TIN CUP SOUNDTRACK SCORES A HOLE IN ONE

Very rarely would I put in a plug for a soundtrack album. Most of the time they`re second class tacky backing music intentionally pumped full of lyrical cliches to suit the segmented script of a movie. 

Let's face it, after watching Top Gun a couple of times you already know Kenny Loggins is going to start singing Danger Zone when the two egos in that movie, Ice (played by Val Kilmer) and Maverick (played by Tom Cruise) hop in their navy jets just as an excuse to let off some steam at one another or get into Kelly Mc. Gillis`s pants. 

Well Tom Cruise got some pussy anyway. You know where I`m coming from here, soundtrack albums aren`t normally artistically challenging. 

In 1996, a movie called Tin Cup came out, featuring Kevin Costner, Rene Russo and Don Johnson. The movie is about one burnt out professional golfer, one high flying

professional golfer and the one woman which both end up fighting for in a very haphazard and unelegant way on the golf course. 

Costner is the burnt out one who lost the plot

somewhere along the way, and has since become a mobile home statistic who spends his life eating baked beans and drinking cheap beer on a golf driving range in the Arizona desert. 

Johnson, who I must say puts on a very charming performance, is the debonair and sophisticated golfer who has Rene Russo, but not by the end of the movie. 

A story about the power of true love and how a reclusive alchoholic bum with a five day growth wins over the woman who

has the world at her feet with Mr. Miami Vice. 

Rene ends up giving him the flick pass and gets Costner`s character back on the road to recovery. The movie as you could expect is fairly predictable storyline wise, but the songs on the Tin Cup soundtrack are very individual and not contrived to accommodate the script. 

The first track on the album `A Little Bit is Better Than Nada` is a wonderful and
frenetic display of accordion powered Texmex music, you think you are over the border in an El Paso bar after having a listen to the song. 

Keb Mo says it how it is for Kevin Costner with the song `Crapped Out Again`, at the start of the movie Costner looks like he is the crap. 

Typical of what you would have expected from Keb Mo in the late 90`s, very slick and glossy refined Memphis blues, this song might be his best. 

Veteran country singer George Jones makes an appearance on here, his drinking song
`Just One More` is actually not too nasally like a lot of his songs are and it`s quite sophisticated. 

Far too often George Jones sounds like he has a peg on his nose while he is singing, but for this one he must have removed it.

One of the most lively numbers on the album is called `This Could Take All Night` by country popster Amanda Marshall. 

She adds a bit of razzamatazz to a predominantly male dominated set of songs. Perhaps the most philosophical song on the album and one I can relate to personally the most is `Every Minute, Every Hour, Every Day` by James House. 

A very reflective song which of course ties in just a little with the progessive recovery

of Kevin Costner in the movie script. 

And my favourite on the album, well you already know I am biased when it comes to hard pumping raw blues, is the very last one.

The song is called `Double Bogey Blues` and the artist is Mickey Jones. Just a ballsy no nonsense blues song that one could expect to hear on Beale Street in any number amount of clubs. 

Kevin Costner was a real double bogey at the beginning of the movie, but he ended up scoring a hole in one with Ms. Russo. No double entendre intended.