Record Review, Watchmen Soundtrack

Artist: Watchmen Movie Soundtrack
Source: Paddy Murphy

Tomorrow sees the international world-wide release of Watchmen, the most celebrated graphic novel/comic of all time. 300 director Zack Synder will be putting his hand to the direction of the movie and no doubt there'll be lots of slow-motion fight sequences and tons and tons of CGI.

Many people will agree that some movie soundtracks are of the utmost importance. Think of the Fight Club soundtrack done completely by The Dust Brothers except for the final credits where Pixies play out Where Is My Mind as the financial district of Jack's/Tyler Durden's city blows to pieces. Platoon wouldn't have been as good without Samuel Barber's Adagio for String or Smokey Robinson's Tracks of my Tears. Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous and Singles had both outstanding soundtracks, thank god that was true for Singles since it was such a dire movie, Almost Famous, however, I will fight to the death defending it's honour. Quentin Tarantino fully appreciates the importance of a good soundtrack and spends a huge amount of time looking for the perfect songs to add to his movies. Steelers Wheel were broke until Reservoir Dogs came out and their Stuck in the Middle was synced with a torture scene. Would 2001: A Space Odyssey have been any good if the soundtrack had been pop music instead of some of the best classical music ever made?

But let us get back to the issue of the Watchmen soundtrack. The movie spans the 1950s up to the1980s so there ain't much popular tunes here, except for the surprise inclusion of a Bob Dylan cover by Emo kings My Chemical Romance. They cover Dylan's Desolation Row, it's quite a boring cover, nothing new added to it other than the typical American rawk cover-styling of adding too much distorted guitars and a shouty vocal. Also, The Smashing Pumpkins, probably should have been included since their The End Is The Beginning Is The End appeared on one of the trailers, no matter it was already on Batman and Robin a few years ago, indeed it won a Grammy.

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