Rodriguez

Sometimes an artist is best served by that one great album and though there is an obvious reason to see this movie soundtrack as a Greatest Hits compilation/companion – taking as it does (arguably) the best from Cold Fact and Coming From Reality – I’d argue that anyone really interested in what Rodriguez means, musically, should have Cold Fact. And that’s all.

But – the Sugar Man documentary has been a runaway hit and this is the obvious tie-in; many of the film’s fans didn’t know the musician existed, much less the music, before they entered the cinema. So it’s just easy to go and ask for the film soundtrack; the accompanying tie-in.

Once again someone – and it’s not Rodriguez – is making some coin; someone (Sony) will be slicing up the pie to suit.

This album is not without its charms obviously – Coming From Reality wasn’t all that great but it was no giant turkey and the best songs from it are here. But some of the best songs from that album are still not very good; I’d say that many of them are not as good as the (slightly) weaker efforts on Cold Fact.

And boy does this soundtrack CD trail off…

You need only hear Sugar Man (the song) to get the vibe – you either love it (already) or you’re open to it and you dig it straight away on first listen because you hear in it some rolled-together version of Arthur Lee and Bob Dylan and Jose Feliciano (possibly with Norman Whitfield producing and arranging). And if that’s the case then you should stick with Cold Fact.

I wish they’d reissued that – again – as the official movie soundtrack.

It’s a nice story – even if the documentary is creative with the truth (as documentaries are) – and I wish Rodriguez well, so this will no doubt help his bank account (and critical standing) in some way. But this is only essential if you’d never heard of him before.

I imagine most of the copies sold will house the ticket-stub from the movie; a portable photo-album, nostalgic keepsake, souvenir… “There it is on the shelf from that time we went to a Film Festival film, dear. Such fun”.