Search - Gil Evans :: Absolute Beginners

ABSOLUTE COOL !

Armando M. Mesa | Chandler, AZ | 09/07/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The 1986 film Absolute Beginners is sort of the British/European version of 1984's Streets of Fire(though Beginners was a film-musical fantasy epic about the 1958 British riots)...Both contained characters, themes and elements of rock, rebellion, and 50's noirish movie theatrics, boy meets girl or saves girl...Both films suffered miserable ticket sales and luke warm reviews(if you blinked, they were gone)... Both films contained hot soundtracks that probably did better in sales than their film counterparts. Yet, Beginners like Streets shares that underground mutual cult following status among soundtrack music collectors such as myself or anyone with an eclectic music collection and a taste for the nostalgic...



The soundtrack is a great mixture of late 50's pop-swing-jazz stylings with a few tracks containing some Latin influences (check out the bossa nova flavored Have You Evere Had It Blue by the Style Council).Clive Langer's Napoli and Working Week's Rodrigo Bay also have that Latin or Carribean island backdrop feel and atmospheric sound. The real highlights include a swingin' jazz torch tune by Sade (Killer Blow). Jonas' hip song Little Cat is a riveting and highly catchy 50's sock hop throwback that could have been saved for the Hairspray soundtrack a couple of years later(though Hairspray takes place in the early 60's). Actress Patsy Kensit (Lethal Weapon 2) does a whispy voiced jazz beat-nik number complete with bongos and background fingersnaps...This soundtrack will take you to a different era and time (late 50's, beginning 60's).



There is a lot of wonderful musical arrangements and toe tapping orchestrations. The David Bowie title track tune is probably the only modern contemporary sounding song. Absolute beginners is absolutely infectious and I love the strong pop-jazz influences...You can almost picture a party in someone's retro 50's-60's entertainment parlor or lounge or even a classy nightclub of that era...



This is a soundtrack I recommend for anyone who loves be-bop, jazz, swingin' pop infused tunes with some Latin elements, along with some big band orchestrations ! Also, make sure you can get a hold of the c.d. European import (difficult to find nowadays) which contains 18 tracks as opposed the the American cassette version I once owned which only had 10 tracks.In addition, the import cd/album cover displays the brilliantly colorful great art work/ and comic book-like painting you see here on Amazon.com. The 10 track cheap American version cover artwork had a photo of the two main characters sitting or riding on a moped."

FABULOUS, FUN, ECCLECTIC MX

A. Marks | Los Angeles, CA | 04/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm SO PSYCHED to find this CD available on import. It was one of my favorite cassettes -- so much so that tape is warped and unlistenable by now. I've never found it on CD in the US before. Even better this import contains trakcs not available on the American release, such as Bowie singing "Volare" which you can only hear in the background in the actual film.Some of the songs are pure pop, some are full-out movie musical production numbers. One thing is album isn't is boring.From Sade's track "Killer Blow" to the effortlessly cool "Have You Ever Had It Blue" this album really is quite special. The film was directed by Jullian Temple, a hot music video director back in the 80's, and while the film itself is flawed, Temple's music background comes raging through. FAB ALBUM!"