Great Gatsby Review

One of the most anticipated soundtracks of the year has finally come out along with the movie and... To be honest, it was a great disappointment. The Great Gatsby soundtrack was a mixed bag, each song either hit or miss.

While songs like “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey and “Over the Love” by Florence and the Machine were powerful and really captured the essence of the movie, many songs just felt weird and out of place. The makers of the movie decided to do something quite strange and controversial and that was to add anachronistic songs to the movie. This move worked sometimes in the movie and sometimes it didn’t. “100$” by Jay-Z might have been a good song but in the movie, it didn’t fit at all. Some of the more modern songs like Fergie’s song “A Little Party Never Killed Nobody” might have been boring and uninspired but they did fit into the movie and added that edgy, spicy tone to the scene in a way that a more classic piece of movie might not have done. If any song could show the decadence of the life of the rich, it’s a song sung by Fergie, the queen of empty songs with shallow forms of sex appeal.

And why, oh why, couldn’t they have managed to put in some jazz? That was the actual music of the era! Louis Armstrong should have been a must but instead, they put this impromptu group Brian Ferry Orchestra to do the trick and they bombed it. During excellent scenes of the movie, it served more of a distraction than as an additive to the movie.

As I said, there were a few songs that really added to the movie. “Young and Beautiful” showed up in various remixes in the movie, appearing as a quite lovely motif for Daisy and Gatsby’s love. Also “Kill and Run” by Sia and “Over the Love” by Florence and the Machine really added the haunting vibe the movie needed. Jack White and alternative band The XX’s “Together” was also quite nice (although didn’t compare to some of the others) and Gotye wasn’t all that bad.

I give the album 2.5 stars and that’s only because of the wonderful performances by a select number of artists. If you must download the album, get it from a friend unfortunate enough to have shelled out enough bucks to buy the whole thing.