The 'Leaving Las Vegas' Soundtrack is Sting's best album of all time

To be fair, I couldn't name a single other Sting album. 

But, I guess that makes my bold title statement true... in my opinion, at least.

Yes, even though there are only three Sting songs on the entire album. They are my three favorite Sting songs of all time. 

Although again, to be fair, the only other Sting song I can even think of offa the top of my head is "Fields of Gold" and I don't even know if I consider that a "good" song. It's just a song. 

And it's not like I don't like Sting. The Police are cool and their music is a bop, but the only thing I really know about Sting is his tantric sex stuff and the "Leaving Las Vegas" soundtrack. 

Look, I dunno. This soundtrack was my life's soundtrack for a long, long time and how depressing is that?

In case you did not know, "Leaving Las Vegas" is the very dark 1995 film that Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for. He deserved it. 

It was my favorite movie for a long time. And again, how depressing is that?

I've been thinking about it a lot lately and how much it weirdly romanticized drinking relationships, even though the main and only story was about an alcoholic drinking himself to death after getting fired from his Hollywood job. 

Which he does. But for many scenes of the movie, Ben (Nic Cage's character) gets into all kinds

I still watch this movie at least once a year, simply because it meant so much to me for so long. It was one of the first movies that I remember realizing on my own that it was Quality Cinema. The first time I saw it in the theater, I was with my favorite movie friend Billy and we had no idea what we were getting into. 

I walked out loving the movie, energized that something that depressing and dark could be on a screen and not just in a book! The next thing I did was buy the soundtrack on CD and the next thing I did after that was ask my dad to come watch it with me again. 

Now, have you seen this movie? There's mad amounts of nudity and, like I said, it's super-fucking-dark. But it was really important to me to go see it with my dad. I do not recall why, but I am glad we did, because it was an enjoyable experience.

We bonded in a way over this film.

Not over the subject matter necessarily, but, looking back over my childhood, I have no doubt in my mind that my dad was more on the "alcoholic" end of the spectrum. At the time LLV was in theaters, I had just graduated High School and pretty vehemently did not drink, because I did not enjoy being around drunk people. 

And plus, my mom was always trying to get me to drink, like, all the time, it seemed, so by not drinking, I was rebelling against her. 

But my dad and I bonded over "good cinema" with this film. After seeing this, we made it a point to watch "smarter" movies and it was such a rewarding time. So much so that I got a job at an independent video store and eventually a coveted position at Blockbuster Video.

That is a legit photo of the Blockbuster I worked at in Covington, Georgia. Thanks, Foursquare. 

He died not two years after this, so I was really happy to find a new activity to do together. 

And the soundtrack has remained one of my favorites. 

First off, it was recorded in Mike Figgis' (the director) living room. If you listen close enough, you can hear the fire crackling in the background. 

Secondly, Mike Figgis also composed and played most of the instrumentals and that was the first time I'd ever really heard improvisational jazz. Me and my dad listened to that CD a LOT. A LOT. 

And finally, well, there's the two Sting songs on the album. Two of 'em are available on Spotify, but the rest you'd have to borrow my CD to hear. 

IDK why I wrote about this today. I thought about the soundtrack for some reason at the open mic last night and wrote that blog title. I still felt it today, so I ran with it.

This is what came out. *shurgs*