I Can't Believe You Don't Own This F%#kin' Record: Strange Days Soundtrack

STRANGE DAYS SOUNDTRACK (1995)

Track Listing:

1. Skunk Anansie - Selling Jesus
2. Lords of Acid - The Real Thing
3. Tricky - Overcome
4. Deep Forest - Coral Lounge
5. Strange Fruit - No White Clouds
6. Juliette Lewis - Hardly Wait
7. ME PHI ME/Jeriko One - Here We Come
8. Skunk Anansie - Feed
9. Prong/Ray Manzarek - Strange Days
10. Satchel - Walk In Freedom
11. Kate Gibson - Dance Me to the End of Love
12. Lori Carson/Graeme Revell - Fall in the Light
13. Deep Forest feat. Peter Gabriel - While the Earth Sleeps

As far as I can remember, I have yet to write a about a soundtrack for this feature, and it's entirely fitting that this would be the first one. In an era that had no shortage of killer movie soundtracks (Singles, The Crow, Reality Bites, Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway come to mind), this was always my favorite (besides Singles and The Crow). The only thing it lacks is Juliette Lewis's version of PJ Harvey's 1993 classic "Rid of Me," and this is only a minor complaint.



Unmatched English band Skunk Anansie's "Selling Jesus" from their 1995 album, "Paranoid and Sunburnt," always seemed to me to be the unofficial anthem of "Strange Days," appearing both at the beginning and the end of the film. In fact, the band itself plays the song live in the film, and this is where most Americans first caught a glimpse of the fiercely primal and sexy lead singer, Skin, with her bald head and booming voice. This track just rules, period.

My next fave track was Peter Gabriel's collaboration with Deep Forest called "While The Earth Sleeps," which played over the closing credits of the film. This is both one of my favorite Peter Gabriel tracks and electronic music tracks of the 90's. Deep Forest always struck me as a bit too New Age-y for me prior to this, but this song really forced me to respect this French band's worth as electronic musicians. In fact, the collabo totally makes sense given both artists' groundbreaking work in the world and dance music genres. The techno beat drives hard, and its dark and foreboding atmosphere, broken up by the redemptive notes of Gabriel's voice, sampled chants and sweet breaks in the rhythm make this an unsung dance/electronic classic.


The curiosity surrounding Juliette Lewis's ability to sing and whether or not she got signed to a recording contract seems funny now that her band, Juliette and The Licks, have recorded three albums in the '00's, and she's moved on this year to a new project called Juliette and the New Romantiques. But back in 1995, all we had heard out of her was a snippet of a song that she sang in the 1994 Oliver Stone film, "Natural Born Killers" (that's "Born Bad" for you Limewire junkies).

Well, lemme tell you, Juliette Lewis was the bomb singer in "Strange Days." I would not trust many folks to pull off PJ Harvey covers with any success, but she did so admirably and memorably in the film. Actually, the scene of her character Faith in concert is one of my favorites in the film. She nails "Hardly Wait" (original version can be found on PJ Harvey's 1993 record,"4-Track Demos") and its sexy gothic melodrama with panache and without just copying PJ Harvey's uniquely dark and bluesy vocal style. Superb.

The rest of the songs are that ish, too. I especially was a fan of ME PHI ME's "Here We Come." I did not understand why this song wasn't a hit in the hip-hop and rock worlds. This song is so deep about racism and being a black person in contemporary society it makes me cry. Check it out.

Video Corner! Enjoy!



This video is hell of strange. I like when Skin's all pregnant in the truck with the redneck on crank and the Confederate flag behind her. Ha! Slamming track, though.





I remember when people thought Juliette Lewis was crazy walking around with that hair, not knowing it was for an upcoming role. Probably not as crazy as when she sported cornrows at the Academy Awards, though.





This is of course a cover of the 1967 classic Doors song featuring Doors' keyboardist Ray Manzarek with one of my fave industrial/metal bands, Prong.

That pic of Ralph Fiennes makes feel funny in my bad place.