Big Bad Love - Album - "Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack" (Nonesuch Records 2002)

Like most things in life, soundtracks used to be so simple; it was just a record of the music from the film and, more often than not, it didn't have quite the same thrill without the visuals. Now, to extract even more money from the hapless punter, we have the soundtracks which don't actually feature music from the film in question at all, they just happened to be 'inspired' by it. Thankfully this album avoids that and is a pure labour of love by compiler and film director Arliss Howard, who was inspired by the blues he heard on his car radio whilst driving through the deep South. This is hard blues from Mississippi hill country, mostly drawn from the Fat Possum label and featuring R L Burnside, Robert Belfour, Kenny Brown, T-Model Ford plus two new songs from Tom Waits, two from Tom Verlaine and (grasping at an Americana link here) Steve Earle's "Goodbye" from Train A Comin'. I've not seen the film but, to its credit, this particular soundtrack stands alone as a mostly fine collection of music. The music ranges from the solo slide guitar of Kenny Brown on the opener "Boxcar Blues" through to a storming full band version of Dylan's "Everything Is Broken" featuring R L Burnside and Buddy Guy and on to "She Asked Me So I Told Her" a wonderful racket by T-Model Ford, sounding like he's standing in a hot bath banging the bottom with a cattle prod. The Tom Waits numbers feature the usual weary vocals with oddball accompaniment and are none the worse for it. Both Verlaine's instrumental tracks are a disappointment, falling far short of anything else here; when will rock musicians learn that guitars and string quartets (in this case the Kronos Quartet) do not mix. "Spiritual" is over 5 minutes of formless indulgent noodling which perhaps does serve a purpose in the film (ideally behind the credits, as everyone is leaving), but really it could have been edited down. That aside, this album is worthy of anyones dollar. TJF

Date review added:  Monday, April 22, 2002
Reviewer:  Admin
Reviewers Rating: