End Titles... Stories for Film

Album Review

Not quite the fourth proper UNKLE full-length, End Titles...Stories for Film is a collection of tracks taken from the shelf (or elsewhere) after the completion of War Stories in 2007. Since UNKLE were abundantly busy during that short span of time, the album certainly has the potential for greatness. It includes several pieces of soundtrack work from Odyssey in Rome (a documentary that focused on director Abel Ferrara and the making of his film Mary) as well as UNKLE's BMW advert hit "Trouble in Paradise (Variations on a Theme)." But End Titles...Stories for Film wears the signs of its creation poorly, unlike the quite-good odds'n'sods collection More Stories, which despite its high quality was released only in Australia. (To make matters more difficult, several tracks appear on both collections.) The film music is best, including the atmospheric "Heaven," with a lovely vocal from Gavin Clark that calls into question why it wasn't included higher up in the track listing. "Trouble in Paradise (Variations on a Theme)" is also solid, along with the track "Chemical," featuring Josh Homme. UNKLE flooding the marketplace with confusing and overlapping product has happened before, so it's just another problem to lay at the feet of James Lavelle and wonder why a project that once seemed so promising appears to torpedo itself at every turn.