Review of Mike Patton - A Perfect Place Soundtrack
By Aaron Shipp
Everyone has their musical idol. Even if you don't play a single instrument, there's still one musician/singer you wish you could be. My musical deity of choice is Mike Patton. For me, everything he touches (well, nearly everything) is a legitimate piece of art. He's a true genius and probably won't fully be appreciated until we're all gone and dead. His vision is totally original, peculiar, and brilliant. The actualization of his vision is masterful, sporting one of the greatest vocal ranges in music history. With the opportunity to compose the soundtrack to Derrick Scocchera's short film A Perfect Place, Patton flexes his instrumental prowess as well. The entire score was written, produced, and performed by him and exudes a crime noir feel while still holding true to the eccentricities that make Patton the artist he is. Without seeing the film first, one imagines a remake of The Roaring Twenties directed by David Lynch. Sinister highlights weave in and out of this big band/MIDI hybrid and the result is a soundtrack so lively that one considers never watching the film for fear of attaching inferior imagery to the vibrant and imaginative orchestration. (Fans of the video game Bioshock may end up wishing Patton had gotten to work on it instead of his strictly vocal additions to The Darkness.) Generally, soundtracks/scores sound and present themselves as such. Without seeing a film, you can usually tell when you're listening to its soundtrack. There are always musical queues that give them away, be it the lack of vocals, a classic chase scene beat, or the typically short track time. And while A Perfect Place does share some of these traits, it benefits greatly from being a Patton creation. For anyone who is familiar with the man's work knows that most of his many, many projects do not resemble typical albums. This makes A Perfect Place, not only a great soundtrack, but a fantastic and appropriate addition to Patton's catalogue. And an escalation in my already increasing adoration of the man.