You can always rely on Danny Boyle's movies to have decent music and The Beach doesn't disappoint even if it's unlikely to connect as extensively as the Trainspotting soundtrack. Musical co-ordinator Pete Tong has pulled out all the stops to secure exclusive tracks from major artists, and no less than seven of the numbers here have never been released before, while those that have--including UNKLE's desolate Lonely Soul with Richard Ashcroft, Barry Adamson's paranoiac Vietnam dream sequence Richard, It's Business As Usual and Moby's beats lullaby "Porcelain" from Play--are of the highest class. The new material doesn't disappoint either. Leftfield open up the album with some whiplash drums, Underworld make their customary contribution playing down frantic beats in favour of the jogging mantra "8 Ball", All Saints enjoy their best-ever moment parading along the sunkissed "Pure Shores" with William Orbit, and Sugar Ray rerecord Brian Eno and John Cale's gossamer pop number Spinning Away. Elsewhere New Order provide their first new music since the release of Republic with "Brutal", a trademark number with production from Rollo who returns with Faithless on the bubbling, mesmeric standout "Woozy". Orbital close the package with their pumped up interpretation of the Angelo Badalamenti score complete with snippets of Leonardo DiCaprio's dialogue. Life's The Beach, then you die. --Mike Pattenden
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Classic Tracks From Some Great Bands! This is a great album, containing some mesmerising tracks from the likes of Leftfield, Faithless and UNKLE. Some other reviews mention that the Blur track spoils the album, although not to the standard of the likes of UNKLE, Blur are not a bad choice at all! The highlight of the album has got to be both Woozy (Faithless) and Beached (Orbital & Badalamenti) but all the tracks have a chilled tropical feel to them representing the hidden meanings in the film well (check 'Richard, its business as usual'... more info
A Combination Of Great New Songs! Granted, the movie was fairly exciting, but this score made me run to the store! Mostly a combination of fairly unknown singers/songwriters, except for 'Moby' ("Porcelain" is incredible), 'All Saints' ("Pure Shores" dominated the airwaves)and 'Sugar Ray', the sound is hard-edged, electronic bohemia. The digital percussion reigns high here and the bass tracks pull every song together. A combination of luxury and danger fills the mood of this collection. "Richard, It's Business As Usual" is a truly annoying... more info
I am amazed at the songs on this cd! There isn't one song on this cd that i don't like. Most of them are soft, and easy to listen to, kind of relaxing even. Every song has a good beat and really sticks in my head the whole day!
Superb soundtrack. I first saw the film a few months ago and absolutely loved it so I thought I'd give the soundtrack a listen. I was stunned by the sheer quality of the artists on the cd. My favourite track on the album is easily Lonely Soul by Unkle featuring Richard Ashcroft. Every song is brilliant, with the exception of Pure Shores which is good but has been played to death over the radio. Standout tracks are Lonely Souls, 8 Ball, Porcelain, Woozy, Beached and Snake Blood. Notice how I've mentioned most of the songs on... more info
