Oneohtrix Point Never
Good Time

Release Date: 2017 | Tracklist

It’s getting dark as you leave your apartment. The grey clouds that have been drooping over the city for days are now swollen with rain. You glance up at them warily, hoping that the downpour waits until after you return from your errands. A train rattles noisily past as you tighten the straps on your battered backpack and walk down the crumbling sidewalk. The city slowly comes to life as you walk. Lights flicker on in nearby buildings. You hear its sounds, faint and distorted from echoing off so many buildings. Police sirens wail, a woman shouts, nightclubs rave, and buses trundle along, apathetic drivers at the helm. You’re a part of this city now, you realize, as it begins to drizzle. This is home.

Modern-day soundtracks, particularly for action movies or thrillers, are becoming increasingly homogenized. I mean, how many movies nowadays feature massive orchestras building up to an overwhelming crescendo as Our Hero finally does What He Set Out To Do? That’s not to say they’re bad - they certainly do a good job of establishing and maintaining the mood of the scene. Most scores, however, don’t tend to work well outside of the film they’re supporting, or are easily forgotten when it’s all said and done.

Daniel Lopatin’s soundtrack for the film “Good Time”, on the other hand, succeeds as a standalone project because it refuses to stay in one place. From the groove that briefly breaks out on “Bail Bonds” (courtesy of some echoing drums and wailing guitars), to the slow-building walls of synths on “Connie”, Lopatin successfully crafts a densely layered atmosphere of confusion and mystery. The vocal samples that introduce several tracks weave the soundtrack into a series of vignettes, which build off one another to create vivid imagery. Daniel abandons the distorted metal of “Garden of Delete” completely, instead relying on retro synths (a la John Carpenter’s scores) and the occasional rhythm section or drone to fuel his compositions. Perhaps the most surprising aspect is that there is actually someone singing on an Oneohtrix Point Never album, with Iggy Pop delivering a somber performance that wraps up the score on a surprisingly poignant note.

Daniel’s work here is utterly enthralling. While he doesn’t break any new ground sonically, the tension and imagery that he generates in these tracks more than makes up for that. His sampling on this album leaves just enough to the imagination to spark your own stories, your own questions. Most of all, in an era where large orchestral soundtracks have become a hallmark of cinema, it’s refreshing to have a composer turn back the clock and create a score like this one. Lopatin has created an excellent album with this, and it just happens to be in service of a film.

Tweet

Recent reviews by this author
The Voidz Virtue	Profligate Somewhere Else
Street Sects Rat Jacket	King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Sketches of Brunswick East (w/ Mild High Club)
Mount Eerie Seven New Songs Of "Mount Eerie"

user ratings (70)

rate it Awful - 1 Very Poor - 1.5 Poor - 2 Average - 2.5 Good - 3 Great - 3.5 Excellent - 4 Superb - 4.5 Classic - 5

3.7 great