Two Hands soundtrack

Two Hands is a great little Aussie film from 1999. It's a quirky and moody crime drama, and the soundtrack is a key part of crafting the moods. Also, thanks to These Days by Powderfinger and the title track by Kate Cebrano, this soundtrack was also quite successful in its own right.

I think any pretence of objectivity will have to be abandoned for this review, because my enjoyment of the film is probably subconsciously affecting my judgement of this collection of songs! On a related topic, the album has many abrupt mood changes between songs, so I find it hard to listen to start-to-finish. So I tend to listen to this album in a shuffled playlist as background music (hopefully this isn't damning the album with faint praise!). None of the tracks would rate in a list of my favourite songs, but they are still an enjoyable listen whenever I stumble across them.

Most of the pop/rock tunes (These Days, Lucky Star, What Does it Matter, Belter and Kare Kare by Crowded House) have a pained/desperate undercurrent to the lyrics, but thankfully with enough style to avoid becoming emotionally draining. The ballads provide a nice contrast, such as Down in Splendour (in a similar style to Lucky Man by The Verve), Two Hands and This Guy's in Love. In between, the instrumental songs have a gritty underworld feel, such as Walking Kings X, Dark State of Mind, Staircase and Love Theme.

Favourite songs

These Days, Stadium, Dark State of Mind, Staircase, Love Theme, Kare Kare

Would I buy it again?

Even though I'd never sit down to listen to it, it's worth having as a nice oddball background music collection.