Mean Girls
Music From the Motion Picture
Ryko
Remember how cute Lindsay Lohan used to be before she derailed into rehab centers, boob jobs and general over-exposure? Mean Girls the film stands as the pinnacle of her potential and the catalyst of her downfall. The movie was this decade’s Clueless, providing both a compassionate overview of youth culture while still thoroughly mocking it. Sadly, the Mean Girls soundtrack captures little of the wittiness and sarcasm that made the film work. It’s weighed down with an overabundance of generic modern rock and pop that vacillates between assertively aggressive (Pink’s “God is a DJ”) and cooingly submissive (Anjali’s “Misty Canyon”). That said, Blondie’s “One Way or Another” is still a good time, and the quirky electro hip-hop of Kelis’s “Milkshake” is always bizarrely compelling. Surprisingly, the album’s best song comes from The Donnas with their cover of Billy Idol’s ode to masturbation, “Dancing With Myself.” In the hands of four women, the song’s perspective becomes inverted, turning it into a taunting anthem, one where the girls aren’t ashamed of the havoc they wreak and the power they hold over men’s sex lives. More songs in this antagonistic vein would’ve gone a lot farther in making this release more than just another in-store play disc for a teen-centric mall store.
Ryko: http://www.rykodisc.com
