Track Listing
Reduced To Data I Promise This Isn’t a Move The Impossible Woman A Much Bigger Life Zero to Sixty Freak Changing Rules Get Out There My Dreams are Your Dreams All That Love Would Just Go Away Carefully Constructed Fantasy Neither of Them Moved Drink? Something Stopped Her Leave a Little Mystery A Hundred Percent Don’t Do That Heavy In Her Body Divergent Roads Let Her Rest It’s Not the Same Anymore The Best at Rehab The Most Painless Way Simply Unwound This Particular Moment. This Is How We Walk on the Moon (Arthur Russell) Composed by Dan Romer and Mike Tuccillo, Love Life’s soundtrack offers up a dreamy, melodic blend of atmospheric songs and background-pleasing numbers. While there’s nothing here that really grabs you and stands out, both in terms of motifs and individual tracks, the soundtrack does a decent enough job to complement the series and offer up a tonally consistent number of instrumental songs. This 45 minute album opens with “Reduced To Data”, an uplifting track that does well to quickly crescendo into a composition that combines a simple drum beat with major-key chords that work to showcase the tone of the series. From here, the tempo remains at a consistent speed with “The Impossible Woman”, doing a decent job in mixing things up by adding a synth-driven string arrangement as the lead instrument. The recurring melody here is arguably the strongest out of any track in the album and certainly gives off dreamy visions of an outdoor summer party while listening to it. Most of the different tunes from here through to the final vocal performance at the end rely heavily on the same arrangement of instruments, with a hedonistic veil hanging over the album thanks to a heavy use of echo and reverb. The recurring chords in the background are a great example of this and seem to adopt that repeated ostinato that shows up in a lot of the songs. However, the actual lead instruments do change to prevent things stagnating too much, with guitars, pianos and simple strings all sharing the spotlight at different moments in the soundtrack. Each of the tracks clock in at around 2 minutes or so a piece and there’s a consistent feel of progression that gives the album an almost urgent feel as you zip through the 24 different arrangements. Unfortunately this also means there’s never a chance to really sink into the songs and enjoy the melodies on offer, like that present in “All That Love Would Go Away” which never quite makes the most of its lead guitar which fades away just as you start to enjoy the piece. At the same time, a few of the 50 second tracks feel almost pointless and offer little that wouldn’t be amiss tacked onto the end of another song. While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with the album, there isn’t anything particularly outstanding or memorable here either. If you’re a fan of HBO Max’s latest rom-com then there’s enough to recommend this as background ambiance while you’re studying or doing chores. It’s the sort of soundtrack you’d quite happily slip in and out of while busy doing other things but it never quite grabs you or makes the most of its potential. Much like the show itself, Love Life’s soundtrack is simply a mediocre but enjoyable side-dish to a mediocre but enjoyable main course. Published: 31 May 2020 at 6:45pm on TheReviewGeek.com