Various Artists: Flip Skateboards' Extremely Sorry Soundtrack
Various Artists: Flip Skateboards' Extremely Sorry Soundtrack
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By Adam Leveridge. |  |
Thursday, 03, Dec 2009 01:12
Volcoment (Volcom Entertainment), out December 7th.
What's it all about?
Baron himself said of the album: "Extremely Sorry has been four years in the making and the most insane journey I have been on. The music was made to serve the skateboarding and the skateboarding is epic."
Never a truer word spoken in the case of Flip Skateboards, one of the biggest names in the industry and the boarding company of none other than Geoff Rowley, the Liverpudlian lad who made it big and went on to star in pretty much every decent Tony Hawk's Pro Skater outing as well as episodes of Viva La Bam and numerous videos. This is the soundtrack to the most recent one of these productions.
Who's it by?
Baron's a DJ from the UK who's made it big enough to get himself noticed on radio shows and compilations around Britain and world at large. He made the number one spot on the UK Dance Charts with At The Drive In and Drive In, Drive By in 2006 and 2007 respectively, so you'll recognise a couple of his bigger numbers.
However, it's not just him on board. He has Lemmy Kilmeister of Motorhead fame, as well as Snoop Dogg, Warren G, Pennywise's Jim Lindberg and Slayer's Dave Lombardo, all going at the top of their game.
What the others say
"There isn't really a bad track on the album and it's certainly more interesting than anything you're likely to hear on the radio at the moment." - SK8UK
So is it any good?
Okay. Where do you start with something like this? A plethora of talent in such a condensed soundtrack. Alright, skip the first track - it sounds pretentious yet it's likely just an excerpt from the video. The jump forward allows you to bask in the sheer awesomeness that is Lemmy, from Motorhead, singing Stand By Me. And you know what? He only pulls it off.
You'd think that the 100 or so years of alcohol and chain smoking would've been enough to destroy the bloke's voice but in fairness, it's a pretty solid argument for spending thousands on cigarettes because he's still got it. Obviously it's not too soulful, but he makes the song his.
A lot of the following tracks are purely instrumental though it truly creates atmosphere, again for use alongside the undoubtedly sick tricks being pulled out of the bag by Geoff Rowley and chums. While watching the video first will likely allow you to enjoy this offering more, some of it is still pretty epic.
For example, When Is Now is a pretty solid song. It conjures pretty dire circumstances but also heightens emotions with heavy bass, an impressively melodic tune and a rollercoaster of feelings thrown in for good measure.
What's more, Lead The Storm almost has a level of Japan's Quiet Life in that it has a very similar electric buggaluggabuggaluggabuggalugga backing tune, though it's soon usurped by amazing fretwork and plenty of other sound effects to make the song shift from a dance tune to a club song to a rockfest. It's really impressive.
Still, some others don't really impress as much. This Is Forever sounds like an Evanescence song, save for the interminable whining and a few power chords. The dropping of the screaming venomous harridan from said band improves it tenfold but it still lacks that impact brought about by the guitar.
Similarly, Jim Lindberg's appearance on Scream My Name doesn't really impress, sounding like the remix of Rob Zombie's Dragula and about any other song from the original Matrix soundtrack. It's been done before, and better, by others beforehand.
Despite this, there's a load going for this album. The inclusion of Warren G and Snoop Dogg is not an offer that many people would turn down and it genuinely works with the simple guitar chords and strangely attractive female vocals, even if the lyrics are a bit nonsensical.
The star of the album is Lemmy, though the amount of groundwork put in by Baron is wondrous. It's only an 8.5, though. Why? I haven't seen the video. To think of the prospect of this having a full-length music video only pushes this offering closer to perfection.
8.5/10
Matt Gardner