Strange Weirdos: Music From & Inspired By the Film 'Knocked Up'

Loudon Wainwright III | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 22, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Concord Records
• ASIN: B000P6R82C
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,830 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Rather than an ordinary film soundtrack, this might more accurately be considered an exceptional Loudon Wainwright album. A diehard Wainwright fan, director Judd Apatow explains in his liner notes that he asked the singer-songwriter to score Knocked Up, Apatow's first film since The 40-Year-Old Virgin, only to learn that Wainwright was about to embark on his next recording project with producer Joe Henry. The resulting album features material that Wainwright had written before the film score that the director wanted to use, other cuts that are instrumental snippets in the movie but are songs with lyrics on the album, and still others that take thematic inspiration from the film. While Wainwright so often writes lacerating and hilariously personal material, many of these songs are more like character studies, with a musical range that extends from the ragtime "So Much to Do" (one of two songs written with Henry) and the call-and-response of the chromosome ditty "X or Y" to the Brecht/Weill cabaret tinge of "Final Frontier" to the bluesy "Doin' the Math." Among the musicians providing stellar support are guitarists Richard Thompson and Greg Leisz and keyboardists Patrick Warren and Van Dyke Parks. --Don McLeese

Product Description

Track Listings:Grey in L.A.You Can't Fail Me NowDaughterYpsilantiSo Much to DoValley MorningX or YFinal FrontierFeel So GoodLullabyNaomiDoin' the MathStrange WeirdosPassion Play

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music you can ignore!(?), June 20, 2007

By 

Arlington J. Trombley Jr. "arttrombley" (Malone, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strange Weirdos: Music From & Inspired By the Film 'Knocked Up' (Audio CD)

To borrow a phrase from John Cusack's character from "High Fidelity" I sometimes want music I can ignore. This pretty much sums up all of Loudon's music for me. I can always have it playing in the background and tune in when I feel like it. It seeps into my head and pretty soon I realize I have been listening to some amazing songs. I discovered Loudon with "Last Man on Earth" and have been hooked since. I keep hoping others will catch on to his music and when I heard about this project I was nervous. Will he try to be too commercial? Will this become another one of those "Ally McBeal" moments? (You know what I mean...the whist full walk into the ending credits while a song plays and the characters take turns looking into the camera so we can all learn the episode's lessons.) But I should not have worried. Turns out he has been making music that could always be played during the ending credits but the difference is that his words will teach you what the actors cannot.
"You Can't Fail Me Now" may be just about the best song I have heard in some time. So honest it hurts. "Daughter" has been one my favorites for sometime. How does a man who write such amazing melodies toil in relative obscurity?
Others have written more poetically about the songs and the CD as a whole. All I can add it this...put on the CD, do some cleaning or have some tea. Maybe clean the garage or sit by a fire and let the music just play. Pretty soon you tune in and realize you were not ignoring this music because Loudon will not be ignored. He will find his way into your soul because he is sharing so much of his. As for this being a soundtrack...I think his music has always been a soundtrack. First for his life...then for ours. Get this CD, get hooked and don't ignore him any longer.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, August 15, 2007

By 

S. C. Rosato (Corvallis, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Strange Weirdos: Music From & Inspired By the Film 'Knocked Up' (Audio CD)

I found this album after searching for the song at the end of the movie "Knocked Up" ("Daughter", playing during the credits). I bought the album blind, and every song is great (imho). Since then I've heard about Rufus and Martha, and there are several good articles on the web about the album. Kind of folksy, kind of rock. Great lyrics.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Satisfying Folk Pop, June 11, 2007

By 

Andrew Shaffer "Author, Blogger" (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Strange Weirdos: Music From & Inspired By the Film 'Knocked Up' (Audio CD)

"Daughter," from the closing credits in "Knocked Up," is so good that iTunes won't sell it as a single off of this album (the rest of the album is available for purchase at .99 per track...but you won't want it without "Daughter," trust me!).

Although it's true that "Daughter" is worth the price of admission by itself, the rest of the album isn't a throwaway: Wainwright and producer Joe Henry have put together a fine album of light, breezy folk masquerading as the soundtrack to an equally dandy film. Filmgoers won't be familiar with Wainwright (and I'd only listened to his son, Rufus, before picking this disc up), but they won't be disappointed with this album. I don't think I'll be able to go into a coffee shop in the next couple of months and not hear this CD in the background. And that's a good thing.