STRANGE DAYS - MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE

I saw this movie in the theaters and not only did I love the film, I was intrigued by the music in the soundtrack. Especially the Deep Forest tracks. As a fan of Deep Forest, finding a film soundtrack with unreleased tracks was really exciting. I tend to get extremely excited about groups when I first discover them and Deep Forest was no exception. Both of their cuts are interesting and sound similar to music they were producing at the time. The Peter Gabriel track is quite surprising and fascinating as they'd never recorded with an artist of his caliber before.

I was also excited about the Lords of Acid track even though it was released on their 'Voodoo U' CD. Skunk Anansie is a band I knew nothing about before seeing the film. They perform during the last scene of the movie and I was quite impressed by the look of the band and the intensity of the lead singer. I quite like both tracks. I later downloaded more songs from them to see if I'd be interested in picking up their disc, but I found their other material not nearly as rock intensive and somewhat lackluster.

The Jeriko One track sounds much better in the context of the movie than as a stand alone track. It's rather boring by itself. As for the Juliette Lewis tracks... One appears on the soundtrack and the other shows up on the single for 'While The Earth Sleeps'. Both songs were written by PJ Harvey who I've been interested in for some time. However, neither of these songs is particularly inspiring as performed by Lewis. I find them difficult to listen to.

Strange Fruit is another group appearing on the disc I'm interested in hearing more from. They also appear in the film. Another interesting performance. Prong contributes an interesting piece and the Tricky song is one of my favorites by him. Of the remaining tracks, only the Lori Carson song causes a reaction. I find the piece moving in a cinematic sense. Its position in the film is ideal and as a stand alone track, it's quite effective.

Overall, 'Strange Days' isn't the greatest soundtrack... But the exclusive content makes it essential for any number of collections. My final words: SPECIFICALLY ESSENTIAL.

STRANGE DAYS - MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE
01. Skunk Anansie - Selling Jesus
02. Lords Of Acid - The Real Thing
03. Tricky - Overcome
04. Deep Forest - Coral Lounge
05. Strange Fruit - No White Clouds
06. Juliette Lewis - Hardly Wait
07. Me Phi Me/Jeriko One - Herewecome
08. Skunk Anansie - Feed
09. Prong Featuring Ray Manzarek - Strange Days
10. Satchel - Walk In Freedom
11. Kate Gibson - Dance Me To The End Of Love
12. Lori Carson & Graeme Revell - Fell In The Light
13. Peter Gabriel And Deep Forest - While The Earth Sleeps