CD Odyssey Disc 30: Jackie Brown Soundtrack

A second disc review in the same day? What is this madness?

Hey - relax, crew - I'm catching up.

Disc 30 is...Jackie Brown Soundtrack
Artist: Various

Year of Release: 1997

How I Came To Know It: Another soundtrack - another obvious story about how I saw the movie and liked the music.

How It Stacks Up: Out of 23 soundtracks, I'd put Jackie Brown somewhere in the middle. It has some kick ass tracks, but also a couple of duds.

Rating: 3 stars.

Quentin Tarantino is a great film maker, who mostly suffers from the fact that he knows it and makes no bones about it.

He also picks incredible music for his films. I've also got Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction soundtracks, and they are probably even better. He just seems to have a knack for finding great songs most of us have forgotten.

Jackie Brown is a crime caper movie starring a smokin' hot Pam Grier as a stewardess who gets mixed up in drug dealing. The film also revitalized Robert Forster's career (he plays a bail-bondsman/love interest). If you haven't seen it, then go rent it, monkey!

The soundtrack has a great urban seventies sound that matches the mood Tarantino creates in the film.

I particularly like that the music is part of the story - not just background. Grier's character is a big fan of the Delfonics, and she plays "Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?" for Forster. It's a key scene as they begin to bond as a team, and recognize a mutual attraction. Also, the song is really cool.

Other standouts are Bill Withers singing a great jealousy song (Who Is He And What Is He To You?) and a song about trying to get out of the ghetto called "Across 110 Street" which is a reference to where on Manhattan that Harlem begins (basically near the north end of Central Park).

The worst part of the album are a couple of weird instrumental numbers that drone on at the closing of the disc. It needs a better wrap up, and instead it kind of has a half-conscious fade out.

I always have a strange experience with this album when I hear "Midnight Confessions" by the Grass Roots. For some reason it reminds me of Blue Oyster Cult when they are doing their lighter stuff. This in turn always reminds me of how when I was 6 or 7 I used to get BOC singer Eric Bloom confused with ELO singer Jeff Lynne (they have the same hair and penchant for aviator sunglasses).

This little trip down memory lane happens pretty much every time I hear Midnight Confessions. Isn't music great for recalling a memory. Yeehaw!

Anyway - I've got a football pool to prepare for, so I'll sign off. Go Dolphins!

Best tracks: Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time, Across 110 Street, Midnight Confessions, Who Is He (And What Is He To You?)