The film ‘Missing’ is summed up on it’s website as:
’20 years of unsolved missing person cases start to unravel in a small town, when dead bodies pollute the streets and roads of South View. How will the local detectives come to resolve the cold case?’
So, it’s a fair assumption it isn’t going to be an upbeat, feel good movie and accordingly it’s also a fair assumption that the soundtrack isn’t going to be a barrel of laughs.
Having not seen the film it would be futile to pontificate further but the soundtrack is a sparse, acoustic affair whose central themes revolve around loss, alienation and confusion. Upstate, apparently, record all their music separately and have never practiced or played together in the same room. Which, let’s face it, is one-way round inter band tensions. It is also perhaps one of the reasons that this 5 song soundtrack sounds so cold and passionless.
The playing throughout is competent, yet never outstanding. The songs tend to merge into each other and it is strictly one paced in execution. To pick out a highlight is difficult, opener ‘Falling Missiles’ is possibly the pick of the bunch but probably has as much to do with being the first track and therefore setting the template as anything else. All maudlin acoustic guitars and mournful vocals from John Wenzel it has a stark, alienating feel to it. There is also a tendency to lapse into guitar solos that to these ears are dead ringers for ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ era Pink Floyd.
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Knowing that the songs are mailed between band members for their contributions, you find yourself listening for the various layers. Sure enough, the individual contributions are easy enough to separate out but this only adds to the clinical feel of the songs. This is an album that lacks spontaneity or warmth but quite possibly captures the mood of the film. As an album to listen to on it’s own merits however it is a drab affair.
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