May '13 Listens

[Pearl@32]

OK, just saw another TV teaser for Great Gatsby with Fergie's (et al.) song,"A Little Party Never Killed Nobody (All we Got)"...had to check out iTunes to see who it was. That was hot.

Knew the Jay-Z track ("100$ Bill"), cool.

"Back to Black," a remake of Amy Winehouse's, which has been redone a couple times over on "The Voice" lately, but not as interesting as André 3000 & Beyonce's version. I love Outkast (André & Big Boi) because they're not just rappers, they can also sang. (I always got the impression that rappers couldn't sing well, but that turns out to be only half-true I think.) And then Beyonce just comes in and billows her silky voice over the notes. She is too amazing.

I take a gander at the full soundtrack, seeing if there are remakes or originals ~ looks to be a mix ~ as well as extremely strong female singers like Lana Del Rey, Sia and the beautifully stratospheric Florence Welch. The cool Roxy Music "Love is the Drug" makes an appearance and gets the 20s makeover, as does "Crazy in Love" (!).

But I noticed U2's "Love is Blindness" right away, as it comes from Achtung Baby, one of my favorite albums EVER, and it is by Jack White. Oh boy, really? I'm not 15 seconds into the quick play that I have to stop and start this thread and say that Jack White and Baz Luhrmann are freaking geniuses of voice and music.

I'm still not all that excited to see Gatsby simply because I'm not that interested in the story ~ I can't believe Peter Travers of Rolling Stone actually put it along with Grownups 2 as one of the five movies not to see this summer! Maybe Luhrmann doesn't know when to stop or say, "Enough!" It looks like Moulin Rouge! on E or crack. Maybe Gatsby is supposed to look LIKE excess because he is about excess and extravagance. I can't remember reading the book but probably did.

What I am impressed with is Luhrmann's uncanny ability to score his films with music that is nostalgic and still make it new and poignant: "Love is in the Air" as used in Strictly Ballroom, "Young Hearts (Run Free)" in Romeo + Juliet, "Your Song" as sung by Ewan MacGregor and "Roxanne" turned into a tango in Moulin Rouge!

Hope it fares better than on Rotten Tomatoes.