Michael Penn – “Sunshine Cleaning”
Album Reviews | Apr 13th, 2009
Record Label: Lakeshore Records
Genre: Soundtrack
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Sunshine Cleaning is being called the “Little Miss Sunshine of 2009.” The comedy/drama stars Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. The film is about a 30 year old single mother who ends up getting into the lucrative business of cleaning up crime scene. Who the hell would want to clean up that crap? “Gonna need some more Mr Clean, found a lot of brains on the floor.” It makes me twitch thinking about it. Anyway, Rose gets her sister Norah involved with the business and they call it “Sunshine Cleaning.” How sweet.
The film was composed by singer/songwriter and Sean Penn’s brother Michael Penn and I really like his score to this. It’s like an indie rock score in a way. There’s light acoustic rock music, with the orchestra playing in the background. Lots of Do’s and Ah’s in the songs as well. Sounds like something Andrew Bird would compose I think. Michael Penn has done a few scores like the Last Kiss, Boogie Nights, and Melvin Goes to Dinner. The score to Sunshine Cleaning just screams “independent movie” but that’s not a bad thing. Sometimes indie films make for great scores and soundtracks like this one. Besides Michael Penn, there are a few songs from other people on here like Golden Smog, Ken Andrews, Electrelane, Bodega, Emile Miller, David Majzlin and Norman Greenbaum with “Spirit in the Sky.” Michael Penn’s score surprised me and I enjoyed the light, indie rock score a lot.
Bottom Line: Who knew Sean Penn’s brother was a musician? I didn’t.
Notable Tracks: The Chalk Thing, Trestling, Rose and Mac, Perfect Days – Ken Andrews
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