Forty Shades Of Blue – Original CD Soundtrack
Sound: B Music:
B-
Hearing soundtracks without seeing the film (or seeing the
film for a very long time) is always a strange experience. Ira Sachs’ Forty Shades Of Blue is a
new independent release that just won the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the
Sundance Film Festival. Aside from
having the great Rip Torn as its male lead, it has the kind of throwback
soundtrack with covers of classic blues records that seems to be positioning it
as potentially riding the O Brother, Where Art Thou? wave.
The tracks are as follows:
1) A Little
Bit Of Soap
2) Jelly
Roll Boogie
3) Annie
Mae
4) Laura
5) Quicksand
6) The Dark
End Of The Street
7) The
Message
8) No Room
For A Tramp
9) What Do
I Do?
10) The Proposal
11) Snowed In
12) I’m Broken Hearted
13) Forty Shades Of Blue
The instrumental tracks are the highlight; good pieces
that make one want to see the film. As
for the remakes, they sound too forward and even forced at times, seeming more
like a concert performance than music recordings made with a film in mind. They might work better in context to the
film, but that remains unseen. We look
forward to seeing the film, but if you like Blues, Forty Shades Of Blue
will be a CD you will want to hear.
The PCM 16Bit/44.1kHz 2.0 Stereo is good, solid and all
sounds newly recorded. While the film
likely has a 5.1 or even 4.1 SR (Pro Logic-like) surround mix, the sound is
rich and thick enough. There is no
trouble sonically here.
- Nicholas Sheffo
