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Repo! The Genetic Opera Sountrack Review
from: SOURCE
by Keith Olexa for Horror.com
May Nathan Wallace take anyone's eyes out who hasn't yet seen the heart-pumping, blood-red, Hellraiser-meets-Rent body bag bonanza provocatively titled, Repo! The Genetic Opera. But may he take the ears and eyes of anyone who hasn't even heard it yet.
Why? Because Repo's a movie that's all about the music. It's a manic musical operation that just gets under the skin, only to blow its way out like so many incredible acoustic hemorrhages. It's so good it doesn't need the whole movie to work, the soundtrack puts its hooks in like metal into skin.
Repo! The Genetic Opera is a brilliantly outlandish patchwork of bruised gothic beats, razor-wire ballads and post-apocalyptic chorales, all stitched together in rigorously operatic tapestry, which in toto is so irreverently distinctive as to almost defy classification. Each track screams aggressively to be "its own thing," yet when united under their grisly theme, comes together as a kind of aural Frankenstein mosaic, a monster of sound and fury that's certainly like no rock opera before it. Repo is science-fiction at its most obscene and horror at its most lyrical. It's lurid, silly, wild, a little retarded, and it'll kill ya; but in a good way.
Repo's storyline as simple as a heart attack: In the not-too-distant future, an epidemic of organ failures devastates civilization. One black light in this darkness is GENCO, a biotech company that specializes in organ transplants. But times are still tough, so when organ transplantees default on their bill payments, GENCO sends out repo-men to "reclaim" their merchandise. Amidst this surgically sensual setting, a sheltered young girl with a rare disease waxes rebellious, and goes out to uncover her family's mysterious past...learning more than she expected to in the process.
Repo the film rose, it seemed, almost organically, like some mutant by-blow of torture porn, soft-core porn, and soviet-inspired Hershel Gordon Lewis style horror. That it did this at all is amazing enough by itself, but that it was also allowed to roam the Earth as a musical is either the result of super-science, sorcery, or the brilliance of long-time collaborators, and Repo screenwriters, Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, mixed with an (un)healthy dose of Saw II, III and IV director Darren Lynn Bousman. Whatever the reason, the gorgeous rock-opera monstrosity that is Repo survived, and thrived.
But as a rock opera, Repo's music is the story, the entire film is sung, and each song provides not only plot, but also emotional anchors and embellishments to the entire story. Writers Smith and Zdunich seem to understand this very well, as the Repo soundtrack practically drips with well-conceived bursts of violence, humor and pathos.
Soundtrack highlights include "At the Opera Tonight." A tight little piece that's part shrill Fiona Apple and part placid Till Lindemann, with an industrial beat thatÕs about as hard-driving.
"Mark It Up" twists a traditional rock opera sound by cramming the song's lyrics with enough invective and obscenity to make a mafia organ donor blush. Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton), Luigi Largo (Bill Moseley) and Pavi Largo (Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre) bust this expositive swear-fest out with measured, talky beats, making this track one of the more off-beat ones, ironically.
"Seventeen" lightens things up, though only in comparison to Repo's other tracks. ItÕs a frenetic rally for little-girl emancipation sung by Shilo (Alexa Vega) to the sound heavy electronic chords demanding equal time (it doesn't hurt that JOAN JETT is playing on this track as well).
In contrast to that feminist punk-out is the pop-gothic duet "Chase the Morning," sung by Shilo and Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman). The syncopation and lyrics in this song alone make it memorable, to say nothing of Brightman's melodic voice.
Slightly less impressive is "Zydrate Anatomy." It's an intriguing ensemble piece, but Zdunich's Graverobber doesn't sell the recitative well, and the song misses beats with its affected repeats and multi-syllabic science-y lyrics, but it is notable for one thing: Paris Hilton! Her lush, sexy voice matches wits with the slow, somewhat ponderous rhythm of this track, and comes out the winner. She puts plenty of welcome heat in whatÕs basically a "how to get an injection" song.
Getting back to notable notes, however, "Night Surgeon" cuts to the quick, clutching at those classic rock opera roots, a la Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar, with its faintly gospel-sounding chorus and WallaceÕs sinister Judas gloats. But this track, like the others, threatens to tear the roots out, and Head is partially responsible. He sings like Sweeny Todd on a bender here, but with tremendous heart as well.
But even "Night Surgeon" barely holds a candle to possibly the best track on the entire album. "Legal Assassin," this is a show piece track for sure, and a show stopper for Head. As Giles, this Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum hinted in several episodes as to his singing chops, but he really owns those chops here; like a sonorously sanguine Dr. Jekyll, Head turns alternately good and nasty as doting father/body farmer, and Wallace's dreadful schism could be more abruptly or starkly revealed than in this agonized paean to a tragically chopped-up life.
Such examples litter the Repo soundtrack, too many to cite, in fact. Repo! The Genetic Opera boasts a staggering number of songs, possibly more than any rock opera ever produced. And while they won't all appeal to every listener, it would be difficult to argue that each isn't shocking, affecting and unforgettable in its own way. Repo! The Genetic Opera may be a sign of the next evolution in listening, and if that's so, I'm joining the evolution.
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