This is not what I once thought it was; The Singles Soundtrack*.
I remember taking a hot date to see the film Singles when it came out in 1992, about a year out from the release of Nevermind grunge had shrugged off all competition and stood, blinking at the summit of the white rock world, feeling a bit miserable about it all.
I was an enthusiastic acolyte, I still love rocking a padded plaid shirt to this very day. It was heavy music rooted in a well of punk loathing and left-wing social politics, yet still geeking out on how awesome Sabbath were over a joint in a parking lot**. I loved the way it became an extinction-level event for poseurs and popstars in the rock firmament – despite very hypocritically loving most of them too. This was exciting. This was Darwinism down-tuned.
By 1992 though when Singles was released all manner of bandwagon jumpers and silly sausages were tainting its purity and I thought the film was part of that. I enjoyed the film, which was basically a Seattle-flavoured romcom^ with a totally topical soundtrack; actually watching it with my daughter a few times in the last years I rate it a lot more now than I did then.
What fascinates me now is that the film had been in production for a long time before grunge broke, originally conceived by Cameron Crowe as a paean to his adopted hometown’s underground music scene, galvanized, as so much was, by Andrew Wood’s death. Far from being a late cash-in, the studio later wanted to rename it, horrifically, ‘Come As You Are’, this was forged in the heat and variety of that scene^^.
That Wood’s band Mother Love Bone contribute their best track to The Singles Soundtrack is fitting. Sounding in this context astonishingly polished, the 8-minute long ‘Chloe Dancer/Crown Of Thorns’ sounds like nothing else here, a demonstrable product of 70’s rock with tempo changes and keys that sound like the Police. Wood sells every line and you can hear so many of Pearl Jam’s later musical tropes within it^* but in a slightly rockier setting. Magnificent.
Having just dissed them, both Pearl Jam cuts here, made while/before they were recording Ten, are brilliant. ‘Breath’ is quite a straight-forward mid-paced track with the best guitar solo I’ve heard in years on it, from Mike McCready I assume. ‘State Of Love And Trust’ is raw and energised, showing the band at their very best as Vedder sells every syllable of it, embodying the struggle to stay faithful.
Alice In Chains open proceedings with the scouring blast of ‘Would?’, a play on Andrew’s name. That slithering sinuous bass and eerie vocal harmonies, the things I like best about AIC are in absolute full affect from the off. Its message of being non-judgmental resonates hard. It is perfect.
I don’t want to sound repetitive here but Chris Cornell’s ‘Seasons’ is yet another perfect cut. Its Zeppelin influenced acoustica is the perfect foil for that voice and it is by far the best solo thing he cut. Back in his day job, Soundgarden give us ‘Birth Ritual’, a pounding rocker with a neatly complex rhythm that we see performed in the film, Kim Thayil gives a great solo but Cornell sings in a weirdly nasal fashion that doesn’t cut it for me.
Stealing over from Minneapolis the newly ex-Replacement Paul Westerberg gets two cuts on The Singles Soundtrack. His first is the brilliantly bouncy pop of ‘Dyslexic Heart’ which is one of a very rare group of tracks that always make me smile from the very first bar. The energised radio rock of ‘Waiting For Somebody’ is really good too, but is very much a distant second here.
Again I have to shower my love all over the Lovemongers live cover of ‘Battle Of Evermore’ which I sometimes like better than the original as its faster. Not bad for a band put together by the director’s wife, her sister and a couple of friends.
In a deliberate link back to Seattle’s heritage The Singles Soundtrack includes Jimi Hendrix ‘May This Be Love’ to good affect. Placing Screaming Trees ‘Nearly Lost You’ after it is good sequencing and what’s not to love about the powerhouse drumming of Barrett Martin and the flickering psych guitar flourishes.
Mudhoney get to snark at us on ‘Overblown’, railing against the popularity of Seattle’s music scene before that was even a thing. Then we get a remarkable kiss off with Smashing Pumpkins ‘Drown’, all 8:17 of it which is basically the song and then a psychedelically noisy coda of almost equal length. This si the only place to get this full length version as it has been mysteriously struck off all streaming.
I have banged on long enough here but I think The Singles Soundtrack merits it. Far from the cynical cash-in I once thought it was it is in fact an early documentation of a vibrant and creative heavy scene, plus a few geographical strays. I like that there is no trace of the big ‘N’ hereabouts, it makes a point about the strength of the scene even without their titanic presence.
The album is just excellent, a great source of all manner of rare tracks from the progenitors of the scene and a very good primer for any of the bands featured. I wish it had included Citizen Dick’s ‘Touch Me I’m Dick’, but hey you can’t have everything in life.
Buy this immediately. I command it.
For purely mercenary (mercantile?) reasons I wish I’d bought The Singles Soundtrack back then, rather than buying the 25th anniversary edition, which reached me the day after Chris Cornell died.
This version came with a CD and download of 18 other tracks, 6 of which are Chris Cornell solo tracks which sounded unbearably poignant in the wake of his death.
Spend your money on The Singles Soundtrack.
1298 Down.
PS: that hot date mentioned above? I married her.
*I appreciate that it is officially Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack but, come on!
**for all metal’s umbrage at grunge’s existence later, those bands were the only ones talking about Black Sabbath back in the early 90’s. They honed in on their power and moral outrage, then punkified it. Self-loathing not sex was the fuel this guttering flame fed on.
^romcoms being a genre that I really really like, more than most chaps I suspect.
^^plus a couple of bonus bites from Minneapolis and one from Chicago.
^*full disclosure: despite seeing Pearl Jam on their first UK tour and high-fiving the singer I’m not a big fan, a lot of their stuff bores me.
You know there are posts of yours that merely remind me of how much I love you and there’s a post like this that makes me want to move next door to you so we can compare flannel shirts and blast what is, frankly, one of the best soundtracks out there as loudly as possible.
Even to this day I still shrug off the film but this collection of, plainly speaking, fucking amazing songs by bands at their peak, cannot be shrugged off and has rarely been out of rotation for me since I picked it up in the blur of excitement when discovering the ‘Seattle sound’ for myself.
I love the fact that Mudhoney convinced Crowe to get em on the soundtrack, spent a fraction of the money given to record the song on production and used the rest as a deposit on a house. The sense of community around this record – Cornell writing songs based on the joke titles added to the Poncier tape prop by Jeff Ament- makes it all the more delicious.
Sorry for the tardy reply Tony, no rudeness intended. I’ve made up the spare room and covered the walls in Charles Peterson photographs.
I have just bought myself the Everybody Loves Our Town book as a pre-Crimbo treat for myself too.
Oh Bridget indeed. I saw this with a group of friends when it came out, one of our party found it really bleak – no-one’s happy in life, love, jobs, no-one can really connect. Err, sounds like the perfect grunge subject matter! The album is good, but, the Heart ladies aside (Heart is not a dirty word here, surely?), where are the grunge grrrls? Hole, L7, Babes in Toyland, 7 Year Bitch, surely one could have made the soundtrack?? And justice for Tad!! Surely the essence of grunge boiled down to its greasy, wiry, scuzzy purity, he/they make the movie but not the soundtrack. For shame! Have you covered 8 Way Santa in these hallowed pages?
The soundtrack doesn’t appeal but the movie sounds OK.
The movie doesn’t appeal but the soundtrack sounds really good.
Hiya, I like a good romcom. But this soundtrack is really excellent stuff.