The upcoming Zach Braff’s movie, ‘Wish I Was Here’, keeps releasing new songs off its soundtrack, and after a very Shins (but kind of uninspired) song, a Bon Iver tune – that I didn’t even listen to, because I wasn’t ready for more Bon Iver in my life – NPR is now streaming a new and unexpected collaboration between Cat Power and Coldplay.
‘Wish I Was Here’ (yeah, the title of the movie) is a quiet piano ballad with a reasonable poppy hook and a pleasant melody, although some rather trite vocals, ‘It’s been a night /Such a night /Such a long night /Watch myself disappear/ Into the wild side’ or plain cheesy ones ‘Every road, that’s wrong /Seems like the road, I’m on /Every sign just seems unclear /Won’t you come switch me on/Don’t know where I’ve gone/And I, I Wish I was here’… Ah Chris, always so profound, but of course, you always get me at Cat Power’s voice, she could sing anything and I’d listen, so I am very bias when it comes to her smoky voice..
How did these two met? According to NPR, Braff gave a draft of the movie to Chris Martin who then worked on a song:
‘Chris had the idea that it would be sung by a woman,’ Braff told NPR, ‘I thought that was a genius idea, because one of the things the film is about is a strong woman (Kate Hudson’s character) becoming the matriarch of her family. When Chris and I were talking, we both kind of simultaneously said, ‘Cat Power.’ I reached out to Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power) and she and I met and really clicked. I set her up to watch the film in her apartment. The whole time she was watching she kept texting me all the different parts she was loving. She said yes the instant it was over.’
Who wouldn’t click with Chan? She is veryyyyyy friendly, I saw her at work when she was signing her last album at Amoeba. She is an entire-humanity lover, that woman. So now we have the Coldplay song sung by Cat Power, a song that will not change your life (I know) but Chan sounds almost upbeat on that one, thanks to Chris Martin, and this is a rare thing.
Listen to ‘Wish I Was Here’ via NPR. The soundtrack will be out on July 15th and the film on July 18th.
