Trainspotting: Music From The Motion Picture

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com
The first of two Trainspotting discs is a prime example of the contemporary rock soundtrack, functioning as a useful keepsake of the 1996 British film smash and as a cohesive, eclectic listen in its own right. Iggy Pop's booming, Bowie-produced 1977 anthem "Lust for Life" sets the boisterously ambivalent mood for a transatlantic, trans-generational cross-section of alt-rock. New Order's seminal 1982 dance hit "Temptation" and Lou Reed's hauntingly bittersweet 1972 tune "Perfect Day" shares space with tracks by such esteemed mid-1990s Brit-popsters as Blur (whose frontman Damon Albarn also contributes a solo number), Pulp, Elastica, and Sleeper. Elsewhere, the album dips into dance rhythms (Underworld, Bedrock featuring KYO) and ambient grooves (Brian Eno Leftfield, and Primal Scream's ten-and-a-half-minute title song) without breaking the spell. --Scott Schinder

Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

One of the best soundtracks in modern music November 7, 2001
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

I consider the soundtrack to the movie "Trainspotting" one of the most definitive soundtrack in modern music. There is an eclectic mix of artists and bands that ranges from alternative to techno, mixing old songs with new songs. This soundtrack couldn't have started off on a better note than with Iggy Pop's classic "Lust For Life", both a film and commercial favorite. The thunderous beats and Iggy's raw vocals mixes nicely together and makes the listener get up and dance. "Nightclubbing", another Iggy Pop song, is excellent. A bit monotonous at times but I just love how deep Iggy's voice gets on this song. It has a trip hop influence in the song, long before the term trip hop was defined. Sleeper's cover of the Blondie classic "Atomic" is excellent without a doubt. Catchy and darn right fun to listen to. I almost love this version more than the original and I love Blondie's music to death. I think my very personal favorite track off the soundtrack has to be New Order's "Temptation". Elastica's "2:1" is awesome. That is probably my all time favorite Elastica song. It's short and sweet. The timing of the beats in the song and Justine Frischman's vocals is what blows my mind away. And of course there is Underworld's "Born Slippy", the song that put this soundtrack on the map as well as for the band. That song and Leftfield's "A Final Hit" are just classic techno music. What I love most about this cd is how it eclectic it is and that the artists and bands put on the album are/were both established and new. You don't see established artists and new artists on the same album very often. The film industry should use the "Trainspotting" soundtrack as an architect to how soundtracks should be, as art and not another form of crass commercialism.

5 out of 5 stars

all time favourite.....and it grows on you October 24, 1999
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

When I first got this I only liked Iggy Pop's "Lust..." and Underworld's "Born Slippy" (rave/techno whatever)..then I discovered Deep Blue Day {really sounds like a deep blue day), Primal Scream's "Trainspotting" (slow, sleepy), "A Final Hit" (very sleepy and sexual), and Blur's "Sing". I actually fell in love with all the songs and played it over and over and over...it's very eclectic there's all types of music on the CD. the tracks that will never grow on me are Albarn's "Closet Romantic" and Iggy's "Nightclubbing".... A Final Hit is the most beautiful and sensual piece of music i have ever heard. A Perfect Day and 2:1 are also really brilliant. You have to be in the party mood for the others though, they're really 'poppy' for want of a better word. It will definitely grow on you, I mean at first I hated "For What You Dream Of" now I LOVE it, it's so weird.....

5 out of 5 stars

Frenetic, pulsing, and overall...weird! July 20, 2000
6 out of 8 found this review helpful

