Portastatic
Who Loves The Sun OST
Release Date: Jun 6, 2006
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Soundtrack
Record label: Merge
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Album Review: Who Loves The Sun OST by Portastatic
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Who would have guessed back in the early-'90s heyday of Superchunk that 15 years later Mac McCaughan (recording under his Portastatic banner) would be making music as gentle and refined as this soundtrack for the indie film Who Loves the Sun? The soundtrack reunites McCaughan with director Matthew Bissonnette (they worked together on 2002's Looking for Leonard) and proves once again that McCaughan has a knack for creating thoughtful and rather lovely film music. Unlike that previous soundtrack, there is no bossa nova influence here; instead there is a pastoral chamber pop feel at work as McCaughan and a handful of others have crafted a truly beautiful album that is tender, sweet, and lush without being overbearing or treacly. Using only sporadic guitars and no vocals, McCaughan relies on oboes, flutes, organ and tinkling pianos to carry the melodies, and does a stellar job at creating a wide variety of moods and tones throughout.
Opinion: Fairly Good
The second in Mac MacCaughan's soundtrack projects – like its predecessor, composed for an indie film by Matt Bissonette – is beautifully low-key, leaning heavily on orchestra instruments like oboe and strings to create fleeting moods. It is about as far from Superchunk, or even full-band Portastatic, as you can get, skipping the vocals and using guitars only occasionally. It's difficult to judge a soundtrack without seeing the film.