Grosse Pointe Blank: Music From The Film
1997
Buy the album on Amazon
I adore absolutely everything about the film Grosse Pointe Blank. Part of it is a timing thing — it came out just a couple of months after I moved to NYC and served as a security blanket when I didn’t have a ton of friends to hang with. I probably watched it 5 or 6 times that spring. It also has a cast that are really at their best, including a great turn by Dan Akroyd as an insane hitman. And the plot is killer — who doesn’t want to return to their high school reunion with the coolest job ever — assassin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy9MlIBv6xo
If you haven’t seen it, watch the damn thing. But even if the movie is not your cup of tea, the soundtrack will be. It’s full of 80s-era “alternative” hits as spun in-movie by Minnie Driver’s radio DJ.
Any soundtrack that starts off with “Blister in the Sun” is bound to be great. We’re even given a bonus updated version of the song – “Blister 2000” – as the final track, although it’s totally superfluous and in now way a meaningful improvement. Stick with track one.
The Clash also get a double-shot on the album, with “Rudie Can’t Fail” and “Armagideon Time.”
The soundtrack is mad up of a lot of songs I should’ve listened to in the 80s but just completely missed somehow. Case in point, the English Beat’s “Mirror in the Bathroom” which quickly went to five stars in my iTunes as soon as the disc got ripped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cbUW2EY4KE
It also contains a karaoke duet that Chris and I have never been able to pull of successfully, “Under Pressure” by Queen w/David Bowie. However, more than a few of us have totally killed at karaoke with a completely different style of song by a pre-Mike Patton version of Faith No More, “We Care A Lot.”
Besides the 80s tracks, there are a handful of supplemental tracks from the 90s that are totally worth calling out. “Live or Let Die” by G’n’R, the “Pressure Drop” cover by The Specials and this really percussive track by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, “El Matador.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdAS7EDuF6Y
Fucking awesome soundtrack. There’s a volume two, which contains more of the same, but this is the version you should pick up.
♥ – my personal rating
- “Blister in the Sun” (Violent Femmes) – 2:08 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Rudie Can’t Fail” (The Clash) – 3:31 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Mirror In The Bathroom” (English Beat) – 3:09 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Under Pressure” (David Bowie and Queen) – 4:03 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “I Can See Clearly Now” (Johnny Nash) – 2:46 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Live and Let Die” (Guns N’ Roses) – 3:02 – ♥♥♥♥
- “We Care a Lot” (Faith No More) – 4:03 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Pressure Drop” (The Specials) – 4:18 – ♥♥♥♥
- “Absolute Beginners” (The Jam) – 2:50 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Armagideon Time” (The Clash) – 3:53 – ♥♥♥♥
- “El Matador” (Los Fabulosos Cadillacs) – 4:34 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Let My Love Open the Door (E. Cola Mix)” (Pete Townshend) – 4:58 – ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Blister 2000” (Violent Femmes) – 2:58 – ♥♥