This should be the blueprint for soundtracks!
Originally released last year as a download, and allegedly on CD (although this remains hard to come by), it has now been released on Vinyl. The film, if you were wondering, was released at the end of last year in America, and on DVD over here at the beginning of the year.
This is a soundtrack album, and unlike a lot of these whereby a group of current en-vogue bands are plucked out to sing either their 'known hit' songs, or an unreleased song, that has little or nothing to with the album, this album is written and performed by little known musician Sean Spillane. Sean Spillane has had a little success with Subpop label Power/Pop band Arlo, however long before this, Sean went to school with Lucky McKee, the Screenplay Writer/director of the movie The Woman. However, let's not forgot that the film is an adaptation of the book of the same name by writer Jack Ketchum, who also wrote the 'true' disturbing story The Girl Next Door, and The Offspring, Red (also directed by Lucky McKee) & The Lost that have all been made into films. Having met back up via Facebook, McKee was blown away with a couple of Spillane's songs which would eventually make the album ( Distracted , JH2 and Patient Satellite) and wasted no time in asking him to write the soundtrack for the rest of the film. Spillane would then go on set and come up with songs whilst filming took place which helped the songs cultivate into more relevant tunes lyrically and atmospherically. This is the way that a soundtrack should be, and harks back to ideology of the silent movies whereby musicians would sit at the front of the cinema and play along with the movie to add atmosphere in direct relation to how the movie played out.
Having watched the film (which is very good by the way) a few months back, the soundtrack is what stood out just as good as the movie, and I was compelled to download the soundtrack the very next day. Distracted is the movie's main song and this is the song that got my attention first. With it's slow pace and clean production Distracted is a beautifully crafted track that is instantly catchy. In contrast, JH2 has a fuzzy guitar riff and a AC/DC-esque drum beat, even if the song itself is slightly more Seattle than Hard Rock. Then Patient Satellite has Spillane singing over a strumming guitar in a simple but catchy way.
The first song that Sean wrote when on set was, Time To Die which is a song of someone resigned to the fact that this is the end of their life. A mellow song played over long fuzzy riffs and/or feedback it has that slow almost giving up quality that adds perfectly to the song. Complicated Woman is a surprise Country track with slide guitar to boot, but with some lovely lyrics like "Some men run for the hills // when she goes off her pills // But I'll be waiting at home // When she gets outta jail..." Later we have the Fuzz-box rock of the foot-tapping, Freak and another thoughtful slow track about dying, Wild Rabbit that gives us a little time to catch our breaths before the truly brilliant song, Places You Go which has chilled verses before the anthem chorus that has more than a touch of Nirvana or The Pixies about it.
Throughout the album there are rocking tracks mixed with slow ballads that are only such due to the morbid lyrics as there is very little romance or sentimentality there at all. Album opener, What Really Hurts is a great example of this telling the tale of being someone you thought you wanted to be but with devastating consequences. The War At Night is the only song that is a definite ballad, whilst Dear Darlin' is a wonderful jaunty jig, and the album closes with Deeper Than Unmuddied which says the lines in the chorus, "Just let me know if I'm being a creep..."
This album goes so well with the movie that the two should be sold together. Just like, but altogether better than Fastway's soundtrack to the movie Trick Or Treat in the late 80's, (which I love by the way) it would be incomprehensible to have one without the other. This is not only the best soundtrack album I have heard, but certainly the best album I've heard this year. Big talk, I know, but this is a great album. Check it the songs on Youtube and decide for yourself. Go on or I'll lock you up in my cellar...