Music From The Motion Picture Pulp Fiction

VARIOUS ARTISTS: “Music From The Motion Picture Pulp Fiction” (MCA)

Quentin certainly surpassed himself in choosing the music for his latest offering. Considering that the entire composition of this soundtrack is unlikely to have been all the work of the hip geek director himself, it is still a startlingly good collection of music, one that is inextricably bound up with the world of the film, but which also stands alone as a bouncing, sexy piece of work.

This selection of songs and dialogue bursts with a raucous energy teamed with a taste for both the innocent and the surreal. Its effectiveness lies in its mixture of Tarantino’s script, groovy surfing sounds, twisting, trumpeting guitar and the genius of such inclusions as ‘Flowers On The Wall’ by the Statler Brothers and the most excellent ‘Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon’ by Urge Overkill (strangely included on Aer Lingus’ current transatlantic pretend-radio selection).

The sublime smoothness of Al Green’s ‘Let’s Stick Together’ and Maria McKee’s ‘If Love Is A Red Dress’ take the collection to a stage most movie soundtracks fall short of. Although, let’s be honest, poor ‘Let’s Stick Together’ has seen quite a few bum screens in its time.

The crazy vigour and opulence of Dick Dale and his Del-Tones’ ‘Misirlou’ rolls the opening credits and launches the album with a kind of Sergio Leone celebration of America; a Western decadent ethos that’s nevertheless governed by old-fashioned morals and true romance. Tarantino continually explores this territory of West Coast weirdos and the sexy breed of serial violence that is particular to our times.

The album manages to achieve the colour of the film by creating a melange of quintessential American sounds which evoke the innocence of the white picket fence (Chuck Berry’s ‘Never Can Tell’) teamed with the perversity of the cocaine-driven characters. The inserts of dialogue between songs are what really gives the album its punch.

Unlike some soundtracks, the dialogue transfers effectively onto audio, largely because it is well-written in the first place and also superbly spoken, by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in particular: “Why do we have to be talking about that charming muthafuckin’ pig? I mean, he’d have to be ten times more charming than that Arnold on Green Acres you know what I’m sayin’?”

The sad thing about this album is that it is unlikely to get a hearing from those without more than a passing interest in the film. By itself, it is an excellent collection of lively twists and love songs that are pleasantly uncontemporaneous. Where else are you going to find Kool and the Gang, Maria McKee, a passage from the Bible and Ricky Nelson all on the one CD. It’s a strangely addictive collection and one that will probably stay in your head long after Uma Thurman has left it.

• Suzanne Campbell