Various - 'Donnie Darko OST' (Sanctuary) Released 04/10/04

What do you place on a soundtrack to a film whose tagline is, “twenty eight days, six hours, forty two minutes, twelve seconds…that is when the world will end”? Well it’s bloody obvious isn’t it…you put on Eighties playboys Duran Duran, that’s what you do! Finally the soundtrack to 2001’s hit “indie” film, Donnie Darko, is released, so if you haven’t already attempted to compile a hotchpotch soundtrack through internet naughtiness or by borrowing albums from folk who actually like Eighties obscurities Oingo Boingo, then you’re in luck, it’s now out in physical CD form following licensing  wrangling that had so far prevented a release from happening.

If you haven’t already seen the film, well, you should, I mean I’m not forcing you, you could go on in your life perfectly happy in the knowledge that you haven’t, but you could also watch it and be inspired by the exploration into the nature of angst in the 1980s set against the backdrop of metaphysics. Or you could just be reminded of/introduced to the vibrant music the Eighties did actually hold. The soundtrack plays host to bands that have since split, since had singers hang themselves (accidentally or not), and since had singers frequent a certain city bar on a regular basis. Is it any wonder then that the album is one of the most poignant, wistful albums (soundtrack or not) you’re likely to hear this year? INXS and ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ start the morose ball a-rollin’ with haunting synthesized strings that stab you with emotion that remind us that Michael Hutchence wasn’t all that bad afterall. Tear For Fears go on to steal the show; if ‘Head Over Heals’ was released for the first time now Mansun fans would be screaming for blood, but as it is it seems TFF were well ahead of the game. Amongst the classical numbers that set the melancholic tone of the film come the rather pointless inclusions of music from Jim Cunningham’s infomercials. Other notables on the soundtrack are obviously Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ (one of the best songs ever written - simple as!) and Echo & the Bunnymen’s 'Killing Moon' which sums up the film in a few delightfully desolate minutes. Misery-me-do.

So you wait three years for one of the best movie soundtracks ever, and what happens, they don’t put the number one smash from the film on it! Mad world!