Baby Driver is a film driven entirely by its music. Almost every scene in this almost two-hour-long heist flick prominently features a song as our hero, Baby, soundtracks his entire life like he was starring in a movie - which of course he is.
So it's a very good thing that the song selection is totally on point. This soundtrack is a crash course in cool - and sampling history - that zips through decades and styles at such breakneck speed that it leaves your head spinning.
You get the raucous stomp of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's incredible 1994 cut Bellbottoms segueing into the easy R&B funk of Bob & Earl's 1963 number Harlem Shuffle, its blaring horn intro immediately recognisable from House of Pain's worldwide hit Jump Around. From there it slips into the surf rock exotica of Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers 1977 instrumental Egyptian Reggae.
Despite the decades in difference and the wildly varying genres, it works. And that's just the first three songs. This double album runs another 27 tracks.
It veers from Motown (B-A-B-Y by Carla Thomas), fist pumping prog (Hocus Pocus by Focus), old school rap (Young MC's Know How), chugging rock (Golden Earring's Radar Love), hard hip-hop (Run the Jewel's Chase Me) and the gentle 70s folk-pop of Simon and Garfunkel's title track.
