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Zane’s LOWE Point – Rescoring the Drive Soundtrack

23rd October 2014 by Grace Bullingham

It was announced next week that BBC Three will broadcast Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 Drive which stars Ryan Gosling as a stuntman by day, getaway driver by night. But instead of its original soundtrack, Zane Lowe -Radio 1 DJ, has rescored it. Now wait for it... Lowe’s soundtrack will include the likes of Bastille, The 1975, Eric Prydz, CHVRCHES, Foals and Bring Me The Horizon…..

Personally, Drive is one of my all-time favourite films. Cliff Martinez's original soundtrack was perfect for it - hand in glove. I just don’t understand – why try to fix something that’s not broken? In fact why try and fix something that’s the furthest thing away from being broken?! Why destroy the whole Drive vibe? The soundtrack won the film as much credibility as its storyline and acting.

The Martinez original soundtrack also featured sexy French electro from Kavinsky, Lovefoxxx and of course College with their hit ‘A Real Hero’, it was an art. So when I first heard the news of the Radio 1 presenter curating a ‘new album’ for the film I thought it was some kind of joke, hello April 1st?– reality check – unfortunately for myself and many others it’s late October.

Speechless.

Not only is this the greatest insult to many Drive lovers, it’s even harder to take that Refn has described Lowe’s re-score an ‘honor’?! Pardon!  Of course Lowe himself has described that his take is ‘really, really good’….. and in response to received criticism he has said that he is not trying to improve the original soundtrack, rather a different version you can ‘choose’ to watch.

I do not stand alone. Many people have kicked off – especially on Twitter. There has even been an online petition to stop the soundtrack going ahead!

The film airs on Thursday, October 30 at 10pm on BBC 3; shame it wasn’t a day later.