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Rating: In 1998, "Great Expectations" (“Paradiso Perduto” in the horrible Italian translation) was released in cinemas, a romantic melodrama (all in all well made) based on a contemporary interpretation of the Dickens' novella of the same name: accompanying the film were two CDs, one with the actual Soundtrack (curated by Patrick Doyle) and the other with a selection of tracks inspired by the Film (4 of which are not actually included in the movie). This writing of mine is dedicated to the latter:
Discussing a Soundtrack is never easy, for various reasons, the first being the heterogeneity characterizing works that often bring together artists and therefore songs of different backgrounds, origins, styles, and times. This is not a universal rule but in films where the story unfolds over lengthy times and perhaps in very varied settings, it inevitably happens: this record I'm going to talk about is a concrete example.
Before venturing into the inevitable (given the nature of the CD) track by track (bear with me, I'll be brief…) a general assessment to make is that the album has catchiness, elegance, and lightness as its common denominators, so a passionate advice I can give you is to listen to it on a beautiful spring afternoon on your porch (if you don’t have one, go bother a friend who does…)
1.Finn - Tori Amos (Intro): Written by Doyle, lasts just under two minutes, vocalizations by the Redhead and Whistler by Carey Wilson, a pleasant start.2.Siren - Tori Amos: a full-flowing Pop river, impetuous piano and autarchic choirs, Tori at the peak of her artistic maturity, after all, it was the '90s…
3.Life In Mono – Mono: Elegant electronic ballad (trip-hop?) with a retro flavor, pleasant.
4.Sunshower - Chris Cornell: An almost-country ballad of an artist who hadn't yet accustomed us to the imminent pop rock metamorphosis, intriguing.
5.Resignation - Reef (not in the film): Robust guitar rock, Old style, nothing new but good entertainment.
6.Like A Friend – Pulp: Refined song suspended between New Wave and David Bowie proposed by a rather underrated band.
7.Wishful Thinking - Duncan Sheik: Nice Rock-Pop passage in the author's style and nothing more.
8.Today - Poe (not in the film): Too similar to Suzanne Vega to break through, yet she also produced good works, this piece is one of them, I don't know if it's more funkfolk or folkfunk... Disappeared into nothingness.
9.Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down - Scott Weiland: A very questionable character here proposes a drunken ballad, I'm not yet sure if it annoys me or I like it.
10.Her Ornament - The Verve Pipe: A song with a nice kick, perhaps too similar to early R.E.M.
11.Walk This Earth Alone - Lauren Christy: Author of Trash Pop songs (Spears, Backstreet Boys etc. etc.) here she tackles a nice electronic Pop song, definitely not bad despite everything.
12.Breakable - Fisher (not in the film): An American Folky group (female voice) unknown to us, a cheerful little song.
13.Success - Iggy Pop: Song taken from “Lust for Life”, needs no introduction.
14.Slave - David Garza (not in the film): Standard Rock and Reggae, I don't much like the genre, but it's at least fun.
15.Uncle John’s Band- Grateful Dead: from “Working’s Man Dead”, another Classic, nothing to say.
16.Besame Mucho - Cesaria Evora: Bésame, bésame mucho como si fuera esta noche la última vez!
Still here? What are you waiting for, Spring is just around the corner, wake up girls/guys!
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