Best soundtrack ever

[Consigliere5]

From amazon.com:

The "Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack," released in 1992, is a special album, and perfectly captures a cool time in rock and roll history. Singles was a somewhat hyped-up movie that was a tad lacking in my opinion, but this less-hyped CD lived up to the promise and talent of the Seattle rock and roll scene. Furthermore, the artists who contributed to this album had a real connection with each other, feeding off one another with a sense of purpose, community and committment to make the best music possible. Truthfully, this is one of the best rock and roll soundtracks I've ever heard.

Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Chris Cornell, as well as Cornell's raucous band, Soundgarden, all sound amazingly seasoned and mature on "Singles," not anything like new kids on the big-rock scene back in the early 1990s. These guys obviously spent years before this album honing their skills and craft, experiencing life in order to give us great music. This album broke some bands, but it also re-established the talent of the heavyweights like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, all of whom roamed the earth touring at the time, churning out music and making a great name for themselves with the ease of a fluid guitar chord.

Chris Cornell's beautiful "Seasons" is incomparable, a breathtakingly reflective song that's nearly foreboding with its dim message of life and time moving on while one possibly gets left behind. "Seasons" is best absorbed and enjoyed after several listens, but many of these songs are instantly hummable. The "Singles" soundtrack offers a bit of everything: heavier "grunge" rock ("Birth Ritual," "Overblown); pop gems by Paul Westerberg ("Dyslexic Heart," "Waiting For Somebody"); a glam-rock ballad ("Chloe Dancer"); a live song ("Battle of Evermore"); old stuff by Jimmy Hendrix ("May This be Love"); and some radio-ready hits ("Nearly Lost You," "Would"). There are also some oddities and unexpected artists thrown in, perhaps to lighten the heavy grunge load that many expected at the time. Overall, the beauty of this soundtrack is in its unexpected diversity.

Smashing Pumpkins were outsiders to this project, a Chicago band that fit in like a new Hendrix perm. Many people were introduced to the Pumpkins via this soundtrack (like me), and the lucky Pumpkins did not disappoint, offering the spaced-out "Drown," a lulling, breezy track that turns deadly by the end, and ranks as one of the band's best offerings ever. For me, this was the first time I realized that music could be dreamily hypnotic, spaced-out to the max. "Drown" eerily closes the CD on a bleak and blaring note, a myriad of squealing guitars mixed with heavy base and jazzy drumming by Jimmy Chamberlain. It's the type of song that, if played until the end, would scare people out of bars by closing time. "Drown" offers no real hope, no sense of happiness to be alive or thankfulness for being included on a big-named soundtrack, yet in its raging sadness, the song actually reaffirms the dedication, heart and true feelings that all these contributing artists were pushing at the time.

Strangely, if you run down the list of artists and their songs featured on this classic album, you notice two things: either the band's shelf life has completely run its course commercially or, even sadder, the bands are completely defunct. The talented, revered and deceased Andy Wood summed it up perfectly in his beautiful soother-turned-rocker "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns:" "You ever heard the story, of missed and faded glory?" Though its time has well passed, the "Singles" soundtrack remains a brooding musical gem from the Pacific Northwest.

[Spooky]

Chris Cornell

Dude can wail! I've bumped into him, literally bumped into him while walking in downtown Seattle a dozen or so years ago, and said hi and shook his hand and such. Seems like a cool guy.

There are a lot of great songs on that album, but Pearl Jam's Breath is my fav.

Pearl Jam - Breath

[Spooky]

A close second
Pearl Jam - state of love and trust

and coming in third
Chris Cornell - "Seasons"

[Consigliere5]

I've been listening to it today because it sounds very autumnal to me... I like too many of the songs to pick a favorite...

[Spooky]

Being from the Seattle these song play over and over and over on the local rock and alternative rock station like they are new songs and now some are being played on the classic rock station. I've probably heard every song a thousand times. Mostly because the CD was stuck in my trucks CD player for 3 years back in the day. LOL

[Pearl@32]

When I clicked on this thread, I was wondering what was the "best soundtrack ever!" and there wasn't even a LIST! I'm impressed C5! I thought we were gonna have to throw down! Which we can still do!

I recently saw this movie and wasn't really impressed and y'all KNOW I'm a huge Cameron Crowe fan. For the dedication to the Seattle music scene, I give Singles props. OOTH, Crowe is a master when it comes to scoring his films with music and it's because he's such a fan of music himself. The man can make a song into a moment of truth ("In Your Eyes" in Say Anything and "Tiny Dancer" in Almost Famous). Unfortunately Singles made such a non-existent impression that I can't tell you if there was a such a moment in the film.

I know about half the songs by name on the Singles soundtrack. I chalk it up to not being that much into grunge.

I am convinced that "Would?" is one of THE best grunge songs ever recorded. (If paired in battle with the equally vital "Man in the Box," I would have a hard time deciding my favorite....."Would" would probably win out though....)

It was a little weird that Chicago-based Smashing Pumpkins was included on the soundtrack, but it also showed Seattle's grunge influence was not singled out to Seattle. I am a total closet Smashing Pumpkins fan and I am not ashamed to admit that when the Watchmen trailer came out I downloaded "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning" and listened to it incessantly. I am also a huge fan of the hits from Mellon Collie and "Ava Adore."

(Spooky: cool that you ran into Cornell!)

[Consigliere5]

i'm still a huge fan of the more dreamy pumpkins cds like siamese dream and Pisces Iscariot... and i like adore, machina, mellon collie plenty... but i've never listened to much that came after that...

yes, Would? is one of the greats!

and i also can't recall a single singular musical moment from the movie Singles...