Published on Apr 19, 2006
Glitter, glam rock and Oscar Wilde. It’s got the
potential to be a volatile mix, but Velvet Goldmine emerges
as a cohesive soundtrack to movie that’s nothing short of fabulous,
just as the era it highlights would suggest it be.
Velvet Goldmine, named for the David Bowie
song of the same moniker, is not so loosely based on the singer’s
rise to fame as Ziggy Stardust. Similarly, pop sensation Brian
Slade, alias Maxwell Demon, whirls through the sex and drugs
synonymous with rock n’ roll, only with significantly more
elaborate costuming. And it all unfolds amid a backdrop of some of
the key names of glam — Brian Eno, Roxy Music, Lou Reed, and T.
Rex (though Bowie himself is notably absent, refusing to lend out
his songs).
But some of the highlights of the album aren’t from
the old dogs of rock, but the original songs created for the film’s
bands Venus In Furs (yes, from the Velvet Underground song!) and
Shudder To Think. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, who plays Slade, steps in
as vocalist on the lofty “Tumbling Down” and “Baby’s On Fire,”
another one of Brian Eno’s tracks. The latter, which features
screeching guitars and dark lyrics like “Baby’s on fire, better
throw her in the water / Look at her laughing / Like a heifer to
the slaughter,” infused with the contrast of glam’s glitz and its
less appetizing actuality as Goldmine portrays.
Other contributions include Ewan McGregor, the Iggy
Pop-inspired lead singer of Wylde Rattz, who covers The Stooge’s
bristling “T.V. Eye” and “Gimme Danger,” which is inexplicably
missing from the final compilation of the album. It’s a shame, too,
because it’s a cover that does superb justice to the sultry
slithering original. Thom Yorke of Radiohead also makes an
appearance in Venus In Furs on “2HB,” “Ladytron” and
“Bitter-Sweet,” proving he’s absolutely made for the preening of
glam if he ever finds himself wanting an outlet from Radiohead.
And then there’s the glam rockers themselves, like T.
Rex on the short but sweet “Diamond Meadows” and Lou Reed’s
“Satellite Of Love,” oddly endearing and complete with snaps and
lyrics like “I’ve been told that you’ve been bold with Harry, Mark
and John / Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to Thursday with Harry, Mark
and John.”
Personally, I would have switched out Teenage Fanclub
& Dona Matthews on “Personality Crisis,” whose girl-power rock
band sounds somewhat out of place, or “We Are The Boys” from Pulp
for absent tracks like Gary Glitter’s “Do You Want To Touch Me” or
the aforementioned “Gimme Danger.”
On the cover of the soundtrack, just as in the
beginning of the movie, Velvet Goldmine warns listeners that
it is “To be played at maximum volume” and that is entirely true.
It’s one of those albums that’s impressive regardless, but
fantastic when blasting your eardrums out. What’s a little hearing
loss as a trade-off for the spirit of glam rock, right?