This month, the Mental Jukebox revisits the movie soundtracks of the nineties. The music I’m highlighting are some of my personal favorites. In many cases, the movies themselves were huge for me as well. But the focus will still be on the music – as always. Let’s bring on the throwback classics, the grunge, the gangsta rap, and the indie gems. #31DaysOf90sMovieSongs
Movie: William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet
Prior to the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, I had never heard of Gavin Friday or The Virgin Prunes. Later, I found out that he collaborated with Bono on a few tracks. He’s clearly a somebody in the music world, particularly in Ireland. But that didn’t matter for me. When the soundtrack came out, I was completely enveloped by it, and it became an album that my then-girlfriend and I listened to incessantly just because we saw that crappy, yet beautiful-looking movie that it came with. There were plenty of standouts on the record, but “Angel” soared to the top.
The interesting thing about “Angel” is that it was written before Romeo + Juliet, despite feeling like it was made just for the movie. The song mirrors the complicated situation that the main characters found themselves in. Like my then-girlfriend and I, they were helplessly in love to the point where it becomes impossible to put the brakes on it despite the impending doom. Flanked by gorgeous swirling synth layers, Friday’s falsetto feels like the whispering angel on one shoulder at times and the deceitful demon on the other.
“Angel.... hold on to me, love is all around me.”