Review: I Saved Latin! A Tribute to Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson

The films of director Wes Anderson, much like the work of fellow auteurs Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, are as well discussed for their musical soundtracks as they are for their visual presentation. Having established a popular body of work in fairly short order, Anderson is one of those rare directors who understands the inherent value of choosing musical accompaniment that will enhance a scene or plot development without ever trampling on it. Yet it's the music that we often recall when we are describing a particular scene in conversation.

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Anderson's musical choices are often far more subtle, with a decided leaning towards the so-called 'twee' side of Indie Pop, but that certainly has its own merit. Marc Spitz wrote about this quality in an article for Salon earlier this year, when he said, "Nobody, but nobody, has owned their Twee more than Wes Anderson. Curiously, by not self-consciously backing off from his signature style, he got stronger and his films became deeper, not, as some critics claimed, a bit shticky. The films themselves are full of triggers, like the cameos by beloved Anderson collaborators like Owen Wilson and Bob Balaban, and of course, Bill Murray, and the quotable missives to his devoted, such as "Rudeness is merely the expression of fear" in 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. It reminded me of that line in The Smiths' song, "I Know It's Over", where Morrissey sings, 'It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind'. Morrissey was another giant who owned his Twee, and never sold it out". *

The ever-widening appeal of Anderson's films has already spread far beyond his initial core audience of 20-something urban hipsters to suburban families desperately looking for cinema entertainment that is intelligently written without being smug; films that are pleasant to watch, earn their laughs, and have a minimum of dark crimes or explosions, if any. Personally, I see nothing wrong with that at all, so you'll likely find me queued up for a ticket.

There are soundtrack and orchestral score CD's available for most, if not all, of Anderson's films. But today, we are presenting an album that offers a bit of a twist befitting the quirkiness of Anderson's work. The album, "I Saved Latin! A Tribute to Wes Anderson" is a perfect little gift for fans of Anderson's musical soundtracks, being a 23 song, double CD that features a variety of Indie musicians covering songs from the Anderson films "Bottle Rocket", "Rushmore", "The Royal Tenenbaums", "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", "The Darjeeling Limited", and more.

Being of an older vintage of hipster myself, I do find it interesting that several of these cover versions are new takes on 60's and 70's songs by the likes of The Who, Love, The Zombies, Cat Stevens, The Bobby Fuller Four, Velvet Underground, Scott Walker, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, and David Bowie. In Bowie's case, the covers are a double-down. For the film, "The Life Aquatic...", Bowie's songs were sung by Brazilian musician Seu Jorge, save for two. I imagine that saved the production a large bundle of cash that would have been spent on licensing all of the original Bowie tracks, but it also contributed greatly to the humor and the environment of the movie.

The performances on "I Saved Latin!" are by current musicians who may be new to you, such as Juliana Hatfield, Mike Watt, Kristin Hersh, Matt Pond, Tea Cozies, Margot & the Nuclear So and So's, Freelance Whales, and lots more. But if you don't know them now, you will soon. You can scan the 30 second samples on the album's Amazon or iTunes pages if you like, but here's a few full-length examples for you to consider. Enjoy!

The album, "I Saved Latin" is available from Amazon, or should you prefer, direct from the record label, American Laundromat Records. Soundtracks and scores from the individual Wes Anderson films can be found at your local, well-curated emporium of indie music, or at The Big A.

Of particular interest for those who dig musical curiosities is "The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions" by Seu Jorge, who not only had a role in that film as an actor, but also played a handful of Bowie songs solo with acoustic guitar, singing them in Portuguese. ­This collection features the whole of that Bowie session, which means Jorge's six songs from the soundtrack, plus seven other Bowie tunes and one playful Jorge original entitled "Team Zissou". Bowie completists should be on this one like snow on Christmas.

* The quoted section from the Salon article by Marc Spitz was edited for punctuation and space limitations. There is a link to the full article provided above. - Ed.