Customer Reviews

Reality Bites: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Though every song on this cd doesn't satisfy my particular taste, there really is SOMETHING on there for everyone. One day, a couple of weeks ago I stuck this cd in with six people in my car. We couldn't skip ONE song, because someone would scream "Wait!!! Don't skip it, I LOVE this song!"

It's definetly not my favorite cd of my collection, but I do love to pop it in to hear some of the fun early 90's tunes I remember from what seemed like yesterday (ten YEARS ago!!! What?) I think it's definetly worth LISTENING to, but you'll have th decide for yourself if you're interested in purchasing it.

This is an awesome soundtrack; it breaks all the rules. Wait. You know what? REALITY BITES doesn't care about the rules so it didn't realize it was breaking them! LOVE IT!

Herein is Real Music with variety yet great composition; full of attitude and emotion, including a fabulous blend of songs--some with very meaningful lyrics (like the great "All I Want Is You" by U2) and some just plain fun lyrics (like "My Sharona" by The Knack.) In short this soundtrack has HEART.

BED OF ROSES

"Some people can't speak their minds freely. Some people walk the streets at night alone. It's so easy to make an empty heart your home.

Life it can lift you up; it can drag you down. Life don't have to be no bed of roses.

Some people just can't have it easy. Some people have to fall before they can fly. It's funny how we live in the same place on the same earth at the same time."

[In memory of Angela Renee Hudson. You are flying now my friend.]

The soundtrack to "Reality Bites" was a solid hit in 1993, selling more than 2 million copies and yielding several singles. Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories, of course, scored the biggest hit with "Stay" (#1 for 3 weeks in 1994). Probably everyone knows this song, best remembered for its catchy chorus ("Cause I missed you/ I missed you") and video in which Lisa frolics with a cat. The song is inarguably great pop, but like much of the set, it feels so incredibly middle-of-the-road today. The other major hit was "Baby I Love Your Way" by Mountain (#6 in 1994) - a semi-reggae remake of the Peter Frampton classic. The listeners' tolerance for this song will likely be determined by how much they enjoy semi-reggae remakes of rock songs.

Listening to the CD now, it's somewhat hard to believe that it was ever considered fairly cutting-edge modern/alt rock. "Spin the Bottle" by the Juliana Hatfield 3 (#97 in 1994) and the Lenny Kravitz pseudo-rocker "Spinning Around Over You" are good examples of music from that era that now sound timid and self-important. Worst of all is "I'm Nuthin'" by Ethan Hawke, in which he sings that he has "a pothead mamma/ got a cokehead dad." He brings to this song all the credibility that anyone who got his start in "Dead Poets Society" can possibly muster.

Fortunately, some of the music has aged somewhat better, particularly a few songs that weren't hits at the time: "Bed of Roses" by the Indians, "When You Come Back to Me" by World Party, and "Locked Out" by Crowded House. In addition, "Tempted" by Squeeze is such as classic that it buoys the entire CD. The soundtrack also had the (somewhat dubious) distinction of making the Knack's "My Sharona" a hit again (#91 in 1994). Of course, no soundtrack of this period would be complete without the requisite U2 song; unfortunately this CD has "All I Want is You" - a self-important arena rock-style song that ends with an extended orchestra break (it was a minor hit in 1989, peaking at #83). Overall, this soundtrack is a decent collection of early 90s college rock. If you listened to this type music at the time, you'll probably enjoy it. Otherwise, subtract a star.

A mix of highly original 90's songs come together to make a wonderful soundtrack to a great film. From the new urban remix of Knack's "My Sharona" to the grunge beats of talented bands, any person with a love for music (and half a brain) will like this soundtrack (unless, of course, you're not a fan of 90's music). A great companion to the movie.

I was just the right age to be enchanted by this movie when it came out. I was barely into high school and thought, "Oh, that's what life will be like after college!" ... I also felt that way about the music in the film: that even though I thought the concepts were somewhat simplistic and the lyrics mostly seemed forced, I would someday find it deep and relevant. Alas, as I reach the age of the characters in the film, I realize that this has not occurred.

The majority of the songs on this album, for me anyway, blend into the similar-sounding oevres of many early-90's bands. The lyrics are bland, the musicianship mediocre, and the sole redeeming value of the songs is their polemical approach to emotion; the world in these songs is full of either ice-cream-cone-sweet (and equally drippy) cliches of happiness and love, or vague, undefined rants against feeling much of anything at all except anger. There are, however, a few reasons why I still haven't sold this one for lunch money. The soundtrack does have a few gems, and especially taken alongside the other songs on the CD they really stand out. One is U2's sentimental yet poetic "All I Want Is You". I would recommend purchasing the far superior album on which this track appears, however, instead of sticking yourself with this soundtrack for the sake of that song alone. "Stay" is another very well-written track, though not as good a song as its endless radio play at the time suggested. If its past overplay doesn't give you nausea to this day when you hear the song, it is a simplistic yet evocative love song in the style of the songs of Jewel. Finally, the Juliana Hatfield song and the Ethan Hawke song are worth having for their humor factor; Hatfield's baby-doll voice cursing in her song is just too cute, and Hawke's folksy tune is a strange blend of Nirvana-esque lyrics and Phil Ochs-like guitar playing.

If you have't heard of the lesser-known bands on this CD, there's a reason.

Some people don't like the fact that this is so 1994. That's exactly why I like it. Of course with every movie soundtrack, it helps if you liked the movie too, which I did, I mean come on, Winona! But anyway. I can actually say that in some way i like every song here. You got the more well known bands like "The Knack", "U2", and "Lenny Kravitz", all with good songs. But I like the stuff from "Dinosaur Jr.", "Crowded House", and "Juliana Hatfield" just as much. Now that I think about it, I believe "Stay" was the big song off this. Even the "Ethan Hawke" song is decent. Basically this is just a great thing to put on whenever you're in your grunge/slacker mood.

This is one of my favorite soundtracks. It has definitive something for everybody, a good mixture. My favourite songs on this CD are "My Sharona", "Stay", "Going, going, gone" and "Tempted".

Nice songs that fit the theme of the movie, but varied enough to satisfy most people's tastes - what could be better?

Saw the movie. I liked the movie itself, and the songs. So I bought this album, and it became one of my favorites since. "Stay" is the one I love the most, but the rest are all OK too.(Though it's made up with SO various songs.) If you liked the movie, I'm sure you'll love the album too.

I had the soundtrack long before I saw the movie. I thought if the song are so good, the movie must be great. The song collection far out lives the movie. This is one of the best soundtracks ever.