updateghost's Full Review: Garden State by Original Soundtrack
One of the scary things about buying a soundtrack is the small chance of it being good. I noted in my Office Space soundtrackreview that many songs can sound very good when played during a movie, but tend to collapse when played on their own. Thus, it is the case that buying a soundtrack is a very risky thing. However, there are very rare occasions where a soundtrack will actually sound good with or without the film it was... soundtracked... in. This, fortunately, is the happening with the Garden State soundtrack.
What is so good about it? I would have to say its the special goodness that is contained in almost every song on the album (save one). There are very few songs on this record that are upbeat in any way (only one, come to think of it), and the relaxation associated with all the rest of the songs brings happiness. The movie itself, "Garden State", actually does pride itself on a good soundtrack. Music is played and focused on at one point in the movie, and if you opened Rolling Stone any time around the soundtrack's release, you were bound to find a pro-Garden-State-soundtrack advertisement. That is a very, very good thing. Then, when a semi-musically-trustworthy friend of yours buys the soundtrack and says its really good, that good thing becomes an even better thing. So... yeah... I bought the soundtrack.
Lets get the bad stuff out of the way, first. I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You is a 5-minute, 18-second song that is long in too many ways. First off, the title is too long, and it sucks. He could have just titled the song, "I'll never get over you", "Getting Over You Won't Happen", but nooooo, he had to make it "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You". That's NINE words, people. NINE. Count it. One two three four five six seven eight nine. And if you take out the shortened words (I forgot what they're called, because I haven't taken third grade English in a long time), it becomes ELEVEN words, "I Just Do Not Think I Will Ever Get Over You". You see that? ELEVEN. Far too many. So yes, the title is just too damn long. And then we get into the song. This song sucks. It doesn't just suck, it blows, too. And when a song sucks and blows at the same time, you know its bad. All this "Colin Hay" guy does is sing in his raspy little voice, the same exact tune, the ENTIRE song. That sucks. And it blows. And this song sucks and blows. Not only does he sing the same thing; the same thing that he sings is just plain awful. So it's a bad tune, with a bad title, played badly over and over again. This song sucks.
And it blows.
Okay, all of the bad stuff is out of the way. Now we get on to the mediocre stuff. Okay, there isn't much of that. So, now we get on to the stuff that is just barely good. One of those songs is the album closer, Winding Road. Good song, but just barely. It just has enough goodness to be good. One less ounce of goodness, and it would good in a mediocre sort of the way. Fortunately, "Bonnie Sonneville" (whose name is too long) sings with enough churchy passion to make it good, and the tune isn't half-bad itself, either. It's good as a closer, but the song itself isn't as spectacular as I'd like it to be. Pfft. Album closers. They're never as spectacular as you'd like them to be.
Thievery Corporation (a somewhat clever title), puts together a neat little jam as the album starts to move away from its less impressive center, and its called "Lebanese Blonde". Intersting title, and the song sounds like a song called... "Lebanese Blonde"... it takes a little for vocals to come into the song, but they don't really matter, because the song it primarily focused on its funny little beat, and having a nice little special goodness to it. A lot of it sounds like the lovably cheesy soundtrack the N64 "Goldeneye" game, and I guess that adds to its likability (I know that's not a word, but it is now, because I'm God, and God creates the words, so HA, there's nothing you can do about it!).
Yeah, let's get on to the more spectacular stuff. I've always had a semi-appreciation for Simon & Garfunkel, and they make that a real, real, real appreciation (and three times real means you know its real) on The Only Living Boy in New York, which has a nice opening part, but when those drums come in, and that chorus starts, wow, it really does become a 4.5 out of 5 star song, and 4.5 out of 5 stars is pretty damn good. Another one of those types of 4.5 out of 5 star songs is Coldplay's "Don't Panic", a song I've heard a billion times before since I own the increasingly likable debut album "Parachutes" from Coldplay, but that song doesn't lose any goodness being on this soundtrack, baby. It would be a solid five stars if it wasn't a mere two minutes and sixteen seconds long, and a few of the song's structures were fixed, but hey, life can't be perfect, can it?
Okay. Now we're at the reeeeeeeal spectacular stuff. You ever see Kill Bill, Vol. 2? You now when Bill says, "I was a reeeeeeeeeeeal bad daddy", in the coolest expletive-deleted-ing way possible? That's the way I just said reeeeeeeal. This stuff is spectacular. Reeeeeeally spectacular. Ever listen to the Shins? Buy this soundtrack, and a purchase of one of their albums is damn near inevitable (if you can find one of the expletive-deleted-ing things). My, my, MY are they good, having two very solid songs on here. New Slang, the one that is focused on and shortly discussed in the actual movie, doesn't change your life like Natalie Portman claims, but this song reeeeeeeally grows on you. You hear it once, and you think, "Eh, that was pretty good," kinda like Zach Braff in Garden State. Then you hear it again, and you take the "eh" out of your opinion. Five listens later, and its "HOLY CRAP THAT IS GOOD SONG, NO ITS A GREAT SONG, AND IT NEARLY CHANGED MY LIFE. BUT JUST NEARLY. NOT REEEEEEEALLY." Caring is Creepy, the other Shins song... it's one of those you-can't-get-it-out-of-your-head-ers. The Shins, whose first impression is a relaxation/special goodness band, show that they know how to jam a bit here, not really jamming, but showing that they definitely have the ability, in the case that they would actually jam. The song has this cool, neat, synth thing going on, and it plays throughout almost the entire song, and the drums in this song; my are they amazing. They nearly make the song. So does the part with the guitars. Neat, neat, NEAT stuff. N-e-a-t. Neat.
Okay... here we go... the best song on the album. Hands down. Have you ever seen Garden State, the movie? Good, I hope not, because if you haven't, you're going to after you read all of this typing. The Garden State teaser trailer is, hands down (I already said that, didn't I?), the best trailer ever made. And this isn't just me thinking that, this is love-sick males everywhere. Yes, I have finally come out of the love-sick closet. I am love sick. I'm a very happy person, but oh, how I do desperately miss the comforting feeling of being in love. I haven't been in love for almost a year, you hear that? A FREAKING YEAR! Actually, I've never been in love. Well, maybe I have. Probably not. Either way, I haven't been close for a year. Anyway, this is the most amazing trailer ever. I saw it several months ago, and was very hypnotized by it. I went home. I went to http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/garden_state/ (where you're about to go). I watched the teaser trailer. Again. And again and again and again and again! And even more times after that! And I'm not the only person who has done this either. There are thousands. Thousands. And you're going to do it. Now. It's the best trailer ever. And after you see that teaser trailer, you're going to say, "Wow, I MUST see Garden State!" And you will go see it. Or wait for it on DVD. Either way, it will have been because of me. So why is that trailer so good? The song. Oh lord, the song! It was written by God Himself, surely! It is that good. It is why I bought this soundtrack. And it is very good on this album. Its a very relaxing, divinely intervening song. I love it. Frou Frou's voice is... angelic. It's awesome. Kick-boo-tay. The best voice ever. My dad heard her voice and said, "I like her voice." He never says that. Now you know its good.
This album... reeks... of goodness. Zero 7's In The Waiting Line is a sweet, relaxed little song that sings about... I don't know. I don't care. But its good. Hell, this CD is good. It is B+ soundtrack material. And B+ soundtrack material is good, good stuff.
Rating: B+ (duh)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/garden_state/ (click on the teaser trailer)
Contains incredible music from the likes of Coldplay, The Shins, Zero 7, Remy Zero, Frou Frou, Bonnie Somerville, Colin Hay, Simon & Garfunkel and muc...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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