Customer Reviews

Reality Bites

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have to admit I'm one of the people who bought this again even though I own the original version also. Maybe that's because I'm a slacker at heart and I'm still looking for my "Winona", but I'd say it's more for the great music. This soundtrack isn't as consistent as "The Crow" or "Singles" was, but it's a great snapshot of 1994, and fit the movie well. Of course the bonus here, besides the extra pictures and history, is the added six songs. I have to say I didn't really miss any of them before, and three of the six tracks are from Lisa Loeb or Ethan Hawke, but it's nice to have 79 minutes of mostly great tunes. If you have the original copy of this, I'd say you could pass on the 10th Anniversary Edition, since the best of what's here, was here before.

I graduated college the year this film was released and we bought it on VHS (hey, it was 10 years ago!) as a celebration and kind of a spin on what I'd be facing as a theatre major. I never could find the soundtrack and besides being an ultimate Winona fan, would recommend this to anyone in the mood for a flashback entering their 30s and feel like listening to the genre of the 1990s. "Reality Bites" is "The Big Chill" of our generation and so is the music. The best song is definitely U2 "All I Want is You". It was the most moving in the film and a good long song with true lyrics. "Stay" ("I Missed You") is a classic and so is "My Sharona". I wish the soundtrack crew had opted for Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way", but Big Mountain does an honest job. The point of the soundtrack is to relive the film and it succeeds. "When You Come Back To Me" by World Party is also integral to the opening of the movie. Ethan Hawke delivers the same powerhouse performance with "I'm Nuthin'" and on this 10th anniversary CD version "Add it Up" is awesome since it is the explosion between Hawke and Ryder. We also have "Disco Inferno", a song I would have missed on the original track - remember when Ryder is fired and Vickie offers her a job at the Gap, is turned down and slams the door - well she plays this! I really identified with her because she seemed older than the other graduates. "Tempted" is a classic no matter who sings it.

Bottom Line: If you hold the movie in your heart like I do, invest in the music. It's teriffic!

First of all I am 30 years old, and if you're my age, you were probably 16-17 years old when this soundtrack first released. I can't count the number of times I put this cassette on my player and went to sleep to the killer tunes. I had one of these players that played both sides without you having to manually turn the cassette over, so I could just let it do its' thing and lay back and enjoy.

I would say that for most of us born in the late 1970s, this 1994 soundtrack was pretty much the soundtrack to our lives - and for good reason. This is one of those rare albums where every track is a winner, there is no filler, and it also introduced (at the time) some pretty groundbreaking new artists.

The best things on this CD are :

1. Lisa Loeb : Her original "Stay" (a masterpiece after all these years) is still here, alongwith a new track called "Fools Like Me".

2. The Juliana Hatfield 3 : "Spin the Bottle" was my favorite song off this album for over a year, and it holds up well even today. I love this group.

3. Lenny Kravitz : Which boy would not relate to the glory that was "Spinnin' Around Over You"? This was a seminal track on the CD.

4. Squeeze : As I grew older, the track I most wanted to play from this was "Tempted" by Squeeze. Its very memorable with a killer chorus. It made this CD.

Ethan Hawke's interludes are fine, and "Bed of Roses" still rocks all these years later. You know, for a film thats close to fifteen years old, this soundtrack pretty much nails present day sentiments and angst as well. I remember the classic line that Winona gets to say - "I thought I would BE something at 23!", to which Hawke responds "The only thing you have to be at 23 - is yourself". It resonated quite well when I was 16, but I suppose young people watching the movie and listening to the soundtrack would gain some wisdom from that too.

Always interesting and never boring, this new edition of the CD deserves a place in your collection. Get it now!

lost this CD and finally got around to repurchasing it, still good 14 years later. good songs from start to finish.

This soundtrack brings back vivid memories of the 90's for me. I guess mainly because of Lisa Loeb's "Stay", which I remember being on the radio and on MTV/VH1 incessantly. But in truth, some the the songs that I remember strongly come from other, earlier, periods. "Disco Inferno" is one of the best songs from the peak disco era. "My Sharona" is rock from post-peak disco, and "All I Want Is You" is primo late 80's U-2. However, when I heard some of the tracks that I wasn't so familiar with, I could hear the 90's loud and clear, which means I was hearing a hybrid of different styles rather tnan one dominant voice, because that's how 90's music was.

In "Spin the Bottle", by The Juliana Hatfield 3, we hear the neo-folky sound that was successfully popularized by Jewel. Grunge was big: in "Going, Going, Gone" by The Posies we get musical grunge and properly introspective lyrics. Likewise, Lenny Kravitz's "Spinning Around Over You" has a grungy and bluesy feel. "Give a Man a Fish" by Arrested Development embodies the more idealistic old-school rap that preceded "gangsta" rap, while Me Phi Me's "Revival" is an early precursor to the rap/hip-hop synthesis that would later come to dominate pop music. In yet another manifestation of the 90's, New Order's "Confusion" is a club/dance number, a genre that was also in the process of becoming prominent.

The real surprise on this collection is Ethan Hawke. Actor, novelist, director - now he's a rock star too? "I'm Nuthin" continues the folk revivalist sound, with confused and despairing lyrics and talking-folk delivery, sounding like a 90's Bob Dylan; and "Add It Up" is dripping with frustrated macho sexuality. It seems that Ethan could have had a new career had he chosen to pursue it.

So overall, I recommend this CD. I recommend the film too, but you don't need to see it to enjoy this music. There are maybe 2 or 3 tracks that I don't like, but out of 20 you're bound to find a couple of clunkers.

My wife loved the film and always talked about the soundtrack. It is a great soundtrack and I surprised her with it. It went down a treat.

I totally agree with the previous reviews. I was also 16 yrs old when I saw the clip of "Baby I love your way" on the TV. As a Winona-fan, I directly purchased the OST (back then in casette) and I listened to all the songs before I watched the movie. I had no problem in "imagining" a scene based on the songs, and I must say that I was a bit dissapointed in the movie because it was different than what I expected from the songs, and also because the songs were played too shortly in my opinion :). My favourite tracks are U2 "All I want is you", Lisa Loeb "Stay", "My Sharona" and also "Baby I love your way".
Combination of great songs, wide variety of artists and different song types makes that this OST is certainly a must-have and worth to buy !

Reality Bites is one of my favorite movies, and I love the soundtrack for it. At first I didn't really recognize the songs just by looking at their titles, but I was familiar with all of them when I heard them in the movie; so if you're not sure if you know a song or not, try listening to a clip of it. I had the original on cassette and had been meaning to get it on CD, so I was excited to hear that there's a new edition out that has ALL the songs from the movie. The music is awesome, and it's one of the few CD's I have that all my friends will agree on listening to in my car.

This is an awesome soundtrack it is enjoyable and fun to listen to. The best songs on this cd are all of them

I had been looking for this locally and everyone said that they didn't make it anymore and that I would never find it. Boy were they wrong. Thanks!