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Various Artists
Morvern Callar

A soundtrack for the hedonist, Ibiza-bound female protagonist of Scottish writer Alan Warner's cult-favorite Morvern Callar and Lynne Ramsay's (Ratcatcher) faithful film transfer of said book, little in the way of Warp Records-style electronic music is found here. Ramsay herself notes in a Guardian interview that the selections were intended to match up with her cinematic, atmospheric style, and that is pretty much what is found here: from Stereolab's childish ba-ba loopings, Lee 'Scratch' Perry's smoked-out dub, Holger Czukay and Can's sleazy disco lounge, and a Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood duet of 60s psychedelic pop cheese, it is almost a repackaging of sound, a compression of these other cultures into a pale ersatz for hipsters too bothered to experience their own lives.

Beyond the irony of Warp's involvement here, that Morvern's girlfriend never shows much of an emotional response to her situation seems disturbing in its own right, and makes this soundtrack a creepy, soulless collection of music — as if by giving a record label your cash you get fourteen bits of surrogate human feelings in return. It begs the question about the social contract made when listening to film soundtracks in general, for that matter. Indeed, closing with Aphex Twin's clockwork Nannou underscores the main problem: any time we want, we can wind up our hero and reminisce watching her go through the motions by popping this into the CD player. Not only by repackaging culture into something 'hip' what does this make us by paying for and consuming it, as well? I'm not sure I much like the answer.

   last updated June 14, 2003

Release Information

Morvern Callar



CD
Warp Records (UK)