Various Artists

Filmed (in part) on location here in Ireland, This Must Be The Place sees Sean Penn play a wealthy but bored rock star who decides to embark on a bizarre road-trip to find his father’s Nazi tormentor, who now resides in the good ol’ US of A. As you might imagine from the strange subject matter (and indeed the sight of Madonna’s former beau bedecked in Robert Smith’s wardrobe circa 1989) the soundtrack to the movie is a similarity scatter-brained affair. But it is very good at times.
Centred around six songs courtesy of the Pieces Of Shit (a fictional band which features Will Oldham, who pens the lyrics, David Byrne, who writes the music, and Irish tunesmith Michael Brunnock singing the material) the soundtrack is also interspersed with some interesting but not exactly essential orchestral scores from Michael Giacchio, Mantovani and others. Efforts by the aforementioned Shits, including ‘Eliza’ and ‘If It Falls It Falls’, are the album standouts – quirky and kooky numbers that could melt the heart of the Abominable Snowman. And any release that features ‘The Passenger’ by Iggy Pop is alright by me. Byrne and Oldham devotes especially should check this out.