soundtrack’s highlight though is the original Cure song, “Burn” which can be heard during the scene where Eric Draven first applies his Crow make-up. The track clocks in at over six minutes and to this day is still one of my favorite songs from any movie.
Stone Temple Pilots’ track “Big Empty” from their second album “Purple” appears here also as well as Nine Inch Nails’ stellar cover of Joy Division’s “Dead Souls” which blares over the scene where Draven first tests his newfound abilities.
Drive
For “Drive”, director Nicolas Winding Refn gathered artists of the synth/electronic genre to produce a real 80’s sounding soundtrack. In addition to Cliff Martinez composing the score, a few original tracks were tracks from different artists were included. France’s Kavinsky teams with Brazilian vocalist Lovefoxxx to produce “Nightcall” which opens the film with Driver (Ryan Gosling) riding around Los Angeles. It immediately engages the audiences and sets the tone for the rest of the film. Electronic/pop group Desire contributed the song “Under Your Spell” which blares during the scene where the Driver and Standard (Oscar Isaac) first meet.
French electropop artist David Grellier’s side project, College, recorded “A Real Hero” which plays several times throughout the picture, most notably at the very end and during the credits. If you’re into relaxing dance-pop and electronica then you should definitely check this one out.
Once
The 2007 film, ”Once” won the Oscar for “Best Original Song” at the 80th annual Academy Awards ceremony for good reason, because “Falling Slowly” is an absolute wonderful song that is performed gracefully by the movie’s two leading stars, musicians, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.
The film’s folky soundtrack is some of the best collection of music I’ve ever heard. From start to end, it perfectly tells the story about the relationship from the two main characters in the film. From their first encounter on the streets of Ireland, to their mutual interest in music, to their first duet together, to their respective pasts, and ultimately to their split paths. Three other standouts are “When Your Mind’s Made Up”, “Gold”, and “Fallen From The Sky”, which was performed by Hansard, a renowned guitarist, individually. Irglova’s haunting solo track “The Hill” fuels on pure human emotion and really shows off the young woman’s music chops. It’s not surprising that Hansard and Irglova became an item in real life following the filming of “Once”, because their chemistry and music felt so real.
Team America: World Police
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are two of the biggest minds in show business. A hit television series that’s been running 17 years strong, several hit films, and a multi-Tony award winning Broadway musical that shows no signs of slowly down anytime soon. In addition to being comedic geniuses, Parker and Stone are also accomplished musicians. Controversial humor has always been a key to their success and along with their musicianship, they were able to write some insanely catchy tunes such as the soundtrack to their 2004 film, “Team America: World Police”. The soundtrack features a Rent-inspired parody “Everyone Has AIDS” and the patriotic anthem “America, Fuck Yeah”.
There’s also the satirizing “Montage” and the politically incorrect “I’m So Ronery”. This album will have you singing along as well as laughing your head off.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Soul To Squeeze” (Coneheads) and “Love Rollercoaster” (Beavis & Butt-head Do America)
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have recorded a few memorable tracks to different films. Their first one was to the soundtrack of the 1993 Saturday Night Live-inspired comedy “Coneheads” for which the song “Soul To Squeeze” appears. The song is one of my favorite RHCP tracks but its melodic tone doesn’t really fit in with the laugh out loud humor of Coneheads. However, it is pretty funny hearing it pop up in a scene with Chris Farley.
Another was a cover of the Ohio Players’ hit “Love Rollercoaster” for the soundtrack of “Beavis & Butt-head Do America” in 1996. This wacky remake appearing in an raunchy animated film was the total opposite of Soul to Squeeze. It totally worked!
Nine Inch Nails – “The Perfect Drug” (Lost Highway)
Nine Inch Nails was brought up earlier as I’ve always been a big fan of theirs. My older brother listened to them when I was growing up and I learned to appreciate them early on. Having said that, Trent Reznor has never been the best lyricist. NIN’s talent lied within their actual music but I’ve always thought their lyrics were a bit too cheesy at times. This song pretty much highlights that. From everybody’s favorite “love him or hate him” director, David Lynch’s 1997 thriller, “Lost Highway” contains a song written by Reznor and co. entitled “The Perfect Drug”. While not one of their better tracks, the music retains that perfect NIN feel. One particular hilarious line from the song is “turn off the sun, pulls the stars from the sky/the more I give to you, the more I die”. Oh, Trent.
