As a admirer of the roaring 20's era (the booze! the bobs!
Josephine Baker's glam!
Dorothy Parker's wit!) and considering
F. Scott Fitzgerald's noted classic one of my favorite books,
Baz Lurhman's film adaptation of
The Great Gatsby is on my 'gotta watch' list.
Aside from the champagne swilling extravaganza it's visually gearing up to be, the
Jay-Z produced, all-star packed soundtrack is shaping up to be essentially music to write your suicide notes to, even though it's perfectly in tune with the sinister undertone that Fitzgerald's glitterati wallow in. The doldrums commenced when
Florence + The Machine premiered the blistering good
"Over The Love" featuring Welch vocally slicing and dicing. After that,
Lana Del Rey then took us down the droning meditative road of
"Young & Beautiful" while
Sia gave us all the feels and somber symphonic on
"Kill and Run". Then, to make matters worse,
Beyonce and
Andre 3000 take
Amy Winehouse's
"Back To Black" and just make it an insufferable aural mess (note to Beyonce: sashay
away from songs that are much too scholastic for you...) I just recently had a death in my family --- hearing such melancholic melodies was just not my idea of a condolence.
Still the art of the soundtrack has been dead for at least a decade, so consider this a silver lining situation that may provoke a revival of sorts thanks to
Gatsby's brooding goods (and it's expectant success). I will say I was majorly more so looking forward to
Coco O. of
Quadron and her feature, "Where The Wind Blows", which to no surprise livens up the joint. Swirling in a little ragtime piano, Coco's layered vocalizing, and a skittish percussion beat, taps this Jazz era inspired song with a little modern zip, making it perfect to twerk and do the Charleston.
The Great Gatsby soundtrack will be available May 7th, while the movie hits theaters May 10th.