Goatmoose

This morning, in Spinning class, we li… nevermind – I don’t want to start a sentence like that.

This morning, I was given the opportunity to listen to the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. By “this morning,” I actually mean several days ago, but didn’t remember that right away. Anyway, I admittedly know very little about this movie aside from it being an award-dominating Danny Boyle piece that doesn’t involve overdosing on heroin or zombies. Despite all its acclaim, I had yet to showcase any real desire to see the thing, and don’t know anyone who has. Of course, I hardly know anyone at all in the first place, but that’s another point entirely..

The point is, kids, that the soundtrack is totally tubular. Out of nowhere, I found myself listening to it, completely and instantly obsessed with every funkadelic track. Kicking straight into goodness with the first song, “O… Saya,” I got blown away by the masterful combinations of modern beats, trance/industrial sounds, and cultural Indian influences. The whole album is full of these unique sound hybrids, and one minute into the album you know you’re in for something different.

I must say, at least over the past several years, I have to commend the Academy for their choices for Best Original Song/Score. AR Rahman took home both awards this year. Last year we had the beautiful Glenn Hansard & Marketa Irglova duet from Once, and prior to that was the admittedly shocking Terrence Howard performance of “Hard Out Here For a Pimp.” I am glad the movie industry’s award winners haven’t fallen victim to the terrible garbage that comprises the Top 40 and dominates modern radio.

For real, this Slumdog Soundtrack is the boss’s boss. The remix of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” is arguably better than the original. The creepy cool “Liquid Dance” is now one of my new favorite songs, and I hope I can see some funky Wade Robson-esque dance choreographed to it in the near future. The annoyingly catchy “Ringa Ringa” lets you know by its title that it is very Indian, and is the most straightforward Indian sounding track on the disc – though thankfully absent of Daler Mendhi doing any form of Tunak Tunak finger dance in a creepy sorcerer outfit. It is the closest track to what you’d typically think of when Indian music comes to mind… and cooler than a whole jar full of bees and their combined total knees.

“Latika’s Theme” is a soft transition between two heavier tunes that contains a beautiful vocal. Listen to it while you sit under a tree in the spring, eating a peach. Then get up and boogie the hell out of your silk kurtas with “Mausam & Escape,” a tune that combines a wildly awesome Indian sitar with dirty, intense electronic sounds to produce a sound like no other.

“Jai Ho,” the closing song, is apparently the most popular of the album thanks to that dance sequence with 80 billion people in it that’s seemingly become famous. I’ve seen it several times and can’t imagine how it correlates to the movie, but I look forward to finding out.

You want to know how much I liked this CD in one sentence? Here it is: I paid for it. Seriously. With money. Like people did back in 1997.

The only song I don’t like is “Gangsta Blues.” Lame title, lame song. It’s basically every stereotypical R&B thing put into one song, rapped/sung by non-black folks. Kind of weird.

Nonetheless, it is now time to see this movie. If it’s half as good as its music, it deserved the awards.