Me & Orson Welles Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Various artists

Me & Orson Welles Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

You know that when most artists on the Me & Orson Welles Original Soundtrack have the suffix “and his orchestra”, you’re in for a treat. Just make sure you’re in a subtly-lit room and you have nothing on your mind; this offering proves to be one of the best relaxation therapies you’ll ever have the chance to experience.

Okay, so get the frustrations of seeing lead actor Zac Efron’s perfect, smug-yet-emotionless face out of the room for another time; Me & Orson Welles offers this humdinger of a soundtrack featuring Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire and home-grown talent from none other than Jools Holland – a man who clearly enjoys his music.

What you’re faced with, for the most part, is a percussion- and piano-heavy arrangement, from the pounding drum solos and squealing brass of the irrepressible ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ to the more modern – yet just as classy – ‘You Made Me Love You’.

These are dependable songs as mood-lifters. It’s music that’ll force you to attempt the amazing Lindy Hop; stuff that’ll get you watching throwback films with Gene Kelly and James Mason; ditties that’ll force you to replay through the utterly superb Fallout 3, which has a perfect accompaniment to this soundtrack with Galaxy News Radio.

However, it’s the velvety voices of The Mills Brothers which really win this, with the guys managing to make the gloominess of ‘Solitude’ sound positively gorgeous; the average sound quality, with that distinctive crackle and mono feedback, makes it absolutely prime.

I’m gonna say this right now: if you can’t fall in love with certain aspects of this soundtrack, you’re clearly mad. To dismiss it is calls for said offending individual to go in the corner and give their head a long, protracted shake.

Yeah, okay, we all have diverse music tastes, with huge differences of opinion between even the best friends. Still, this album is blessed in that it collects together some of the best songs – and some original recordings – of a genre that it’s simply too hard not to like, or at least tolerate.

Fair enough, I suppose it’s harder to criticise something when it’s pure classics throughout – ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ perhaps being the most famous – but like it or not, there’s a whole lot of people who will kick off if you say a bad word against these masters of 1930s and 1940s American swing and honky-tonk.

And it’s hard to disagree with them. If anything, I’d be willing to arm them on their way to their vigilante right-doings. I wouldn’t join them though. I’m more passive-aggressive about that kinda thing.

Even if you don’t like this sort of thing in principle, give it a try. You’ll struggle to do anything other than swing yourself from side to side. The only things you’ll feel are missing include a glass of scotch-on-the-rocks, a pipe, an open fire and a Chesterfield chair.

By Matt Gardner