In country music, atmosphere is everything. Now, I'm talking real country music: Jennings, Cash, Haggard, Kristofferson. I'm talking about country music that goes straight for your throat and leaves you gasping into your pitcher of beer.
CRAZY HEART isn't quite there...but it's close. Jeff Bridges isn't the world's greatest singer, but he doesn't have to be: he rasps out these songs like he's lived them. Colin Farrell, likewise, isn't much of a singer (though far better than you'd expect), but he sings these songs like he hasn't lived them yet--which of course is fitting with his persona. The space in between these two gentlemen is filled with classic tunes by Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, the Louvin Brothers, etc., and some new tunes by alt-country singer Ryan Bingham, who helped craft the film's soundtrack with producer-extraordinaire T. Bone Burnett. It all leads up to Bingham's haunting "The Weary King," the film's these and rightfully Oscar-nominated tune.
CRAZY HEART is an album of solid country music, the likes of which we haven't seen for a while. If you're a fan of the film, or if you're just despairing over all the Kenny Chesneys and Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swifts, then get a copy of this album, put it in and turn it up. It'll take you back to the days when country music had teeth, and wasn't afraid to use 'em.