This month, I’m looking back at movies and tv shows to rediscover songs that graced the screen. The scenes and the music are inseparable. They’re engrained in our heads and our hearts. And they’re proof that the best music we have doesn’t exist in isolation. It attaches itself to a moment or an experience. #SceneSongs
Movie: Trainspotting
The Trainspotting soundtrack required vivid songs to match the movie’s vivid scenes. Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” and Iggy Pop’s. “Lust for Life” captured the mood and energy of two very well-known scenes. But in an atypical move, the director chose to only have the character Diane sing “Temptation” instead of feature the full New Order version. But as an homage to the band, the ‘87 version of the song made its way onto this brilliant soundtrack.
“Temptation” was somewhat easy to miss the first time around if you’re from the States. It was only released as a single at first — and only charted in the U.K. But the singles compilation Substance became a post-punk must-have in the late 80s, which gave me my first exposure to the song. Like the entire Substance double-disc, I loved “Temptation” from the get go. It was devoid of any remnants of Joy Division, but Sumner, Hooky, Morris and Gilbert reinvented a new sound together with swagger and tenacity. In my mind, it is one of the true great New Order anthems. Each band member firing on all cylinders.
“TONIGHT, I THINK I'LL WALK ALONE. I'LL FIND MY SOUL AS I GO HOME.”