Review of Sound City (2013) by Sophie L — 01 Nov 2013

I've discovered the only thing that can make flying coach great: Sound City!

This documentary resonates well beyond music which is why I liked it from second one. It's not about Nirvana or the Foo Fighters. It's about craft and significance: why we do what we do and how we do it. I came for the music and left with an analysis of the creative process from analogue to digital infused through songs. Suddenly I wondered why I wasn't a sound engineer. A great movie often makes you think outside of your own walls and Sound City excels at that. It's also Dave Grohl's first film, which is astonishing since it so artfully twines together multiple cinematographic devices from interviews, hand-held camera work, use of warming and cooling filters, reconstructions, multiple narrators, voice-over, thought bubbles, archival footage, etc. All of which could have resulted in a very confused production in less assured hands.

Little is known about Dave Grohl despite Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. In Sound City, we again see that he really knows how to surrounds himself with rare talents "who have something to say" to borrow Trent Reznor's words. Evidently, he has the charisma to drive everyone to supplement his original idea: telling the story of the Neve console. In the end though, Sound City documents the many lives of a historic recording studio and a feat of engineering, the Neve Console, through the music that came out of them from 1969 to 2011.

Nothing feels forced except perhaps the last 30 minutes when new recordings are made using the Neve console now housed in Dave's Studio 606. The making of Sound City Reel to Real, the film's vaunted soundtrack, could have done with a tighter edit. Trent Reznor explaining his use of technology as an instrument was much more captivating. In mere moments, he reached beyond the surgical precision of ProTools and sterility of Auto-Tune to give modern tools an honest assessment away from the good old days of analogue.

What else is in it for us viewers? Musicians and non-musicians alike will find inspiration in the views exchanged on a studio that produced a crisp sound when its shag carpeted walls should have at best delivered a dirty sound. Sound City by all accounts was the studio equivalent of glorious flora growing from a smelly trash can in a way that no one can fully understand.

If you love music, technology and storytelling, this film will make for a terrific evening. As a bonus, you too may be reminded why Stevie Nicks sure wasn't going to be "the cleaning lady" for long in 'You Can't Fix This'.