Search - Original Soundtrack :: Hallam Foe

You made some magic

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 09/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Hallam Foe" (currently retitled "Mister Foe" in the US) is, for your information, a bizarre coming-of-age tale about a teenager whose obsession with his late mother drives him to Edinburgh, love, and a suspicion about her death.



Personally, I'm dying to see "Mister Foe." But that doesn't have much to do with the soundtrack for the movie, which is made entirely of music from Domino Records -- and they seem to have selected the cream of their crop. It's a lively patchwork of old stuff (Orange Juice), new stuff (Junior Boys, Sons and Daughters), and a Franz Ferdinand song written for this movie specifically.



It kicks off with the rollicking road-trip flavour of the Scottish post-punkers Orange Juice, speeding through the energetic song of a guy who "wasn't listening to the lying tongue/he was listening to the words being sung!" Things get a bit more downbeat after that, with the lo-fi yowls of U.N.P.O.L.'s "Here on My Own" and King Creosote's mournful, summery ballad "The Someone Else."



And then everything just takes off into the joyous world of weird and wild. There are nuggets of astounding indie-rock like the tense, taut folk-rocker "Broken Bones" by the brilliant Scot-rockers Sons and Daughters, the Junior Boys' fearful blip-dancer "Double Shadow," Clinic's hallucinatory blur "If You Could Read Your Mind," and Movietone's laid-back finale.



But the soundtrack is mainly dominated by the mellower songs -- we get acid-jazz from Future Pilot Aka, the ominous and tinkly "They Nicknamed Me Evil" by Cinema, Juana Molina's warmly alluring "Salvese Quien Pueda," James Yorkston And The Athlete's melodious "Surf Song," the Bill Wells Trio's harmonica-dominated "Also In White," and Hood's wintry "Lines Low To Frozen Ground." And though it's poppier than most of the other songs, Psapp's "Tricycle" is a delicate mingling of twinkly xylophone, guitar and funny sound effects.



The highlight has to be Franz Ferdinand's exclusive song for this movie -- "Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow," a mellow and slightly creepy little pop song: "You watch them for hours/from slates and clock towers/the lives below/but your life is other/and lovers and mothers oh wooh wooh... breeze blows from rooftops to your destination/trapped in your imagination/she's all you can see."



"Hallam Foe's" is one of those rare and few soundtracks. Not only is it crammed with brilliant songs by talented and often underrated bands (as most soundtracks to quirky or comedic movies now are), but it also fits the theme and tone of the movie it frames. It can't be easy to create an appropriate soundtrack to a quirky coming-of-age tale full of poignancy, voyeurism and an Oedipal complex, but somehow they managed to.



Admittedly there are a couple things about the soundtrack that are less than stellar -- Cinema's song is a bit too ambient, and I'm not crazy about the endless harmonica in Bill Wells Trio's. But most of the instrumentation is pretty brilliant -- gentle jazzy drumming, electronic blips from Psapp and the Junior Boys, horns from Future Pilot, a hint of violins from James Yorkston, as well as fast-paced riffs that are angular from Orange Juice and blurrily psychedelic from Clinic. And of course, acoustic guitars that can be mellow, lo-fi and jangly, or just folky and warm.



The highlights are probably Sons and Daughters and Franz Ferdinand. The former can spin up an intense, sinewy rocker that always seems ready to erupt with energy; the latter created a beautifully multilayered pop song uniquely crafted for the movie. And it would be lovely even by itself ("it feels so cold as you go when you leave/you're a dandelion blown on the breeze").



The soundtrack to "Hallam Foe" is a must-listen for fans of really good music, crammed from start to finish with solid pop songs that range from "pretty good" to "utterly astonishing." Definitely worth the listen, especially if you plan to see the movie."

Foe soundtrack

Quoc Phan | Marin county, Cali. USA | 01/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw the movie, loved the sound track. Googled it, all trails lead to Amazon. Found the disc for a great price shipped to me in 5 days. Wonderful. Great experience."