Various Artists – 28 Days Later (2003)

This is the first soundtrack album in this blog. It was also the first, and the only, soundtrack album I've ever bought before actually seeing the film itself. I saw a review of this soundtrack in a Finnish newspaper and I was sold just by looking at the review. It said that this album is filled with ominous post-rock by John Murphy, and songs from Grandaddy and Brian Eno. That pretty much sold the album for me. The digipack CD is beautifully wrapped. After I listened to this album, I obviously also really wanted to see the film. I was not disappointed by the film either. It's one of the best horror films from the recent years. This film has become even more important to me now that I live in London. The opening scenes with empty streets of London are quite spectacular. I recommend the film to anyone who hasn't seen it, but now, let's discuss the music as this is about the soundtrack after all.



John Murphy's original score on this album is phenomenal, but I do think it would've been more enjoyable to have longer songs with a bit more to grasp than just the small bits from the actual film. I know that the music was made for the sole purpose of to be used in the film, but you could really make great songs using these sounds in full songs. The amazing post-rock guitars and scary melodies make for great music. Most of the film scores use classical instruments, so using actual overdriven electric guitars and other rock instruments really works well here.

There's also great contrast with the original songs and other songs picked for this soundtrack. Grandaddy's cheery A.M.180 sounds amazing in the middle of heavy and dark songs. It's a happy sequence in the film as well. The main characters find a super market with lots of food they can just hoard after living off chocolate bars etc. for a couple of days before.

Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent) is a nice piece of calm in the middle of all that scary post-rock. It kind of draws you away from the real world full of peril into calm and beautiful piece of mind. Jim's Parents (Abide With Me), a rearrangement of an old hymn, works very much in the same way.

There was also a song on this album that introduced a new band to me. Season Song by the Blue States is an amazing song in its own right. It got me listening to other Blue States songs as well and I think they have some great songs.

Soundtrack albums are sometimes a bit weird, unless they only use other bands' and artists' songs, because the music doesn't always work without a context. To some extent, this is true with this CD, but it's also a great score that I enjoy listening to on its own every once in a while.

Listen to the album on Youtube.