t times, Music for Imaginary Films makes me want to well my ears up with cement.

No, really.

The album’s concept is exactly as the title describes: these are songs written as soundtracks to movies that do not actually exist. As a concept it is really quite promising, but in execution, it falls flat on its gimmicky face. However, before getting into what is so very wrong about this album, let me tell you what is right. In its defense, there are a few good tracks, though none of them are truly outstanding. “Le Flic et la Fille”, the opening track, is just right. Following a 70s funk groove, it meanders pleasantly for a few minutes with the interjection of some rather pretty female French vocals. “Milano Cool”, a spy-esque theme is similar, but more subdued. Its only downfall is that just over four and a half minutes in length, it is too repetitive. Later on, “Spacebeach” and “Harrmann” offer some dreamy, calming ambience accented by some liberal use of the theremin. And the album ends with the three minute track “The Only Guy” which is, again, pleasant and even cute. Unfortunately, some of these tracks suffer due to some rather overdone production. “Harrmann” would have been much nicer if not so polished and prepackaged sounding.

You may be thinking that it doesn’t sound so terrible, right? Let me start with the album’s worst offender: “W.E.E.K.E.N.D.” Obviously, it tries to emulate cheesy easy-listening music of the 70s. The only question that comes to mind is “why?”. It only gets worse when the chorus actually spells out “weekend”. “Hashi” is even worse. The imaginary film it is supposed to be scoring is about a drug-sniffing crime dog. The actual music is echo-laden generic funk complete with dog barks. The rest of the album jumps back and forth through all sorts of styles; R&B, disco, dub, samba, and even Indian music are all covered. This would be all well and good if they did not come off as rather generic and indistinctive. Simply put, there is little in these songs which makes them seem anything more than a pale imitation of the styles they try to emulate.

Music for Imaginary Films may be no more than a light-hearted attempt at harmless fun. With some of the tracks here, it succeeds in that respect. But too often with the others it is nothing more than an amateur stab at genre hopping. What makes it worse are the almost intentionally irritating songs such as “W.E.E.K.E.N.D.” or “Hashi”. In the end, Music for Imaginary Films feels like a bit of a joke – a nice goof off in the studio. And while some results are undeniably fun, the irritating far outweighs the good. Hopefully, Arling and Cameron had fun making it, at least.