Customer Reviews

Thumbsucker (Score)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

According to the liner notes, Thumbsucker director Mike Mills was working with songwriting genius Elliott Smith on the songs for the movie when Smith passed away. Months later, while struggling with the editing of the movie and the aftermath of Smith's death, Mills attended a Polyphonic Spree concert that changed and moved him so much that he sought out Tim DeLaughter of The Spree and signed him to finish the musical score to the film. "The Spree saved Thumbsucker," says Mills.

The album has a lush score representing Tim DeLaughter and The Polyphonic Spree at their very best, from the powerful and jubilant single "Move Away and Shine" to the sublime and mellow "Acceptance" (which rolls out comfortably for thiry minutes), punctuated with several songs by the late Elliott Smith.

Usually I leave the movie theater wanting to get the soundtrack, but now it's the other way around. This score makes me want to see the movie, as I'm sure it has to be something very special.

I find it extremely irritating when a reviewer with limited knowledge of a film (or, even worse, when a reviewer hasnot watched the film) takes it upon themselves to trash a soundtrack. The qualms I have with this practice are purely due to my aesthetical opinion: certain films require certain types of soundtracks. Some films, like Almost Famous and Snatch, work best with track lists full of imposing titles and in such a circumstance the music, for a moment or two, becomes the focus of the film. In films like Lost in Translation and Thumbsucker, the music never takes a dominant role over the film itself; instead it plays the role of a constant emotional supplement, accurately and beautifully rendering the action on screen through sound. The soundtrack, to any who has watched Thumbsucker, is an amazing work of art and a case study in complementing an amazing film with amazing, yet not overbearing, music. Any viewer, any fan, and any colleague of Mike Mill's will have the same positive reaction to this soundtrack after watching the great film it supports. Reviewers who review soundtracks without watching the movies they stem from, take note: this album was intended as a complement to great film, not a compilation made at the director's whim...I sincerely challenge you to watch the movie and claim that these songs, soaking in emotion, are dry and banal!

Just picked this up with A Tribute To Elliott Smith here on Amazon and I am glad I did! The Elliott tracks on Thumbsucker are manna from heaven for a Smith fan (obviously) but the Polyphonic Spree stuff is really growing on me as well. Can't wait to see this movie - with music like this in it you can't go wrong.
I also ordered A Tribute To Elliott Smith since Amazon recommended it and I am overjoyed with it as well. This was indeed a good week to be an Elliott Smith fan!

The Polyphonic Spree and my all-time favorite, Elliott Smith, are perfect together on the soundtrack to such a great film. Worth picking up just for the cover of "Trouble." "Move Away and Shine" is another highlight.

Elliott Smith's two covers on this album are probably the most delicate beautiful songs I've ever heard in my life. Cat Steven's "trouble" is so fitting to the last moments of his life, it nearly brings tears to my eyes. If you are a fan of Elliott Smith, you cannot live without these two songs.

a thoughtful, fascinating and hypnotic collection of songs from dual geniuses. Evokes a lot of mood, melancholy and joy. Ultimately we feel bemusement at the fallen souls around the indomitable Tim DeLaughter. This work presents the convergence of amazing spirits of our generation.

I was listening to this CD for the first time and wasn't feeling very impressed. Perhaps if I saw the film I would appreciate some of the tracks more. I wasn't paying very much attention to the music when I found myself feeling very relaxed and peaceful. The track that was playing was Acceptance and at over 30 minutes long it is worth getting the CD just for this one track. Some day soon I'm going to put this track on repeat and listen to it for most of the day. In fact, I think I'll do that tonight with the volume turned way down. It should make for some very pleasant dreams.

Originally envisioned as an Elliott Smith covers project, Thumbsucker director Mike Mills' soundtrack was thrown into disarray by the sudden death of Smith in 2003. Tim DeLaughter and his band of musical misfits The Polyphonic Spree have ably filled the void left by the demise of the Heatmiser miserablist, taking to the task with gusto. Banjos, piccolos and fluttering additions open the score on The Crash, Scream & Shout and What Would You Let Go sound like amiable Architecture In Helsinki snippets, Wonderful For You is a delicate Tim DeLaughter acoustic piece and the dreamy Acceptance stretches to half an hour in length. Elliott's unfinished Thumbsucker symphonies are offered up in the shape of Trouble, Let's Get Lost and Thirteen, with each track blending neatly with the fragile beauty of the Polyphonic songs swirling around them. Of the Spree highlights, Call Of The Wild is a loud rush, Tim DeLaughter's old band Tripping Daisy is notably resurrected for Debate Montage and Move Away And Shine is an uplifting conclusion.
As with the Thumbsucker movie, The Polyphonic Spree's trek through their debut soundtrack offers lulls, glorious missteps and a final act that serves as a bold benchmark for the future.

Having not seen the film and how the music is woven into the narrative, I shall only say, that as an album, free of images and cinematic context, the music here is banal, dry, and expunged of interesting melody. There is melody here and there, but it is constituted around an array of endlessly boring arrangements and mediocre singing.

I certainly understand the difference between an actualized song per se and music composed as filler, accenting the images or plot. But this is too much filler and not enough song. For a great album with both songs and cinema-based compositions, see The Graduate soundtrack or Harold and Maude. The Polyphonic Spree continue their role as a poor man's Wayne Coyne. Two stars for the album and Five for Elliott, Cat, and Big Star. Smith die-hards need only purchase.