RECENT REVIEWS:

Various Artists
The End of Violence Sound Track
Outpost Records
(10/17/97)

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True blue tributes
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Table Talk
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Almost Heaven:
John Denver 1943-1997
Dawn Eden remembers the man whose music left no room for cynicism (10/14/97)

. . . . . v a r i o u s . . a r t i s t s. . . . .
tHE eND of vIOLENCE++++++++
++++++++. . . . . s o u n d t r a c k. . . . .
(---- Outpost Records ----)

BY MICHELLE GOLDBERG | Many of director Wim Wenders' most adoring fans were introduced to his films through music. Maybe they went to see "Wings of Desire" because Nick Cave performs in the climactic meeting of the trapeze artist and the fallen angel; or they saw "Until The End of the World" after hearing what is probably the most amazing movie soundtrack of all time; or they wanted to see Lou Reed's cameo in "Faraway, So Close!"

"The End of Violence" soundtrack follows a similar formula as the "Until the End of the World" and "Faraway, So Close!" albums -- each seems designed to play over and over on the worst days of your life. Wenders has a genius for carrying a certain mood of battered optimism through an album with disparate performers. Like his films, his soundtracks share a fascination with technology and the future, a deep, weathered sympathy and moments of fragile redemption, themes that hold the new album together even when the songs' genres would seem to clash. No one else could put DJ Shadow and Tom Waits on the same album and make it sound so natural. The whole thing is framed by a trembling, jazzy score by Ry Cooder that's perched perfectly between joy and paranoia.

On "The End of Violence," Waits' "Little Drop of Poison," plays the role that Nick Cave and Johnny Cash have on other Wenders soundtracks. A serenade to losers, its the darkest song on the album, tempered by Waits' tears-in-your-beer humor. Other songs continue the mood of poignant defeat. There's a spare, heartbreaking duet by Michael Stipe and Vic Chesnutt called "Injured Bird" with the refrain, "I have exhausted this world," a fatigue that's shared by Whiskeytown's twangy "Theme For a Trucker," a country tune that aches with hungover loneliness.

The choked-up fatalism on the Eels' gorgeous "Bad News" and the subdued, frustrated desire on Spain's "Every Time I Try" both recall the detached despair of bands like Luna and Yo La Tengo. In fact, "Bad News" is one of the saddest songs I've heard this year, the kind of song you play over and over when your world is falling apart.

U2 appears on every Wenders soundtrack, and here the band contributes an atmospheric, angry duet with Sinead O'Connor, "I'm Not Your Baby," full of techno flourishes and layers of guitars. Its interesting, and better than anything else U2 has done recently, but it feels a bit cold and perfunctory compared to the impassioned songs they've created for Wenders' past films, including the title track from "Until the End of the World" and their haunting collaboration with Johnny Cash on "Faraway, So Close!"

The electronic tracks by lesser known artists are more inspired. Songs by DJ Shadow and The Latin Playboys maintain the balance of fear and tender optimism while bringing the whole album into the future that Wenders is trying to comment on. The Latin Playboys' track, "Mr. Wobble," is especially intense, full of anxious looped strings and distortion. Howie B's dread-laced acid jazz cut, "Don't Even Know She Got One," is filled with lonely, sinister horns and slow, muffled beats like footsteps creeping up behind you.

Despite the noir vibe, though, no one is truly evil in Wenders' universe, and even villains are capable of extreme kindness. Critics of his films (and his last three movies have been widely despised) find his sensibility hackneyed and contrived, but to the extent that it informs his soundtracks, his tattered hope is a blessing.
SALON | Oct. 17, 1997