iTunes Playlist Review: Darjeeling Limited

October 25, 2007

I’m finally going to get the chance to see my most anticipated movie of the year tomorrow: Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. I’ve heard mostly good and some bad things about the film, so I’m going into it optimistically especially since I love all of his films. One thing I’ve heard is that the movie features Apple products prominently, and Hotel Chevalier was released exclusively in iTunes, so it makes since that they would do a Celebrity Playlist. Owen Wilson isn’t involved for obvious reasons, but Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman and Wes Anderson all contribute playlists that I will now rate. Click here to view the playlists on iTunes.

Adrien Brody:

The newest cast member to the Wes Anderson’s crew really likes reggae. The first three songs are all tropical flavored beats from bands I’ve never heard of. He throws a couple over-used classic rock songs in there before making it slightly more interesting with some The Cure, Massive Attack, and Wu-Tang Clan. His song descriptions though are pretty short and meaningless though, most being four words or under. Looks like very little effort went into the playlist. I give it a 5.9

MP3 The Cure – Lullabye
MP3 Cream – White Room

Jason Schwartzman:

This guy has very eclectic tastes. We all know Jason was the drummer for Phantom Planet and he has his own band, Coconut Records (which he understandably plugs) so you know he’s into music, but it was still surprising to get a glimpse of his range of pop music. Some of the highlights include “Indian Summer” by Beat Happening, one of my favorite twee songs, and songs by Magnetic Fields, French Kicks, Ween, Arctic Monkeys, Of Montreal, Guided By Voices, and Phoenix.

It seems Schwartzman is most attracted to the intimate baroque pop of the 60’s by artists like The Zombies, John Cale, and Harry Nilsson and it’s reflected in his listening habits and his own music. There’s a lot of thought put into his song descriptions and you can feel his excitement as he describes listening to “Tired of Sex” and “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” for the first time or how he feels when he hears “So Begins Our Alabee”. He also has the song that Will Ferrell plays in Stranger Than Fiction and I’ve been trying to find that song forever. This gets an 9.6

MP3 Beat Happening – Indian Summer
MP3 Of Montreal – So Begins Our Alabee
MP3 Wreckless Eric – Whole Wild World
MP3 Guided By Voices – The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory

Wes Anderson:

Wes does a great job of tying his musical choices with his personal experiences, which include the movies he’s made. He starts off with a Cat Stevens song (one of the one’s not featured in Rushmore) and then picks a Devo song (making note of the Mark Mothersbaugh connection). He also takes the opportunity to announce that he’s jumped on the Arcade Fire bandwagon with “Well and the Lighthouse” as his song of choice. He predicts a French Invasion with a Phoenix track and says he sometimes wishes he would have put New Order’s “Ceremony” in The Life Aquatic. Songs by Seu Jorge, Pulp, David Bowie, and The Pixies fill out the rest of the playlist. The best find here is the Van Morrison song “Sweet Thing” which is a gorgeous tune that I can’t believe I never knew about. Wes gets a 9.3

MP3 New Order – Ceremony
MP3 Phoenix – Rally
MP3 Van Morrison – Sweet Thing

***

In honor of the latest Wes Anderson flick, I’m dressing up as one of my favorite of his characters, Richie Tenenbaum. I’ve been attempting to grow out a beard and I find an old style tennis racket and khaki suit to use. Anyone else ever try out a character from a Wes Anderson movie?

Posted by Taylor in Film, Mix