Various - God Help the Girl: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

  by Mark Rowland

published: 12 / 8 / 2014

Label: Classical
Format: CD

intro

Engaging soundtrack to Belle and Sebastian singer Stuart Murdoch’s forthcoming cinema film, which features new versions of songs from his 2009 project of the same name

Stuart Murdoch’s ‘God Help the Girl’ project has finally made it to the big screen, a story written and directed by Murdoch and starring Emily Browning, Olly Alexander and Hannah Murray. As you’d expect from the singer of Belle and Sebastian, music plays a big part of the film. The original soundtrack of ‘God Help the Girl’ features new versions of songs that appeared on 2009’s ‘God Help the Girl’, performed by the cast, plus three new songs: ‘Pretty When the Wind Blows’, ‘I Dumped You First’ and ‘I’m Not Rich’, and snippets of the film’s score and dialogue. The new songs are short and sweet, but a little slight. ‘I Dumped You First’ is an upbeat acoustic number, followed immediately by ‘Pretty When the Wind Blows’, a delicate piano piece. ‘I’m Not Rich’ is a slightly twee pastiche of ‘Can I Kick it?’ by A Tribe Called Quest, an incredibly white attempt at modern R&B. The best songs are, unsurprisingly, those that would fit best on a Belle and Sebastian or Divine Comedy album (Neil Hannon was involved in the original ‘God Help the Girl’ project). The title track has a great 60’s girl group sound to it, and the ‘Psychiatrist Is In’ is a lovely laid back pop song. Neil Hannon makes an appearance on ‘Perfection as a Hipster’ and ‘Pretty Eve in the Tub’ could slip seamlessly onto the Divine Comedy’s ‘Casanova’ album. Elsewhere, the songs get a little too sugary. ‘If You Could Speak’ practically skips to its conclusion, and ‘Baby’s Just Waiting’ sounds too much like pastiche to really work. For the most part, however, the songs are successful. I can’t speak for the film itself, but the soundtrack itself is enjoyable as a sort of concept album.

Track Listing:-