Various Artists - Juno Soundtrack (Rhino)
4/5
By: Michael Cragg
Now, I've never compiled a soundtrack for a film, hell, I've never directed a film, but I'm guessing it helps if your lead actress has good taste in music. Reports have it that when it came time for director Jason Reitman to compile a soundtrack for his film Juno, he turned to Bafta-nominated newcomer Ellen Page for advice. Asked what she thought her character would listen to she immediately suggested New York anti-folk heroes The Moldy Peaches. Impressed by what he heard, Reitman contacted singer Kimya Dawson who subsequently posted over a box full of songs. In the end, Dawson appears on eight of the nineteen tracks, both as a solo artist and with The Moldy Peaches and her other band Antsy Pants.
Juno, the tale of a sixteen year old girl who falls pregnant after one night with her best friend and on/off boyfriend Bleeker, has been a surprise smash in America, taking over $70 million at the box office. Its soundtrack meanwhile has nestled firmly in the Billboard top 10, which is all the more surprising given the fact that it features such an eclectic- and relatively unheard of -mix of artists both old and new. Reitman uses the songs as another way of telling the narrative of the story with each song punctuating a particular point in the film and yet, and this is perhaps the marker for a good soundtrack, the album also works brilliantly when shorn of its context.
Like the film, the album opens with Barry Louis Polisar's eerily jovial 'All I Want Is You', a strangely unsettling song that may have something to do with Polisar's history of making music for children (one of his previous albums goes by the name Stanley Stole My Shoelace and Rubbed it in His Armpit and Other Songs My Parents Won't Let Me Sing). From this somewhat inconspicuous start the album settles into a perfect mix of fey indie pop (Belle & Sebastian's 'Piazza, New York Catcher' and 'Expectations'), old favourites such as The Kinks, Buddy Holly and Mott The Hoople right through to the best of the American alternative genre. Sonic Youth's sombre tribute to The Carpenters, 'Superstar', is included as is the heart melting 'Sea Of Love' by Cat Power. Cleverly, as if to bridge the gap between the old and the new, Reitman includes 'I'm Sticking With You' by The Velevet Underground, a song featuring Mo Tucker's child like vocals - an early influence on Kimya Dawson perhaps?
But it's Dawson who holds the album together with her lo-fi songs, each one a beguiling mixture of naïvity and nous. 'Loose Lips', for example, skips between the surreal and the political without missing a beat, whilst the line "Call me up before you're dead/ We can make some plans instead/ Send me an IM, I'll be your friend" is strangely touching. 'So Nice So Smart' and 'Tire Swing' are beautiful break up songs that sound like they were recorded in someone's garage, but it's this sense of honesty and DIY ethos that allows for the albums- and the films- best moment. 'Anyone Else But You' taken from The Moldy Peaches' 2001 debut album (and also included here in its original form) is covered by Juno and Bleeker as a kind of summary of their relationship. It's a sweet version of a sweet song and the perfect way to end a brilliant album; " I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else...but you".
Watch the trailer to 'Juno' HERE.
Artists in this article: Various Artists
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