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Songs From the Bigtop soundtrack
reviewed by dave heaton
Songs From the Bigtop is a soundtrack album featuring exclusive tracks from a stellar group of musicians: Doug Martsch, Howie Gelb, Lisa Germano, The Owls, and more. But that isn’t the whole story. This isn’t a grab-bag of leftovers but a unique project. Filmmaker Devon Reed wrote all 13 songs on the album, and gave them to other musicians to perform. The album is filled with familiar voices singing songs that aren’t their own. With some exceptions (Tullycraft sound especially folky, Matthew Sweet awkwardly lusty, Marbles’ Robert Schneider more sedate than usual), the songs seem matched to the performers by style, with synchronicity the goal.
The songs themselves are in a simple, sweetly romantic vein, though not free from clichés. I’m not convinced that they’d stand out in the hands of lesser performers, and comparing them to nearly any of these bands’ own songs would come up short, but most of them work well for what they are, in this context. I especially like some of the songs that keep the arrangements the barest, allowing the singer to showcase the essential emotion in the song, like Damien Jurado singing “I’m destined to be ashes” over one guitar, Sprites’ two vocalists singing sweetly together over an electronic beat, or The Clientele weaving the melody of “Your Song” with their own distinct, mysterious magic.
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