Various Artists Crazy Beautiful Music
by Various Artists

About this Music

Boy from East L.A. meets girl from the "right" side of the tracks. Unfortunately, their relationship is threatened by mediocre music... er, societal pressures. For every worthy, evocative track that the Kirsten Dunst-starring Crazy/Beautiful's CD companion offers, two seem like recordings that a studio suit decided "the kids will relate to": Emiliana Torrini's Björk-lite "To Be Free," the Getaway People's Beck-lite "She Gave Me Love," and Osker's Blink-182-lite "Alright" might work in theaters, but here they just make the listener hope that the movie itself is better written than these leftovers. Save for the Dandy Warhols' "Sleep" (from 2000's masterful Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia) and maybe Fastball's "This Is Not My Life," the album hardly makes a good argument for the continuing validity of guitar rock--and was Seven Mary Three's "Wait" commissioned as a Goo Goo Dolls knockoff or a Bon Jovi homage? Latin hip-hop is better served, with excellent Mellow Man Ace and Delinquent Habits concoctions on board, but rock tunes by La Ley and Serralde are hardly as inspiring. --Rickey Wright