Hole – “Be A Man” (Any Given Sunday)
I’ve never been a Hole fan. It has nothing to do with me being a big Nirvana fan or taking Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic’s side in their numerous battles with Courtney Love. It has to do with me just never being able to get into their music. If there was anything to justify Love’s existence though, it’s the song they recorded for the “Any Given Sunday” soundtrack in 1999. The video features an intense football matchup that exemplifies the intensity in the Oliver Stone flick. Love, sadly, was not mauled by the gridiron titans in the clip.
Less Than Jake featuring Kel Mitchell – “We’re All Dudes” (Good Burger)
Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell were two of the most popular character on Nickelodeon sketch show, “All That”. How popular? Well, they eventually got their own spin-off, “Kenan & Kel” and their very own feature film, the horribly reviewed,“Good Burger”. Based on a popular All That sketch, Kel plays Ed, a dimwitted but loving fast food employee while Kenan plays his scheming friend, Dexter. The one thing from the film that most people remember isn’t the beautiful Carmen Electra or an early appearance by Freaks & Geeks’ Linda Cardellini but the movie’s theme, “We’re All Dudes”, that was sung by Kel himself, accompanied by ska rockers, Less Than Jake. If there was any reason to re-watch “Good Burger”, it was to bop along to this catchy track that you know you moved your body to when you were a kid:
Metallica – “I Disappear” (Mission: Impossible 2)
Metallica’s “I Disappear” is relevant to this discussion because it’s was the first time Metallica had contributed to a film soundtrack (something MTV made a huge deal about back then). From the critically panned Tom Cruise action sequel, “Mission: Impossible 2”, “I Disappear” was #1 on the Billboard Rock Charts for almost two months straight. While the song isn’t very good, it stands out for being the last thing the band did with Jason Newsted before he quit and for being released during the Metallica/Napster controversy in 2000. The track didn’t appear on any subsequent Metallica albums and is mostly forgotten about among hardcore fans. They released a cool video to the song as well with each of the members partaking in a “Mission: Impossible”-esque situation.
Remy Zero – “Shattered” (Suicide Kings, Crazy/Beautiful)
Remy Zero is a band that has mostly fell under the radar and are only known for their songs that were used in television and film. They’re probably most famous for their song “Save Me” being the theme to the popular CW show, “Smallville”. The group’s music has also appeared in the films She’s All That, Stigmata, and Garden State. The song that really caught the attention of my ears though was the track, “Shattered”. This track famously played during the 2001 Kirsten Dunst film “Crazy/Beautiful” but I know “Shattered” mainly from appearing in many key scenes in another favorite movie of mine, 1998’s “Suicide Kings”. A harmless, catchy alt-rock tune that makes me wish the band had bigger success. We’ll always have this:
Bruce Springsteen – “The Wrestler” (The Wrestler)
I briefly wrote about this track in my Darren Aronofsky retrospective (http://culturecrossfire.com/movies-tv/movies/the-world-of-darren-aronofsky/) but the song’s uplifting rhythm perfectly compliments the depressing tone of “The Wrestler”. Mickey Rourke asked Springsteen to write a song for the film’s soundtrack and Bruce did it for free as a favor. The track was famously snubbed from an Academy Awards nomination for “Best Original Song” but won the Golden Globe award for that category that same year.
Julie Delpy – “A Waltz for the Night” (Before Sunset)
In a way, you can claim that “Once” was influenced by “Before Sunrise”. Both are low budgeted stories about two people who meet by chance and strike up a romantic interest, music performed by the cast, and unexpected endings. Along with being a great actress, the beautiful Julie Delpy is a wonderful singer/songwriter. She released a self-titled album in 2003, three tracks of which appeared in the 2004 Richard Linklater sequel, “Before Sunset” where she starred along with Ethan Hawke. Like “Once”, the song “A Waltz For The Night” was actually performed by Delpy in the film and directly references the situation surrounding their characters from the previous film. Hawk’s character, Jesse, is even namedropped. I’m not going to spoil what happens (and if you’ve never watched the “Before” trilogy then shame on you) but the track is performed at the very end of the film and leads to its ending.
