Disc 302 is...Natural Born Killers Soundtrack
Artist: Various
Year of Release: 1994
What’s Up With The Cover?: It is a picture from the movie - with Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis. I don't know what it is about Juliette Lewis, but she always looks dirty to me. And I don't mean in the good way - like "she's so dirrrty!". I mean she looks like she needs a shower. She has a perennial unwashed, trashy look about her. I don't like it, and I don't like her, but I'll leave it at that, because I need to save the bulk of this review's vitriol for the true villain of this piece - Oliver Stone.
How I Came To Know It: This is one of Sheila's records. She has a soft spot for it because it introduced her to a lot of different bands. I have no such soft spot.
How It Stacks Up: We have a total of 23 soundtracks. Of the twenty three, I dub this one the absolute worst - below even such cellar dwellars as "Moulin Rouge" and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat".
Rating: 0 stars or in CD Odyssey parlance - two dogs.
At the outset, let me point out that I absolutely despise Oliver Stone. I think he is a two bit hack who consistently takes an obvious theme and then proceeds to beat his audience in the head with it, assuming we are all as stupid as he is.
Along the way Oliver Stone has managed to ruin perfectly good movies about one of my favourite sports (football in Any Given Sunday), one of my favourite historical figures (Alexander the Great in Alexander) and generally ruined his legacy from Platoon with follow-ups like Born On The Fourth of July and Heaven and Earth.
He has not made a good movie since 1988's Talk Radio, and of the abominations he's made since then, I put Natural Born Killers among the worst. Here we have all of Oliver Stone's weaknesses mixed together into a giant brew of lame stew.
We have an obvious theme beaten to death (in this case, that our society perpetuates violence by its media fascination); we have editing decisions designed to be edgy that are so poorly delivered they serve only to make the action impossible to follow; and we have Stone's incessant preachy voice, nattering on like a guy two rows behind you in the theatre who will not shut up despite consistent "ssshh!'s" from the seats around him.
But enough about Oliver Stone and how much I dislike his film making, let's talk about this album. For starters, I give its producer, Trent Reznor, full credit. Reznor is a gifted producer and has selected a number of good songs for the soundtrack. Stone manages to get his own name on the album as "Soundtrack Album Director" so I will grudgingly allow he would have had a roll in picking songs as well.
What then happens is truly wrong, as Stone manages to incorporate lame dialogue from his bad movie into almost every song - with characters talking (and often shouting) over large parts of the song - usually at the beginning or end, but often right in the middle.
Not content with ruining two plus hours of my life when I watched this film, Stone manages to remind me of it while he runs roughshod over such incredible artists as Leonard Cohen, L7, Patty Smith and the Cowboy Junkies. I found myself actually shouting 'shut up' at the character dialogue during the Cowboy Junkies "Sweet Jane".
To see how this should be done, listen to any Tarantino soundtrack, where character dialogue are separate tracks on the CD. Want to listen to scenes from the movie? Go ahead. But Tarantino respects the music he's chosen enough to let you hear it uninterrupted by that dialogue if that's what you want.
In the case of Leonard Cohen, Stone goes one step further, cutting both "Waiting For the Miracle" and "The Future" to roughly half their length. Basically, this album decides to take some of the strongest work of one of the greatest poet/songwriters of all time and edit it for length.
Not content yet with what could have been a 1 star album, the record continues by committing every major crime the CD Odyssey has previously named. More than 14 tracks? You bet - this album is a bloated twenty-seven tracks. Half of them would be good, if it weren't for Stone's hackneyed dialogue interrupting them (have I mentioned that?).
How about having the tracks easy to read on the back? Nope - in fact the tracks are not even listed on the back. You have to fold out the CD booklet to even look up what you're listening to. When you do you'll note that - yes - he has failed to capitalize every single song title. Really, Oliver - Patsy Cline didn't punctuate "Back In Baby's Arms"? Somehow I doubt that.
Best tracks: There are a few good tracks. If you'd like to hear them properly, I would recommend some fine albums, including L7's "Smell The Magic, Leonard Cohen's "The Future" and Cowboy Junkies' "The Trinity Sessions".
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