Published on Dec 16, 2002
There is a small but tragic group of artists in pop music
history — the groups who because of one great monster of a
break-out hit have the rest of their musical catalog utterly
overlooked. Artists like Slade, Dream Theater, Status Quo, even
classic artists like Harry Chapin, get remembered for one song —
and get a whole body of work forgotten. Perhaps the most painful
for yours truly is that of 80s progressive pop duo Wang Chung. They
produced five albums of really solid work, but if you mention their
name to anyone — well, suffice it to say I don’t bloody know HOW
to “Wang Chung tonight,” and I don’t want to know.
One of these casualties is Wang Chung’s 1985 soundtrack to
To Live And Die In L.A. The movie itself is worth mention; a
dark, obsessive film noir about one cop’s descent into lawless
vengeance, starring William Petersen (now better known as Grissom
on “CSI”), Willem Dafoe, and John Turturro. Good film. Tough film
to put a soundtrack to. Wang Chung manages, pretty damn well.
The soundtrack is half vocal selections and half instrumentals.
(I found it really ironic that one person on the IMDB bitched about
the songs in one breath and loved the instrumentals in the second
— and didn’t seem to know they were the same band). The vocal
selections are serviceable to quite good; I admit to being unable
to warm to the faux swing of “Lullaby”, but the driving pop of
“Wake Up Stop Dreaming” and “Wait” is some of the best examples of
pop music from this era. The real centerpiece, however, is the
wistful eerieness of the title track; from the first bars of the
intro, a chill settles on you. This is desperate nihilism in a way
that The Cure only
wished they could manage, and when set against the backdrop
of the movie it’s damned effective.
The instrumentals are even better. Wang Chung had a strong
progressive rock influence, and it shows here. “City of The Angels”
and “Black-Blue-White” are the highlights, though all are
excellent.
The long and the short of it is that
To Live And Die In L.A. is a forgotten gem of ’80s
progressive pop, and fans of the genre should check it out. There’s
more to Wang Chung than one tired party tune.