Welcome to my Soundtrack Review! or Musical Revue, depending on your perspective. Each week I'll take an album from a film that deserves some greater recognition. Maybe the album needs more play in your stereo, maybe you need to watch the film again to notice how the music enhanced the scene. The point is for you to listen with your eyes a little more. Please comment on where the songs from the Soundtracks can be found,&what they mean to you. Cameras ready? Let's ROCK!

Welcome to Adventureland! This fan favourite film from 2009 is a beautiful snapshot of love, youth&the 80's. The 80's as a theme is a difficult one to maintain without making it characterture-ish. How do you do it right? With the right music!

The movie itself has a total of 41 tracks, including such legends as Judas Priest, The Replacements, Velvet Underground & Lou Reed, Big Star, Bowie, INXS, The Cure & The Rolling Stones (a full list can be found here). Thankfully since Greg Mottola wrote & directed this thing we have one person to blame for giving us such good vibrations. Greg clearly has a reverance for his time in the 80's, & his skill at synthesizing the emotional highs with the right music is without question. I struggled not to start head banging when I saw Eisenberg Breaking the Law.

Before I get to the album itself, I want to invite you to a nightmare I had about how this film's soundtrack may have ended up. Can you picture the grey suited, slush-for-brains movie exec. on this movie? Got it? Good.

"Greeee-g. Can I call you Greg? You know what's funny? Of course you do! You're the guy from Superbad! I'm not here to tell you what to do. But you know what I am here to do? Touch each of those 13-21 year olds who see this film. How are we gonna do that? Rickrolling! It's 80's. It's now. It's brilliant. Now I know what you're thinking. & I am right there with you. I mean c'mon... We're no strangers to luuurrve!"

Ok then, back on track. The album could only fit so much goodness so we get only 14 songs. An interesting note is that 2 original pieces, Adventureland Theme Song & Farewell Adventureland, both take up space that you want to belong to Rush or maybe even Wang Chun if you're that way inclined. On closer inspection I noticed these two songs actually "bookend" the album to get you in the mood. Falco is quintessential 80's & by the time you realise I'm in Love with a Girl the Theme Song starts & you start to feel what the movie is all about. You may have a personal moment throughout the middle of the Album as you associate your teenage romance with the music. Your milage may vary. As you say Farewell to the Album & the fond memories, The Cure reminds you that everything is alright the way it is with Just Like Heaven.

Aside from the definite tone the Soundtrack has as a whole, let's take a closer look at some of these great songs to see what makes them so delicious:

•     The Replacements' Unsatisfied is a heart-rending moment of tender honesty. Anyone who has been on the edge of the emotional cliff this song paints will be touched. These guys do not get enough recognition for making such beautiful music.
•     Husker Du's Don't Wanna Know if You're Lonely is a another great song to remind you of how ridiculous you would have sounded as a teenager angsting over whether you do want the person in your life who wants you back or who doesn't want you at all. Yes, we all went through that stage in some way or another. Admit it, it felt pretty good at the time.
•     INXS's Don't Change is definitely one of their strongest songs. I think it's relevant to the theme of the movie in the sense that the greatest admission of affection those teenagers can show each other is "Don't screw this up by trying to be something you're not."

In summation this soundtrack will make you feel young again. It'll make you think about romance, your awkward years & the awkward decade in all it's pastel-coloured glory. This album is best listened to with brown liquor or while in the company of an ex-friend. Car stereo play should be kept to a maximum, while iPod play should be relative to your love for the soundtrack. Go see this movie if you haven't already. Definitely worth the price of entry.


P.S. Just to make you all feel really old I was born on the 30th of June 1989. So I missed all of this the first time round. You're welcome.

The Author does not encourage readers to drink to improve their listening experiences, teenage-like behaviour when you are not one or making any kind of physical contact with your target audience.

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