Rumour has it that Ewan McGregor, Boyle's staple leading man, walked around on the set continuously singing the laddish Oasis B-side 'Round Are Way' until they not only let him sing it in the movie but also used it over the closing credits. For some reason, probably the Gallagher brothers' infamous petulance, it is not included on the album (but it can be found on the 'Wonderwall' single, all you completists and trainspotters!). Included, however, is the wonderful Beck song 'Deadweight' that sounds like something Dylan wrote for one of those romantic and frothy '60s movies.

Ash contribute the title track and Underworld 's 'Oh' is a far calmer affair than their epochal 'Born Slippy' track on the 'Trainspotting' soundtrack. The rest of the tracks feature the 'new sounds' of Sneaker Pimps ('Velvet Divorce'), Faithless ('Don't leave'), Folk Implosion ('Kingdom Of Lies'), The Cardigans ('War') and The Prodigy, who close off the album with the appropriately titled 'Full Throttle'. There's a song-by-numbers from REM ('Leave'), the "funky country" of the wonderful Alabama 3 with an unmissable cover of 'Peace In The Valley', and the retro-jazz-doo-woppish 'Put a Lid On It' by Squirrel Nut Zippers.

There's also the "brand new" single 'Always On My Mind' by Memphis rocker Elfish Pastry (or something like that) and the Bobby Darin chestnut 'Beyond The Sea', which should not have been allowed on to another soundtrack after its definitive use in 'Goodfellas'. So all in all this is a soundtrack above the ordinary. Pity about the Oasis song, though.

Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman

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