basic information musicians tracks reviews film information

basic information

release date	11.05.98
recording	Sarm West Studios, London UK
mastering	Purcell, Denny / Russell, Jonathan (Georgetown Masters Inc., Nashville USA)
editing	Cobb, Don
production	Ainlay, Chuck / Gallimore, Andrew / Knopfler, Mark
credits	"I'd like to thank Chuck and the band for making me sound better than I do, my assistant Robyn Becker and Ed Bicknell, Jean Seal and John Horwood at Damage Management for making me appear to be better organised than I really am. Additional thanks to my guitar tech, Glenn Saggers and to Gina Spencer and Steve Butler for their help with track licensing" - MK.

bennett, richard	guitars [1,2,4,6-8,14]
cox, jim	piano [1,2,4,6-8,14], hammond organ [1,2,4,6-8,14]
cromwell, chad	drums [1,2,4,6-8,14]
fletcher, guy	keyboards [1,2,4,6-8,14]
knopfler, mark	guitar [1,2,4,6-8,14], vocals [14]
sidwell, steve	trumpet [1,2,4,6-8,14], flügelhorn [1,2,4,6-8,14]
white, chris	saxophone [1,2,4,6-8,14], flügelhorn [1,2,4,6-8,14]
worf, glenn	bass [1,2,4,6-8,14]

1. Metroland Theme (Instrumental) (02:25)
2. Annick (03:01)
3. Tous Les Garçons Et Les Filles -- Hardy, Françoise (Hardy, Françoise / Samyn, R.) (03:06)
4. Brats (02:39)
5. Blues Clair -- Reinhardt, Django (03:01)
6. Down Day (01:51)
7. A Walk In Paris (01:36)
8. She's Gone (01:28)
9. Minor Swing -- Django Reinhardt and The Quintette Du Hot Club De France (Reinhardt, Django / Grappelli, Stephane) (03:13)
10. Peaches -- The Stranglers (04:05)
11. Sultans Of Swing -- Dire Straits (05:45)
12. So You Win Again -- Hot Chocolate (Ballard, Russ) (04:22)
13. Alison -- Costello, Elvis (03:21)
14. Metroland (04:42)

unreleased tracks

15. Did You Come ?
16. French Cricket ?
17. I'll See You Then ?
18. Letting Go ?
19. Return To Metroland ?
20. A Sentimental Education ?
21. Serious Shit ?
22. A State Of Mind ?
23. Toni's Jealous of Me ?
24. Vous Avez Du Feu ?
25. So Why Didn't You Stay In Paris? ?

sonicnet
john, kevin

Musique For Masochistes
Feel-smug music!

As supreme wastes of time go, listening to Metroland just barely inches past waiting in the wrong line at the DMV. But the only thing that gives it that little edge is the fact that you can fast-forward through a CD or, even better, turn it off altogether. And because my job is to waste time so you, dear reader, don't have to, I'll let you know which tracks are most fast-forwardable and, even better, the precise turn-offable quotient of this contemptuous piece of ego-stroking so you don't waste your money as well.

Mark Knopfler has enjoyed such a long, boring career in smug self-satisfaction that he ought to patent his vanity. Metroland merely continues this dreary tradition with Knopfler's vain assumption that anyone would want to hear his crappy, incidental music divorced from the film (if Warner Bros. sees fit to release it, though, then why doesn't Pandora Cinema release a videotape of Metroland sans music?).

There's 'Metroland Theme (Instrumental)' which sounds like a Muzak version of 'Time After Time.' Or is that 'Shenandoah' -- I really wasn't listening that closely. 'She's Gone' sounds like a Muzak version of Bonnie Raitt's 'I Can't Make You Love Me' (vaguely, that is -- the only way this music works). 'Annick' is a bit of ooh-la-la Gauloiserie that sounds... well, I have a Muzak album more swangin' than this. And 'Brats' sorta begins like 'Twist and Shout' (the Beatles version, of course) and then moves into... oh, who cares? As for those who think a voice would brighten up the proceedings, try Knopfler's mushmouthed vocals on 'Metroland,' which come across as a combination of Bob Dylan and Grandpa Simpson's friend at the nursing home.

Even more atrocious is how Knopfler brings such estimable songs as Elvis Costello's 'Alison,' Hot Chocolate's 'So You Win Again' and Django Reinhardt's 'Blues Clair' down with him. Their proximity to Knopfler's horseshn -- actually brings out each artist's worst qualities -- dull preciosity in Costello's case, reactionary disco in Hot Chocolate's and virtuosic doodling in Reinhardt's. Judging from Knopfler's own dull, reactionary virtuosity, I bet he actually admires those characteristics anyway.

No doubt that's what turned him on to the virulent sexism of the Stranglers' 'Peaches,' which I thought was all avant-garde and cool 10 years ago, but that was because I wasn't smart enough to listen to the lyrics. After all, this is an 'auteur' who once posited 'little faggot with the earring' as an indicator of spiritual superiority. Tack on Françoise Hardy's 'Tous Les Garçons et Les Filles' -- a typically worthless slice of '60s French pop that hipsters have lately convinced themselves they actually like -- and Dire Straits' own ode to those poor little 'Sultans of Swing' and you have the worst record of 1999 so far. Now if you excuse me, this little faggot with no earrings has a date with the used CD store.

Sonicnet Rating: 1.5 / 5 -- Readers' Rating: 4 / 5."

book/film summaries

internet movie database
" Based on the novel by Julian Barnes, 'Metroland' follows the story of two best friends as they discover lust and love in their youth as they grow up from their idealistic teenage years to middle-age. One friend becomes married with children, while the other remains single, cynical and idealistic. Christian Bale describes the book as a story about sex - how good it is; how good it was. Extensive nudity in this film, 'Metroland' will also have Christian Bale's first nude love scenes so read 'Metroland' and be prepared!"

amazon books
"Only the author of Flaubert's Parrot could give us a novel that is at once a note-perfect rendition of the angsts and attitudes of English adolescence, a giddy comedy of sexual awakening in the 1960s, and a portrait of the accommodations that some of us call 'growing up' and others 'selling out'."

www.geocities.com/Hollywod/Soet/8187/

description

Official Web site.