Soundtracks
	Produced by Tony Banks, John Eden, Richard James Burgess
	Released on June 1986
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
81680-1 cover [high resolution photo]

I avoided Quicksilver (subtext: bikin’ Bacon bites big time); Lorca And The Outlaws avoided me, or at least any of the theaters near me. Both films did share what would appear to be a bit of good fortune: acquiring the services of Tony Banks to score the music. Following the success of 1983’s Genesis, one can picture the movie moguls approaching Banks with a desire to write film music like “that Mama song” or “the one where Phil sings ‘all I needed is radio’” (yes, sic). At least I hope that’s what they asked for, since that’s what they got. Banks and a trio of vocal collaborators teamed up for actual songs (the inevitable “single” actually fell to Roger Daltrey on Quicksilver), which is Soundtracks’ real attraction. A project with Fish (hooray!) falls short of expectations on “Short Cut To Somewhere,” largely because of dated synthesizers and artificially contrived drama that stink of the ‘80s. (Pockets of the same stale parfum waft throughout the Quicksilver Suite, with a minor variation of “Mama” in the middle.) “You Call This Victory” features Jim Diamond, who plays Tim Finn to Banks’ Jeff Lynne, eliciting all manner of hand-wringing heartache on the line “You call this justice when without her there’s no sun,” confirming for many the inextricable link between sunlight and justice. “Lion of Symmetry” is the best of the batch, as if Siouxsie Sioux rewrote the lyrics to “Turn It On Again” with passion. The closing “Redwing Suite” is pretty much a series of musical placeholders, no better or more memorable than the instrumental snippets from A Curious Feeling. So, is Soundtracks the bastard child in the Banks discography? To quote the immortal Fred Flinstone (or, more precisely, Fred’s alien clone): “Yes yes yes.”

81680-1 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. SHORT CUT TO SOMEWHERE    (Tony Banks/Fish)    3:36
2. SMILIN' JACK CASEY    (Tony Banks)    3:10
3. QUICKSILVER SUITE: Rebirth - Gypsy - Final Chase    (Tony Banks)    9:13
4. YOU CALL THIS VICTORY    (Tony Banks/Jim Diamond)    5:12
5. LION OF SYMMETRY    (Tony Banks/Toyah Wilcox)    7:18
6. REDWING SUITE: Redwing - Lorca - Kid and Detective Droid - Lift Off - Death of Abby    (Tony Banks)    16:10

CREDITS

TONY BANKS -- keyboards, etc.
Jim Diamond -- vocals (4)
Fish -- vocals (1)
Toyah Wilcox -- vocals (5)
Andy Jackson -- engineer
Chas Watkins -- engineer
The Clinic -- design

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