Call it a soundtrack producer's dream. One of the most vital and influential bands in modern-day music cuts a song entitled "If God Will Send His Angels" just months before you are hired to put together a soundtrack for a movie entitled City of Angels. The band is
U2, and their song not only opens the City of Angels soundtrack, but it is also the anchor of a group of tracks that narrowly escapes the sappy trail that the movie blazed when it hit theaters. In all actuality, the soundtrack sounds much too dark, menacing, and legitimate to be attached to the film.
Alanis Morissette assures the direction of the album when she follows
U2's less-than-perky offering with "Uninvited," which is nothing if not vintage
Alanis. From there,
Jimi Hendrix comes in with "Red House." It is still amazing to this day how the sounds of
Hendrix on the guitar could be so many things all at the same time -- soothing, moving, eerie, and untouchable. As popular belief would tell you, the movie is rarely better than the book. While the same has not been proven conclusively in the relationship of movies and their soundtracks, be assured that City of Angels is much better to listen to than to watch. ~ David M. Childers