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Review: Jack Foley
AS A MOVIE, Goal! is as cheesy as things get but the soundtrack
scores highly thanks to its hard-driving indie style which features
new material from the Happy Mondays, Oasis and UNKLE (to name
but a few).
Indie has always provided a good soundtrack to football, so it's
little wonder that Danny Cannon has sought to compile a soundtrack
that really compliments the subject matter well.
Kasabian's energetic Club Foot is perfect for setting
football sequences to, while the cheeky camaraderie of the players
is exemplified in the bouncy, 60s-influenced This Is The Land,
from The Bees.
Where the Goal! soundtrack earns extra points for good
behaviour, however, is in its smattering of new and remixed material
from some pretty heavyweight names.
Kicking off the album in fine style is Happy Mondays' boisterous
Playground Superstar, their first new material since
1992's Yes Please.
The track is typical of the Mondays' hip style, with Shaun Ryder's
vocals as distinctive as ever and some nice slabs of slide guitar
running throughout. The underlying melody is genuinely catchy
as well, so it's little wonder the track has been chosen as a
single to help further promote the film (the Mondays were due
a revival after numerous live shows recently).
Strong too is the brand new Oasis track, Who Put The Weight
of the World On My Shoulders, an acoustic driven effort that's
penned and sung by Noel Gallagher.
It's reminiscent of glorious past B-sides such as Talk Tonight
and Half The World Away but kicks in with a really emotive,
strings-laden chorus.
As tender as the melodies sound, however, it's still distinctly
Gallagher-influenced, thanks to lyrics such as 'so don't try to
fuck up my head with your problems'.
The band contribute three tracks in total - the others being
a D Sardy Mix of their anthemic piledriver, Morning Glory,
and UNKLE's mellow Beachhead Mix of Cast No Shadow (from
(What's The Story) Morning Glory), which brings a little
something extra to an already great track.
Talking of UNKLE, Messrs Lavelle and co contribute two tracks
of their own - the brooding Leap of Faith, featuring
another excellent vocal from South's softly-spoken Joel Cadbury,
and the more energetic Blackout, which accompanies the
football sequences to perfection.
Given the film's numerous clubbing and nightlife sequences, there's
also Dirty Vegas' chilled out Human Love and Princess
Superstar's Wet! Wet! Wet! to continue the energetic
vibe.
In fact, the only time a red card has to be issued is during
Graeme Revell's insipid instrumentals which really do sum up the
saccharine tone of the movie.
Fortunately, these are in short supply and don't really mar what
is an otherwise must-have album for the indie faithful.
It's fair to say, Goal! takes maximum points for scoring so highly
in its selection of choice cuts.
Read our review of the film!
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