A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
My record collection
#045: Mistress America soundtrack CD
Mistress America was a musical departure for Dean & Britta - their previous soundtrack for Noah Baumbach, The Squid and The Whale, contained more… expected Dean and Britta sounds and songs, but for Mistress America they were encouraged by the director to move into an early 80s synth-pop sound.
By the time Mistress America was released in 2015 the Galaxie 500 Mailing List was pretty much dead, so I didn’t have a platform for my outpourings and so am not entirely sure how I reacted to this unexpected change in direction†. Fortunately I think by 2015 I had also reached a more… broad-minded (mature??) outlook and was certainly more willing to embrace music from outside of the guitar/bass/drums comfort zone of earlier years. I suspect that, while perhaps not loving it, I could at least appreciate it, comfortable in the knowledge that as a soundtrack album it probably wasn’t how Dean & Britta’s music was necessarily going to sound in the future. Although it probably did foreshadow Britta’s Luck or Magic.
So, I don’t listen to this album as much as Dean & Britta’s other work, but I do listen to it more often than I probably thought I would.
I have two CDs of the soundtrack, one was sent to me by Dean in August 2015 the other I must have bought - this one is still in the shrink wrap so I’ll assume Dean sent me this one. It arrived a month before I saw the film at The Waterman’s Arts Centre in Brentford - I suspect that after hearing the music within the context of the film I could understand it better.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 10/105
- Artist: Various Artists (but mostly Dean & Britta)
- Title: Mistress America
- Notes: Sealed CD
- Packaging: Jewel case
- Format: CD
- Sent to me by Dean Wareham.
† The newer platforms, Twitter and Facebook, didn’t seem right for my honest opinion or reaction - the mailing list was a tighter community - we knew each other better and understood each other. So it was easier to have the sort of heartfelt outpourings that just didn’t suit “social media”. I miss those heady days of the late 90s and early 00s.