Mashup – My (life in) music lists

Best film soundtracks: #5 “Sucker punch” (2011)

So much for getting through my top five soundtracks ‘over the next month’!

Honestly, I wanted to get this particular piece posted almost two months ago, not long after I shared the last piece in this series counting down albums ten through six. But then, I got the brilliant idea that I wanted to rewatch all of the films for the top five soundtracks to remind myself of the films and how the music interacted with each. Great idea, yes, but with the Olympics* pretty much killing all my free time for half of February, then, the post-Olympics letdown for a few weeks, and feeling a bit rundown from the busy season at work, the unplanned blogging hiatus, well, I’ve had a hard time getting myself organized.

I finally got around to rewatching “Sucker punch” on the last Friday of February and am kind of glad that I did. ‘Glad’ because I realized I really only had a basic memory of the film’s events and ‘kind of’ because I found myself a little more disappointed with it this time around. As I mentioned back in November, when I posted about one of the tracks below for my 100 best covers list, I actually saw the film for the first time in the theatres with a group of friends from work. And while most of them were familiar with the film’s concept and the filmmaker’s previous work, I had no preconceptions, had no idea what the film was about or what I was getting into beforehand and found myself caught up in the spectacle of it.

The film was co-written and directed by Zack Snyder, who had already cut his teeth remaking zombie classic “Dawn of the dead” (2004) and adapting two comic book series in “300” (2006) and “Watchmen” (2009). In fact, I had always thought “Sucker punch” was also based on a comic book or graphic novel and only found out it was an original concept after rewatching and sitting down to write this post. The visual style and action sequences are very reminiscent of Snyder’s previous two films and in effect, it very much looks like you are watching a moving comic book. The story follows a young woman committed to a mental institution by her ‘wicked stepfather’ after framing her for the murder of her sister and then bribes one of the crooked attendants to get her lobotomized. What follows next is a mixture and layers of fantasy upon fantasy, a mishmash of action genres and epic effects, as Baby doll (our heroine) attempts to both survive and escape the circumstances in which she finds herself.

The soundtrack only adds to the vibe of the film, consisting of mashups and reimaginings of songs that many might find familiar. Each is used to backdrop specific scenes or parts of the movement forward, most obviously for the scenes in which Baby doll is ‘dancing’ her way through each step of her mission. And that vague song familiarity adds to the dreamlike quality of the film and the blending and questioning of reality.

It’s a brilliantly orchestrated soundtrack that works just as well as without the film, given that it’s a total mood piece, and can be listened to all the way through as such. If you haven’t seen the film or heard the soundtrack, my three picks for you will give you good taste what you may or may not be missing.

“Sweet dreams (are made of this)” Emily Browning: The opening track on the soundtrack is also the first song we hear in the film. It provides the backing and movement and emotional drive for the opening scenes in which the stage is set. Playing like a flashback or a ‘previously on’ montage, the sinister and haunting music delivers the protagonist from her childhood home to a mental institution with no prospect of happiness or safe return. Interestingly, this cover of the Eurythmics classic is sung by the actress playing said main character (Emily Browning sings on two other tracks on the soundtrack as well). It is orchestral rock with an industrial beat and Browning delivers Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart’s lyrics in a lounge/triphop style. And if you listen really closely you can pick out pieces of songs and themes that appear in elsewhere on the soundtrack, a sort of foreshadowing of sorts.

“White rabbit” Emilíana Torinni: Icelandic singer/songwriter Emilíana Torrini’s cover of the Jefferson Airplane psych classic underpins one of the aforementioned ‘dance’ sequences. During our heroines’ plot to steal the map of the hospital, Baby Doll’s dance morphs into a World War I action movie adventure. The song’s choice for the film works perfectly with its themes of fantasy and dreams and reality. And Torrini’s eerie and bold vocals stand up brilliantly to those of Grace Slick’s original. The music is a dreamy pastiche, nodding to 60s sci-fi soundtrack sound effects, indian folk music, symphonic rock, and more of that industrial angst. It is explosive and full of verve.

“Where is my mind” Yoav feat. Emily Browning: Another of Emily Browning’s songs on this soundtrack also features Israel-Romanian singer/songwriter Yoav in a duet covering the early Pixies track. It appears at two pivotal points in the film, a bookend of sorts, first, as Baby Doll is checked into the hospital, and later, as she and Sweet Pea are attempting to escape. As I hinted above, this track has already received the ‘My life in music list’ treatment back in October and I wrote back then that it almost felt to me like this is the song that really spearheads the soundtrack. “It builds from a place of quiet, an almost forgotten corner of the mind, each singer adding distinct voices from distinct experiences, and then the guitars kick in and the beat picks up, everything continuing to build until the machine guns fire, the full orchestra finale, and fireworks galore.”

