Man On The Moon

When I write these reviews I usually try to listen to the soundtrack at least two times. The first time just to see how it hits me as I hear it; the second time as a real listener paying close attention to the lyrics (if applicable), the harmonic progressions, the progression of the songs, etc. Well, the first note I must make about my latest assignment, the soundtrack to Man On The Moon by R.E.M., is that I couldn't sit through the thing more than once. Even making it through once was a formidable task.

What can I say? I saw the film. Good performance by Jim Carrey. What the hell is Courtney Love doing in films? Did the filmmakers intentionally throw out all ideas of structure and pacing? Okay, okay… so I thought the film left a little to be desired (a lot actually). Well, the film was far superior to the soundtrack. Hold it. I'm sounding a bit negative. Let me regroup.

I do have some highlights to tell you about. (There are one or two decent moments on the disc.) The 'score' was penned by R.E.M. (They also have two songs on here - "The Great Beyond" and "Man On The Moon".) For my money, two of the score numbers, "Miracle" and the instrumental treatment of "Man On The Moon", hold promise. "Miracle" was a nice surprise in that it has a very dissonant string arrangement accompanying the piano. My complaint on this one is that it doesn't go anywhere dynamically. The instrumental version of "Man On The Moon", on the other hand, does travel dynamically and features a nice string arrangement (with a couple of horns thrown in for padding).

Other highlights? Well, "Man On The Moon" is a good song - and a big hit for R.E.M. "The Great Beyond" is decent, with very strong stream of consciousness imagery. I must admit I saw the movie expecting to see some surreal shots of a man "pushing an elephant up the stairs," a "piano crashing," etcetera. Surprise, surprise… not in the film.

Tony Clifton's (Andy Kaufman's insult-laden alter ego for those of you who haven't seen the film) rendition of "I Will Survive" is humorous, but pointless without the visual. [Ed. - of course, the inclusion of the "Mighty Mouse Theme" is well worth mentioning!]

I really don't have much to say on this one. I wouldn't recommend it as a buy. If you like R.E.M., go out and get "Fables of the Reconstruction" or "Monster", or any of their albums for that matter, as they are far, far superior to this offering. The film, and therefore the soundtrack, beg this question of this reviewer: Would it have been made had R.E.M. not had a huge hit with "Man On The Moon", thereby keeping the name of a mediocre (very sad and insulting) comic in the public conscience? Hmmm… If you believe….