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Severed HeadsThe Illustrated Family Doctor Soundtrack Mana Soundtracks/Inertia There are several ways to approach 'The Illustrated Family Doctor'. The most obvious, and perhaps least rewarding, is to look at it as a new Severed Heads album. As such it's a series of uneasy soundscapes, conforming to the aspirations of sole remaining 'Head Tom Ellard to write muzak for things falling apart (aside from the obligatory single, the playfully beats-heavy Your Kidneys), and is little more than subtly disturbing background music: your office will be soothed, sure, but you'll have a growing sense of something horribly, horribly wrong creeping up the stairs. And that's exactly what the soundtrack is all about, which brings me to the second, more useful way to look at this CD: rather than a collection of songs, 'The Illustrated Family Doctor' soundtrack neatly scores the journey of the film's central character Gary Kelp. This is made clear in the accompanying DVD which acts both as a plug for and companion piece to the film, containing trailers and the (very entertaining) animated video for Your Kidneys alongside a number of clips that match individual tracks with visuals that are equally dreamy and obliquely disturbing. The third way to look at the CD is as a pointer to the way that soundtrack CDs might work in the future. The clips and tracks are fine on their own, but the DVD also contains four - count 'em! - entire albums of Severed Heads' source tracks, giving an insight into the development process and suggesting tantalising possibilities for soundtrack albums to exist as companion pieces to their parent films, rather than tawdry "music from and inspired by" tie-ins. This isn't something that you'll put on often, or even regularly. This is a work that requires attention and thought, and as such is likely to inspire knowing nods of approval rather than a passionately visceral response. That said, I can't wait to see the film.  |
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