*I’ve been an Olympics junkie since a pre-teen. I eat, sleep, and breathe practically nothing else while they are happening, watching any event being broadcast, which is how I got hooked on curling a few Olympics ago.

We’ll be back soon(ish) with album #4. In the meantime, here are the previous albums in this list:

10. “Marie Antoinette” (2006)
9. “Clueless” (1995)
8. “Fear & loathing in Las Vegas” (1998)
7. “Vanilla sky” (2001)
6. “(500) days of summer” (2009)

You can also check out my Best Albums page here if you’re interested in my other favourite albums lists.

100 best covers: #33 Yoav ft. Emily Browning “Where is my mind?”

<< #34 | #32 >>

Fifteen years ago or so, I was going out to the cinemas semi-regularly with a group of guys from work. All four of us were happily married but the films we often went to were ones that our wives would likely not have been interested in seeing so they gladly allowed us these nights out with the guys. The movies were all big budget action pieces that exploded off the screen, many were part of this MCU group of films that were just starting to get off the ground. To be honest, I wasn’t super familiar with all of the comic books that these films were based off of, but for me the actual content of the films were secondary, I enjoyed the nights out, the laughs, the goofiness, the popcorn and junk food, and the joy of being in the cinema.

One such night, we went out to see the film “Sucker punch”. I’m not sure which of the other three suggested it, perhaps all of them, but I had no idea what I was getting into, nor had I read anything about or seen any teaser trailers. Without the weight of any expectations, I had a blast watching the film and was surprised afterwards to find I was the only one of us that enjoyed it* and in truth, might’ve been the only one in the world that didn’t hate it based on all the critical panning it received.

As poorly reviewed as the film was, it did receive some kudos for its visual effects and of course, its soundtrack was also universally loved, which is why we are here today. The nine tracks are a mix of covers and mash ups and remixes (oh my). The songs were used at key points in the film to add another layer to the fantasies of the film’s characters, blasts of technicolor musical numbers akin to the music video for Björk’s “Oh so quiet”. Indeed, many of the songs included vocal performances by the film’s stars. It’s probably one of my favourite ever soundtracks for how creates a specific feeling and atmosphere, reinventing the songs used specifically for this purpose.

The seventh of the nine is our song for today’s list and it features the film’s star Emily Browning dueting with Israeli-Romanian singer/songwriter Yoav on the Pixies classic, “Where is my mind?”

I first came across Yoav with his own cover of the track and liked the sound of it so much I checked out the rest of his debut album, “Charmed and strange”, which is similarly charming with his Cat Stevens vocals and use of acoustic guitar in inventive ways to create a sort of dance pop sound. I don’t know how he became involved with the “Sucker punch” soundtrack but it sounds as if his original cover became the springboard from which he and Emily Browning leapt, trading vocals over a miasma of industrial beats, feedback, and sonic screams. It builds from a place of quiet, an almost forgotten corner of the mind, each singer adding distinct voices from distinct experiences, and then the guitars kick in and the beat picks up, everything continuing to build until the machine guns fire, the full orchestra finale, and fireworks galore.

The Pixies original was featured on their debut album, 1988’s “Surfer rosa”, penned by frontman Frank Black (or Black Francis), a typically Pixie weirdo number that saw a resurgence went it was used at the end of the 1999 film, “Fight club”. It has become an anthem for the disaffected ever since and is a favourite at their live shows, which they perform in an unconventional way, kind of like a mix of “do I have to?” and “since I have to, I’m going to rock the hell out of it”.

The Pixies original exemplifies the eccentric punk edge of their early days and foreshadows where music will head in the 90s, slightly off-kilter guitar rock that was antithetical to the glam metal of the 80s. The cover is one and a half times longer and the mashup explosions exemplify what was popular at the beginning of the 2000s. Two very different sounds and each with very different moods and meanings, despite there being no change in the lyrics.

Both are fantastic and though the cover ‘gives’ just a little bit more** than the original and does everything a good cover should, I can’t in good conscience pick it over the Pixies’ original. Original being the operative word.

Cover:

Original:

*Interesting then, that this was the last film we would go out to see as a group, and often when we would see each other at work over the years, the film would be mentioned as a sort of inside joke.

**I always feel lyrics Pixies tracks could easily be longer but they always end just before they overstay their welcome.

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.