Various Artists: Jennifer's Body - Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists: Jennifer's Body - Music from the Motion Pictureq
Sunday, 08, Nov 2009 01:10
Fuelled by Ramen, out now.
In a nutshell...
Polished and punchy emo-pop.
What's it all about?
The soundtrack to Diablo Cody's new Megan-Fox-starring comedy/horror, this compilation is aimed squarely at the Xfm emo-pop crowd throughout, which suits the film down to the ground.
Big names such as Florence + the Machine, Panic at the Disco and Little Boots dominate, but all the songs fit in nicely together. Fans of the genre will be happy to listen to it beginning to end several times over, which is what teens tend to do - so happy hunting there, young sir/madam.
Who's it by?
Inevitably, there will be comparisons with the soundtrack to Cody's previous film Juno, which may be unfair since Kimya Dawson is not involved.
While the Juno soundtrack presented a host of twee oddities mixed in brilliantly with classic tunes of differing styles, this goes for a different tactic.
On this soundtrack, established hits weave in and out of lesser known tunes of a similar ilk.
This is Jennifer's Body's Megan Fox to Juno's Ellen Page - mainstream, popular, sure-fire hit over more ambitious yet twee newcomer.
As an example.
"Teenagers/We don't know anything/Teenagers/We don't know anything" - Hayley Williams
What the others say
"Give the soundtrack a full listen and you'll get the sense these tracks are here to underscore some of the themes of love in the high school age that Cody is toying with in Jennifer's Body." - Jon Peters, Killer Film
"The soundtrack feels more like a new music sampler pulled out of a discarded Urban Outfitters shopping bag than a coherent album." - Michael James, 411 Mania
So is it any good?
There are two ways that you can look at this soundtrack and much depends on how much you enjoyed the 'sexy horror' style of the film.
Angle One - It is loaded with fun tracks which rather nicely sum up half of the playlists on many teenagers' Spotify/iTunes/etc. accounts, which is the age group that the film is aimed at and who the picture is all about.
Angle Two - Horror movies should not have soundtracks which sound this fresh and polished, they should have an over-arching sting of bloody pain ripping through them and a sense of dark style that reminds you of the fear you felt while in the cinema.
For people who see Angle Two as nonsensical gibberish, add a point on to my rating, because this is without doubt an entertaining collection of well-produced pop songs.
If Angle One makes you recoil in demographic-targeted disgust, then remove a point from the below.
6/10
Paul Smithson