28 DAYS LATER
Original Soundtrack
Released 2003
XL Recordings
"It's rare that film soundtracks include every piece of music heard in said film. And though it's just as rare to find soundtracks that feature such music in the same order in which you hear them in the film. It's arguable that some soundtracks readjust the order for the sake of a smoother mix, ala a good mixtape, but sometimes that's just not the point.
The "28 Days Later" soundtrack is in the correct order, not counting the two extra bonus remixes slapped on for the U.S. release. Nearly all the film's music is included as well. Hell, the opening piece, "The Beginning", features the same cacophonous overmix of televised violence that starts the film itself. The film's overall score is not that of the traditional largescale orchestral work; nay, in fact most of the instrumental, score-ish pieces in fact include electric guitar and rock drums, though thankfully not in a string-flexing blues-metal way ala Trevor Rabin (guitarist formerly of the band Yes) the "Con Air" soundtrack. The guitar work ranges from gentle picking ("Then There Were 2") to simple rock distortion ("Rage") to the intensifyingly soaring and fast non-solo high-string annihilation of "Tower Block" and "Tunnel", smartly mixed at low enough volume so as to both mix with the keyboard playing the same rising notes, as well as keep the listener's ear from splitting (though one's heart does race).
Despite the film's alleged appeal to younger generations hopped up on goofball slasher flicks with brainless lead actresses and soundtracks mixing nothing but singles and pointless covers and unreleased material by either nu-metal bands or faceless hiphop acts (believe me, this film is none of these things), "28 Days Later" is instead a brilliantly low-budget, high-impact, genuinly scary and concernedly near-realistic horror film.
If it weren't, the soundtrack would (assuming it stayed the same) come as a wonderful surprise to most, particularly on account of the low number of guest musicians and bands. And those featured are, in fact, actually good, and not radio-rulers. Time travel brings us Brian Eno's "An Ending (Ascent)", a inexplicabely beautiful ambient piece originally from a 1983 soundtrack to one of the many NASA Apollo flights. "Season Song" brings us the film's end credits, as performed by Blue States, a largely one-man triphop-funk outfit performed and maintained by a man named Andy Dragazis, though he's helped out here on vocals by a rather young-sounding choir. The most noticeable outsider track, if not the most noticeable track altogether, is Grandaddy's "AM180", boasting an undeniabley catchy keyboard hook that sounds like an illegitimate child of the Atari era of videogame music programming. The song's Weezer-ish (in a good way) fuzz-rock is lovingly low budget and side-to-side head bobbingly high quality. An angelically-voiced singer by the name of Perri Alleyne soars on a lovely rendition of Ave Maria, titled here as "Taxi (Ave Maria)", and breathes nothing but heart into three of the eight verses of the psalm "Abide With Me", whose otherwise somber words now seem... honest.
Every piece of music matches the scenes of the movie they accompany with stark expertise, a welcome change from string-section sappiness and forced-in Top40Radio marketability. Three emotions are prevelant throughout : fear, despair, bliss. And then, just when you weren't looking... hope.
North American listeners were lucky enough to receive two remixed tracks, one of the roll-credits "Season Song" (pulsingly dance-remixed by Rui Da Silva), and the roadtrip-starting "Taxi (Ave Maria)" (remixed to cruising speed with guitars by Jacknife Lee). And who likes enhanced CD:ROM material? The original film trailer is included, costume-design polaroids are shown with many a smile, and a deleted scene is shown : the film's main characters singing joyfully along to "Hotel Yorba" by The White Stripes. Even if you like that song, you're still glad it wasn't included on this otherwise exceptional soundtrack."
- Andrew
