Lady Bird: Soundtrack From Motion Picture [OST] (LP)

Various Artists

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$32.98

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Amoeba Review

09/07/2020

Lady Bird is the film we need. While Hollywood is out cranking out more costumed action films where cities are obliterated and CGI forces of evil get destroyed, it feels right and just that a quiet comedy about the travails of teenage life into maturity could touch so many people. It captures beautifully that pre-adulthood sense where your high school was your world and what the drama in that small space means to your life, especially to the precocious titular Lady Bird. But in the same way the film captures a type of teenage awkwardness where you're convinced you know more than your parents and that uncomfortable feeling of your early sexual conquests, the songs from Lady Bird run the gamut from obscure and sensitive tracks, to B-sides of bands you haven't thought about in a while, to even a wee bit of nostalgia to that moment where ska was the mainstream. It functions perfectly as a mix tape of sorts as it avoids the cool factor most directors try to bring to its soundtrack. It's not afraid of being a bit embarrassing with gawky song selections while dropping some fine cuts from artsier musicians, The Dave Matthews Band and some absolute obscurities from some Numero Group reissues. It has the feeling of a CD-r someone was making you as a teen and then decided to finish as an adult. How else could you explain it? Early on you get John Cale's "Days of Steam," which is totally incongruous with the film's setting. It's a little musical pop instrumental that feels like John Cale's Brian Wilson worship, channeling his instrumentals off Pet Sounds. It has the avant garde qualities that only John Cale could bring with modified strings and sped-up trumpet, but there's this type of childlike whimsy that fits beautifully in the film. But shortly after, you get Reel Big Fish's "Snoop Dog, Baby" off their legendary album Turn the Radio Off. With its lightness and '90s attitude, you couldn't get farther away from Cale's world of New York experimentation and intellectualism. But that doesn't mean the song is any worse! It's actually refreshing hearing a ska song validated like this and if you thought you were over it (after regretting frosting your tips and throwing away your checkered Vans), this is the type of mix that might get you back into ska. Lady Bird's soundtrack represents the film perfectly! It's unafraid of what it is and is proud of what a strange eclectic mix of feelings it represents. A perfect clash of hip adult and zealous teen!