Various - Hallam Foe Original Soundtrack

Look, we know there’s only one reason why you’re reading this review. So we’ll tackle the sharply-dressed elephant in the room straight away - the new Franz Ferdinand song on this soundtrack, ‘Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow’, is fantastic. Written especially for ‘Hallam Foe’ after the film’s star Jamie Bell met Franz guitarist Nick McCarthy on a plane, it’s a pin-sharp character deconstruction in the vein of ‘Jeremy Fraser’ or L. Wells’ (or to a lesser extent, ‘Jackie Jackson’. Gently understated, it’s a ghostly, moving lament to the film’s motherless main character Hallam Foe. It might not make girls dance, but it’s got soul.

Elsewhere, the rest of the soundtrack is a more straightforward raid of Domino’s back catalogue. Originally conceived by the film’s director David Mackenzie as a potential way to save money while sourcing original music, it’s just as much a testament to Domino’s eclecticism and astonishingly high musical standards. Orange Juice’s ‘Blue Boy’ is still punchy, twenty-seven years after it was first released, while the more modern Sons And Daughters and Clinic respectively lend tense, folky pop and lush, cinematic paranoia. But the highlight comes from James Yorkston and The Athletes, whose ‘Surf Song’ is a morose, delicate lament on late-night skinny dipping, and what might have been.

It’s rare to find a soundtrack that’s so much more than the sum of it’s parts. But, with Domino at the helm, it shouldn’t be surprising that the brilliance of a new release from Franz Ferdinand turns out to be par for the course.