Moonage Daydream (A Film By Brett Morgen)

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Director Brett Morgen’s film about David Bowie, <i>Moonage Daydream</i>, is hardly a straight-ahead artist documentary or biopic, instead collaging together a career story (of sorts) with Bowie as its narrator (of sorts). With the cooperation of Bowie’s estate (the singer died in 2016, two days after releasing his final album, <i>Blackstar</i>), Morgen was given access to his vast archive, and the film presents a fair bit of unearthed audio and video for the first time. Like the movie, the soundtrack is also kaleidoscopic in its approach: It opens and closes with spoken-word passages that exemplify two of Bowie's many sides—the questing philosopher and the lighthearted, jovial entertainer. In between those bookends are 41 songs (more if you tally up the multi-song medleys) that span Bowie’s catalog. But rather than run down his greatest hit, the soundtrack examines the artist’s wide-ranging creative breadth, with many inclusions given their own exclusive mixes or edits for the film. That opening segment doesn’t just cut to track two; it’s woven into “Ian Fish U.K. Heir,” an ambient track from 1993’s soundtrack for the miniseries <i>The Buddha of Suburbia</i>, which then segues into the Pet Shop Boys-featuring remix of “Hallo Spaceboy,” from 1995’s <i>Outside</i>. In other word, the focus here isn’t “Let’s Dance”—though that does appear in its live form, as do a number of other literal crowd-pleaser. .

via Apple Music

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