Details:
It’s like a list of who’s cool and whose not, but strike me stupid if there’s actually no new rave on this collection of obvious and obscure. Skins is the cult channel 4 program currently detailing the lives of a band of teenagers in Bristol, generally doing what teenagers do. I doubt many needed that explaining, I just feel better for having done so.
As soundtracks go, this is a fairly cool one. TV programs are becoming every more influential as a mode of getting music across to the mainstream population, one only needs to look at the work of the OC and the ‘Crab Shack’ as a way of showcasing bands to the world (And probably picking up a weighty check from the record companies for it).
Sure the obvious kicks off the start of the album, I mean who hasn’t got Bloc Party or the Soulwax remix of the Gossip track, while the Yeah Yeah Yeahs track is a blast from the past, it’s hardly the most active opening. However once formalities are out the way we get a bit of Adam and the Ants and some Earlies. It’s a welcome change of pace and a shift away from the mainstream (And in the formers case the past), into newer territories.
Plus DJ Shadow and Tricky are always welcome in my book. Broken Family Band brings the music away from the electronic, towards something a little more folky and sincere, before Roots Manuva come and saunter in. Indeed the album is best when it’s slightly out there; opening doors to bands tracks you might have heard in the show but had absolutely no idea who they were.
Come on, anything with The Fall and Broadcast on was never going to be that bad. Let’s just hope that the people, who would buy this, don’t take the Skins attitude to things, which would probably download the hell out of this…
Listen: www.myspace.com/e4skins2
Tracklist:
1. Fat Segal - Skins Theme Tunr
2. Gossip - Standing In The Way Control (Soulwax Remix)
3. Bloc Party - Positive Tension
4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date With The Night
5. Adam & The Ants - Prince Charming
6. Archie Bronson Outfit - Dart For My Sweetheart
7. The Earlies - Kelly Brown
8. DJ Shadow - Mongrel Meets His Maker
9. Tricky - Hell Around The Corner
10. Skream - Colourful
11. Broken Family Band - It’s All Over
12. Roots Manuva - Witness The Fitness
13. The Hives - No Pun Intended
14. The Fall - Totally Wired
15. John Martyn - May You Never
16. Shuggie Otis - Aht Uh Mi Hed
17. Broadcast - Hammer Without A Master
18. Brian Jonestown Massacre - You Look Great When I’m High
19. Mike Bailey - Wild World
