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As it celebrates its twentieth birthday, Danny Boyle’s film is being hailed by all quarters as the Brit flick that epitomized the 90s. We are told that Trainspotting’s indie-dance soundtrack “defined 90s cool” and provided the “perfect snapshot of 1996”. But the narrow roster of floppy-haired musicians that made up its OST wasn’t the 90s that I remember. Danny Boyle’s ode to Irvine Welsh might have encapsulated that decade for some people, but it certainly didn't for me.Cast your mind back a bit. The once mighty Brit Awards used to have an award for 'Best Soundtrack', but it stopped in 2001, when it was presumably decreed that nobody would ever beat American Beauty. Prior to that, Pulp Fiction had won it in 1995, and Trainspotting won it in 1997. But sandwiched between those two giants stood a soundtrack that has been historically eclipsed by both and criminally underrated by all. I am talking about the Brit Award winner of Best Soundtrack in 1996. I am talking, dear reader, about Batman Forever.The soundtracks to Trainspotting and Batman Forever could not be more different. Trainspotting used a plodding Blur song from the Essex group’s unexceptional baggy period ("Sing"), not to mention a farty-horned Damon Albarn solo piece. Far from capturing the innovations of the burgeoning electronic scene, it included one of the shortest and least essential compositions that Leftfield ever piddled out of their keyboards ("A Final Hit"). Apart from Pulp’s peerlessly bittersweet "Mile End", in fact, all the soundtrack’s best moments are vintage classics rather than 90s hits: Iggy Pop’s "Lust For Life" (1977), Lou Reed’s "Perfect Day" (1972), Brian Eno’s "Deep Blue Day" (1983), New Order’s "Temptation" (1987 version) and Sleeper’s carbon copy of Blondie’s "Atomic" (1979). Other than Carol “KYO” Leeming’s appearance on Bedrock’s token trance track, Trainspotting’s soundtrack is also staggeringly one dimensional. As a collection of songs that supposedly captured Britain at a point in time and “changed music”, it made it look like we were listening exclusively to white, mostly male guitar players, pausing only to shout “LAGER LAGER LAGER” when Underworld came on.
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