“jawbreaker”
Jawbreaker
Soundtrack
London
To say that this soundtrack is interesting would be to let it off the hook. It features an uncommon amount of ’80s covers, and somehow still manages to sound unlike anything else out today. There’s a good blend of new songs, or at least exclusive recordings, but this CD depends a little too much on previously released material, which isn’t to say that it’s bad, just that it could be more cutting edge as opposed to sticking to “safe” hits from one genre or another. Songs like Shampoo’s “Trouble,” the Scorpions’ “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” and Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop” covered by Howie Beno and Cruella Deville are older songs which stick out on the soundtrack, but it seems like they’re almost a crutch to fall back on amongst the other odd combinations of music you’ll find here. Some of the songs are successful, like “Flow” by Transistor (sounding like a mix of Julie Cruise and Portishead) or the remix of Letters to Cleo’s “I See,” but not all of them work that well with the rest of the soundtrack. I’m not a big fan of slut punk like the Donnas’ “Rock ‘N Roll Machine,” and Imperial Teen’s “Yoo Hoo” has a little too much whining for me. Overall, there’s a strange concoction of bland and breakthrough tracks on here, which fits the feel of the movie, almost as if the soundtrack set out to mirror the resurgence of twisted teen films which seems to have attacked Hollywood these days, using a soundtrack halfway between here and the mid ’80s.
London Records, 825 Eighth Ave., 24th Floor, New York, NY 10019
