She Needs A Movie, Not Help.

Boasting twenty-eight tracks on its soundtrack, God Help The Girl is the musical project of Belle & Sebastian member Stuart Murdoch. The movie’s lead, Emily Browning, does take most of the vocals on the soundtrack, but unless you’ve seen the movie, it seems kind of confusing.

Browning is no stranger to singing.  The Australian actress has contributed to the soundtrack of three of her movies, so she’s proven herself in that sense.  God Help The Girl seems like the typical musical movie: Browning’s character wants to form a band, but also seems to be figuring out her life.

While it seems like a long soundtrack, the 28 tracks only clock in at just over an hour long.  Most of the tracks are smaller pieces meant for the movie itself; thirty seconds of dialogue for a scene change leading into another song.  Some of these lulls are actually quite nice and light.  A small palette cleanser, if you will. The overall sound of the movie seems to be somewhere in hipster area or incredibly retro sixties.  The soundtrack’s title track is a simple poppy song led by Browning. “God help the girl she needs all the help she can get.”

A few tracks have completely different vibes. “Pretty Eve In The Tub” has a posh and waltzing quality to it with strings and short lyrics that slow down into longer and flowing lyrics throughout the track.  “I’m Not Rich” has the group speaking various sentences (“I’m not rich,” “I’m Scottish” and “I’m fat”) to the others replying back.  “Baby’s Just Waiting” has the songbird vibe down with the lyrics of longing and light music. “Baby’s just waiting / for the phone to ring.”

It’s a strange listen out of context.  The music is quirky, but is obviously meant to go with an accompanying scene and visual.  With the movie just being released, there isn’t much to go on without seeing it.  When you can pick out the actual songs and disregard the interludes, the music has a quirk to it.  This also seems to be a soundtrack that almost needs that visual to it because listening to it by itself is nice, but is missing something.