Product Description

French duo Air's soundtrack for the Sofia Coppola-directed (yes, THAT Coppola) film THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is a far cry from the bouncy post-disco sounds of their earlier efforts. Instead of light, cheery, and fun music full of ironic wit, this album delves into darker regions. Dance beats are clearlynot the agenda here, as the largely instrumental album paints moody sonic portraits that bring to mind the highly textured '70s work of art-rockers like Eno and Pink Floyd. In fact, much of THE VIRGIN SUICIDES sounds more like a batch of vintage prog-rock outtakes than like the work of Europe's most cutting-edge electronic popsters. Breaking the vocal silence (but not the dark mood) are "Playground Love", sung by Gordon Tracks, and the album's closer, an extended, unsettlingmonologue delivered by a deep, nightmare-inducing voice.

Track Listing

1. Playground Love
2. Clouds Up
3. Bathroom Girl
4. Cemetary Party
5. Dark Messages
6. The Word "Hurricane"
7. Dirty Trip
8. Highschool Lover
9. Afternoon Sister
10. Ghost Song
11. Empty House
12. Dead Bodies
13. Suicide Underground

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14518 in Music
• Released on: 2000-02-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack

Amazon.co.uk Review
French avant-pop duo Air's third album is the soundtrack to the Sofia Coppola movie about a brace of teenage sisters whose beauty mesmerises the local boys and whose suicides devastate the community. It's a Gothic, faintly silly romantic fantasy about lust for the unattainable, and Air's enigmatic "pure pop" treatment is the perfect musical backdrop. Tracks like "Playground Love" and "Highschool Lover" are deceptively candy-coated pieces of puppy lover's pop, all sighing saxophones and dippy keyboards, while "Bathroom Girl" is a slo-mo vision of beauty. With the spookier synth pulses and black vibes of "Cemetery Party" and "Dark Messages", however, Air get to signal the weirder undercurrents of the movie, while "Dead Bodies" is a full-on Gothic wig-out complete with a sisterly choir from beyond the grave. --David Stubbs

Customer Reviews

Deeply meaningful
I hadn't really heard any of Air's previous work before I watched 'The Virgin Suicides' but after hearing the haunting soundtrack and the eerie melodies that were so fitting to the film I just had to go out and buy this. It is captivating within itself and is an album that truly makes you think. As a soundtrack it works very well as it is filled with haunting tracks that just make you want to listen again and again.

It will take you back to poignant times in your life and really make you think. I find the tracks so haunting and deep that while listening to them you can really reflect on your emotions and feelings. Although it can sound rather sinister in places it is filled with beautiful tracks which upon listening to reveal their darker themes. A very fitting soundtrack to a wonderful film- you can listen to it on its own or with the film but whichever you choose it will have an impact on you.

Why everyone should love the Virgin Suicides
When I first heard this CD I had knew very little about AIR. Apart from the renound 'sexy boy' I knew little about what they had produced. On first listening, The Virgin Suicides appears to be very solemn and dark however when listened to again the true beauty of the music is apparent. The message potrayed is touching and symbolic and causes everyone to reminisce of a youth which wasn't as true as they'd imagined. It must be confessed that it was only when I saw Sofia Coppolla's production of Jeffery Eugenides' novel, that everything regarding the album fell into place. It's haunting tones introduce you to the emotions of the film and allow you to truly involve yourself in the story. On it's own the album is dramatic and pensive, however it is on understanding of the background story, that the piece descends into a world of it's own and inspires people to watch the film time and again, to appreciate what effect the music has an the direction of the film. For first time Air listeners, this album may seem a trifle sinister, however on a second listen no-one can defy it's symbolism and realisation of what Sofia Coppolla was trying to portray in her film.

Dark and broody, sucks you into a velvety world of wonder
Listening to this album is like drowning, except you really don't want to come up for air (air, geddit?). Dark and swirling guitars, beautiful great rolling percussion - from start to finish it's like a hypnotic soundscape that will capture and transfix you. I've had a lot of "favourite" albums in my time, but this one has outlasted all of them. It's like nothing Air have ever done before and surpasses any other soundtrack I've ever heard. Best of all, the whole composition just flows so beautifully that it's easy to get sucked in and then be spat out at the end feeling like not just your ears, but your very soul has been privileged by the experience.