Young Ears

One day will assembling Legos with my kids I put four square pieces on central round spoke and made an ersatz satellite. I showed the kids and they said "What about a song about satellites!?" This was in the vein of their favorite song "Raining Tacos"

I knew of one! But where to find it? I just remember it kept saying "satellite" in it and I loved it as a kid in high school. No, its not Satellite by Guster.

Its Satellite by Bosco (How can you forget Bosco!) off the 2001 Tomb Raider soundtrack. If you want to listen then here it is albeit I am surprised I did not die of a aneurysm listening to this jam on repeat as youth.



Ok, a few disclaimers...yes, I did like this soundtrack a bit too much. And, no, I am not some Tomb Raider fanboy. The only game in the series I ever played is the 2013 reboot and this is way after the game (and Lara Croft's) major pop culture influence and the movie (which in writing this blog I realized there is ANOTHER Tomb Raider movie series based on the reboots) which came out in 2001. And, because it has to be said because its part of the "lore" (at least the fandom), no I was not someone attracted to Lara Croft. I mean she is bad ass and that's awesome but when it comes to fictional character crushes I am much more of a Sailor Moon guy. Oh in another bad aughts action movie Jessica Biel was in Blade Trinity and yeah that was an awesome crushable character. At least for me. It's not a good movie but she has a BOW and a HOOD and she kills vampires!

Tomb Raider (2001) is not horrible. Its an early aughts action movie so you get what you paid for but for some reason I loved this soundtrack. I had a burned copy my brother in law gave me (We had to race to the store to get the soundtrack after seeing the movie) that I carried with me all through college. I do miss my little CD binder sometimes albeit it was filled with garbage.

I then listened to the whole album and the fact I somehow don't have my ass kicked every day is a giant surprise.

The premiere track is Elevation by U2. Sorry, hard pass. U2 is like The Beatles to me. I respect what they have done (And as someone who worked in humanitarian aid you are familiar with what Bono has done to fight HIV/AIDS worldwide) but it does not spark any joy.

The best song is Deep by NIN. Which my son loved! He also liked Galaxy Bounce by Chemical Brothers. All "big" bombastic aggressive songs. The soundtrack also has fun little techno-pop ditties. It has Wheres Your Head At by Basement Jaxx and Get Your Freak on by Missy Elliott. That's fun!

Oh, boy but does it have some stinkers including a very meta movie song called Illuminati by FatBoy Slim.

"Illuminati, a secret society that do exist! Iluminati..ti..ti..ti..ti"

YIKES! My son loves  a song from the Lego Ninjago movie where a main part of the chorus is "Hi-Ya!" and a lyric is "I see a shark and its NIN-JA-GO!" and that is less cringe inducing and more sincere than Illuminati



As to the Satellite song, I shouldn't say anything. My normal tone of voice is akin to a baby duckling trying to sound like a parody of Christian Bale's Batman so yeah singing (or any music) is not my thing. But the shrill computery voice mumbling gibberish. The Atari motherboard bleeps and blorps. It feels like a song someone would write as a parody. I am glad I grew to appreciate much better bleeps and blorps otherwise knowing as various movie and video game soundtracks.