Customer Reviews

Youth In Revolt

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I was very excited to receive this in the mail from a kind person for Valentines Day! What a perfect soundtrack for such a day! The album flows from one song to the other, so it feels like one of those great moments in radio where they've gotten the programming just right.

Things start to get sweetly sad by the time you're listening to Michael Cera's instrumental "I Have A Boyfriend" but bounces back to upbeat with "What's Up Fatlip?" by Fatlip :)

"Popular Mechanics For Lovers" is a song I know fairly well from the O.C. Soundtracks (I wouldn't admit it, but they are great soundtracks) and I was so happy to hear, 'Taint What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It) by Fun Boy Three & Bananarama and I love the crossfade into My Romance by Jo Stafford.

Some people may be disappointed to know that some of the tracks featured on the trailers, 'Rebel Rebel' by David Bowie (not exactly a surprise), "Mr Pitiful" by Matt Costa and OK Go's "WTF?" don't feature on the soundtrack... which is quite common, but were so fun to hear on the trailers.

It's a nice soundtrack, the music is fresh and the graphic design work on the inside of the booklet and CD case is funny.

There's a quality in most Michael Cera films (by accident or design) that leaves the music attempting to play a larger role than just the soundtrack of an awkward young man inexorably ending up with charming individualistic women far out of his league. The only problem is that this music is a bit too conscious of its joyous innocence, a bit too frivolous and a bit too 'I bet you've never heard of these guys'. It's got all of its 'indie'-coming of age-rom-com bases covered. There are banjos (Little Wings), aged pop songs that are more catchy than good (Bananarama), early 60's French music that would sound more in place in a Stella Artois advert, and even an instrumental from Cera himself. The instrumentals worth listening to are John Swihart's though, as he produces the same sort of simplistic, 'dancing through the fields' pace that was in evidence in Napoleon Dynamite and which for all of its frivolity can't but help bring a smile to your face. The best track (and the reason I took enough interest in the soundtrack to begin with) is easily When U Love Somebody by the Friut Bats, which is probably why it was featured twice in the film, but there are other songs worth a listen (Happiness Trigger for instance). The only problem is that for all of the (heavily folk influenced) indie posturing, the songs lack gravitas, which is fine for a film about an awkward 16 year old trying to get his leg over, but can leave something wanting when played by themselves...unless you actually like Jo Stafford that is, but then why would have you seen a Michael Cera film?

I loved the movie and thought the soundtrack would be awesome! but really there is only one good song and it's the 1st one on this CD Don't waste your $