Trainspotting: Music from the Motion Picture
1996
Buy the album on Amazon
I’m not a junkie or even a dabbler, but most of my favorite films are wrapped in heavy layer of drug use and overdose references: Dazed and Confused, SLC Punk!, Requiem for a Dream and Trainspotting. It’s probably some weird escapism thing – watching a life I’ve never lived, the same way we’re fascinated by alien invasions in science fiction. Big characters in outrageous situations. Seeing the best and worst of people. Depression. Darkness. Great soundtracks. Trainspotting pretty captures all of those things.
As with a lot of late 80s through mid-90s soundtracks, Trainspotting introduced me to bands I really should have been familiar with by that point in my life. The first Iggy Pop song I remember hearing and totally loving, had to be “Lust of Life.” And its use in the movie is pretty magic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf_WiEb9Qs
Lou Reed falls in this camp as well… although I did have a odd affinity for his 1992 track “What’s Good” but that doesn’t really count. I’ll consider “Perfect Day” my introduction, and again its use in the movie is just about perfect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6uBkJSbQO0
Another standout track, for sheer moodiness alone, is Primal Scream’s “Trainspotting.” This track is best listened to on headphones, walking around NYC around 1am on a weeknight. The streets aren’t overun, but there’s still seediness about, and enough cabs driving around with their headlights and horns blaring to let you feel alive as you run through intersections.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjB_W6k2Wos
This movie has also been my sole source of music by Underworld. I’d recommend picking up the Trainspotting #2 soundtrack in addition, because it features “Dark + Long” which is just an amazing track. Great for zooming around the city on an express train. But the signature song for this movie, even more so than “Lust For Life” has to be “Born Slippy (Nuxx).”
- “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop – 5:15 — ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Deep Blue Day” by Brian Eno – 3:58 — ♥♥♥
- “Trainspotting” by Primal Scream – 10:36 — ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Atomic” by Sleeper – 5:11 — ♥♥♥
- “Temptation” by New Order – 7:00 — ♥♥♥
- “Nightclubbing” by Iggy Pop – 4:15 — ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Sing” by Blur – 6:03 — ♥♥♥♥
- “Perfect Day” by Lou Reed – 3:46 — ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Mile End” by Pulp – 4:33 — ♥♥♥♥
- “For What You Dream Of” (Full-on Renaissance Mix) by Bedrock (feat. KYO) – 6:30 — ♥♥♥♥
- “2:1” by Elastica – 2:35 — ♥♥♥
- “A Final Hit”by Leftfield – 3:17 — ♥♥♥♥
- “Born Slippy .NUXX” by Underworld – 9:46 — ♥♥♥♥♥
- “Closet Romantic” by Damon Albarn – 3:09 — ♥♥♥♥
Bah, you beat me to it. This was most definitely in my queue to post. Such a fantastic soundtrack – both volumes. And – twinsies – you posted the same ones I would have at minimum featured, and for virtually the same reasons (first Iggy Pop, mostly first Lou Reed, except I would have subbed “Walk on the Wild Side” for “What’s Good”, and yes, Born Slippy is such a killer song). I might have also traded the Primal Scream song for Blur’s “Sing”, which I love, but otherwise – great picks/post.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdrFpPJgxC4
Since you mentioned the Trainspotting Vol. 2 disc, and it may not justify its own post, I would also include Ice MC’s “Think About the Way”, which has such a killer, fun opening. Bum-diggy-diggy-diggy-bum-diggy-bom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C8bvYlqy9A