Trainspotting

Various Artists

album cover

What's Playing in the Chill Room

Trainspotting is one in a long string of film soundtracks from the 1990s to feature staggering assemblages of big-name talent. It's better than just about all of them. It begins with one of the great pulverizing rock anthems of 1977, Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life," and from there features indelible truth-telling tracks from Lou Reed ("Perfect Day," from 1972) and New Order (the upbeat "Temptation," from 1982), and a gorgeous Brian Eno study in melancholy, "Deep Blue Day." These are interspersed with pieces written expressly for the film—an upbeat bit of pop dance hall from Pulp ("Mile End"), a slice of quintessential Brit pop (Blur's "Sing"), the spacey, dub-style, tenminute title instrumental from Primal Scream.

The film, based on Irvine Welsh's bestselling novel about club kids with drug dependencies and criminal tendencies, treats sound as a crucial storytelling element. The songs seem to run through the characters' heads, and ooze through the background noise in the club scenes. They add insights to the narrative in much the way a mix tape does—explaining ideas and emotions the characters can't quite articulate for themselves.

And like a great mix tape, Trainspotting is riveting because it exists within carefully defined sonic parameters. Though it draws on many styles and eras, it has an aura, a signature print. Each of these pieces in some way underscores an element of the story, catching the vague sense of gloom and desperation that unites these sad characters. The mood becomes the star, connecting often balkanized worlds, establishing a through-line that is actually stronger on the soundtrack than it is in the film. Though it appeared during a curious pop-culture moment when rock bands and suddenly hot electronica stars were sniffing around to see what each might steal from the other, it's no scattershot kitchen-sink mashup: Very few compilations of music capture—and sustain—a mood as thrillingly and completely as Trainspotting does.

Genre: Electronica, Rock
Released: 1996, EMI
Key Tracks: Iggy Pop: "Lust for Life." Brian Eno: "Deep Blue Day." New Order: "Temptation." Primal Scream: "Trainspotting." Blur: "Sing."
F.Y.I.: In 2007, Vanity Fair ranked Trainspotting the seventh best film soundtrack in history.
Next Stop: Dirty Vegas: Dirty Vegas
After That: Various Artists: Hacienda Classics
Book Pages: 824–825