How We Used to Live is the soundtrack to Paul Kelly’s acclaimed 2014 film, which assembled a history of London using a colour footage from 1950 to 1980, an era stretching from the early welfare state to early Thatcherism and the subsequent societal upheaval. Although it’s hard to hear it without pining for the visuals, composer Pete Wiggs has created a beautiful, often melancholy score that works well enough on its own to both celebrate and lament a semi-mythical Cool Britannia. Fifties jazz and Swinging London-type instrumentals waft into more mournful, menacing Moogs, while more time travel is provided by Ian McShane’s wonderfully droll, Queen’s-English narratives: drily, he describes how pop producer Mickey Most’s morning runs “shake off the stresses and strains which come with the glamour of his lifestyle”. The gorgeously orchestrated Ready Or Not originally appeared on lead singer Sarah Cracknell’s 1997 solo album, Lipslide; conjuring up broken dreams and black taxis, it fits the mood of this evocative snapshot of the way we were.