I only saw the movie recently, only hearing that it was one of the strangest, most obscene, and overall one of the most important films ever to come out of the U.K. Indie scene. "Yeah, sure," is what I thought. I'm a fan of indie films, but something about the concept of heroin junkies didn't strike me. I finally saw the film, and I was taken aback by just how lewd and oddly humorous the film was. I loved it immediately! Part of the reason was because of the music. This soundtrack is one of the must frantic collections for a film I've ever heard. So-called Old-timers like Iggy Pop and Lou Reed on the same album with '90's techno beat masters Underworld and alt. rockers like Blur, Pulp, and Elastica, thrown in with some '80's dance music from New Order's classic "Temptation," and Sleeper's cover of Blondie's "Atomic." Sounds like an odd mix, but it worked. Somehow all of these songs interspersed with each other (in the same order in which they appeared in the film no less...I checked) work perfectly to convey the emotions of sonic daydreaming and intoxicated ecstasy the film had. Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" is a wonderfully fast-paced anthem that kicks off Trainspotting with a bang that shows just how much of a punch a "sincere honest drug habit" can give the brain before shorting out. "Nightclubbing," also by Pop, is also a wonderful slow pump that one could get high to, but also gives '90's music fans an idea of where the beat to Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" might have been inspired. Only one of the two Underworld songs from the film was put on this CD, while the other had to be put on the dreadful second soundtrack. Nonetheless, "Born Slippy" is a great song that starts out slow and sad until kicking into a heavy pounding bass techno beat. Brian Eno's song, "Deep Blue Day," to me was unnecessary in both the movie and the soundtrack, but...hey. "A Perfect Day" by Lou Reed is also a bit of a sad song, sending chills down the listener's spine. Leftfield's "A Final Hit," Bedrock's "For What You Dream Of," and Primal Scream's ten-minute title track are also welcome excursions into '90's techno and electronica, while Elastica, Blur, and Pulp provide some sombre alt. rock moods, all of which give a sense of fading Generation-X angst. The lounge feel of Pulp band member Damon Albarn's "Closet Romantic" provides the humor to close the album out. The album is upbeat and danceable, but amidst the pulsing beats is a misery that compliments the film's characters' drug habits and the dreary excuses of lives they lead. Great stuff! Get this album!

4 out of 5 stars

Soundtrack Fits the Movie October 2, 2000
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

While most of the songs on this soundtrack can stand alone, they do form a cohesive and convincing ensemble of songs to create the ambience needed to build the world of Mark Renton and his misfit gang of heroin junkie and crime addicted friends. The movie is an interesting collection of character sketches, if not a disgusting look at the life of heroin addicts, and the soundtrack serves as a perfect backdrop to this narration. "Lust for Life" is a perfect lead-off anthem (although, I am disappointed to report that "Lust for Life" is now being used in a series of inane American t.v. commercials for a cruise ship company...) Primal Scream's "Trainspotting" fits the bill (as a lot of their music would) because it just floats along with no real end in sight, no real climax, and the lifestyle of the characters seems to have this low-key element to it. Nothing matters to them but the "next hit". Based on the strength of Sleeper's remake of Blondie's "Atomic" I ran out and bought an entire Sleeper album but was disappointed by an album of sameness... but "Atomic" is a great addition to this soundtrack and reminds me of the scene in the film in which the song is played (which is a pretty good scene!) Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" and Pulp's "Mile End" are both fantastic additions here, fitting the subject matter nicely. And Underworld's LONG but infinitely satisfying dance track "Born Slippy" seals it up for me. A great album! The entire work sails smoothly along, hitting no significant snags along the way... making a solid product and overall listening enjoyment.

5 out of 5 stars

Better than the movie...? April 10, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

When I started listening to this, it had been a year or so since I had seen the movie (which I liked), and I couldn't remember which scenes correponded to which tracks. Therefore I enjoyed it as a completley seperate work of art. When I re-watched the movie recently, I was almost dissapointed; the music actually seemed weakened in the context of the scenes. Don't get me wrong, Trainspotting is excellent, but the soundtrack stands indepedently and possibly even above it as a pop-culture watermark.

It's been observed that there's a lot of variance in the music, but I do think it's held together by a certain theme, a depiction of a way of life - squalor (Mile End, 2:1), desperatley sincere attempts to find some happiness or amusement (Lust For Life, Atomic, For What You Dream Of), an underlying and understandable sense of desperation (Sing and Perfect Day, the only songs which I thought perfectly matched their respective scenes in the movie), made bearable by the occasional glimpse of real, innocent sweetness (Temptation).

Taken seperatley, the songs are again very strong; there are great commerical hits like 'Temptation' and 'Born Slippy,' and more obscure but excellent tracks like 'Sing,' which I don't think can be found on any other album, but which I think is one of Blur's best songs, ever. The instrumental tracks are also good, particularly 'Trainspotting' itself.

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