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: #6822 in Music
• Released on: 2000-02-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .19 pounds
• Running time: 97 minutes

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

CD 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.

Customer Reviews

A breath of fresh Air...
Anyone looking to add to their Air collection of mellow, Moog-noodling synth pop should keep the plastic in their wallet. The new album is still recognisable as a product of the Gallic duo, but this time they've replaced the chilled with the chilling. The whiff of fluffy nostalgia that the brilliant Moon Safari evoked has been swapped for haunting Pink Floyd'esque guitar solos over gothic minor chords. As a soundscape of the alienated adolescent soul this album has all the nape tingling angst of Portishead and Radiohead whilst still retaining an almost coy, childish simplicity.

I am a great fan of artists who work on the fringes of the mainstream and manage to avoid the formulaic approach, evolving with each new album. Virgin Suicides is certainly a departure from their back catalogue, but since it is actually a soundtrack rather than a new body of work we may well see a return from the dark side on their next release.

If you like good music...
This soundtrack is amazing. AMAZING. Forget about 'Moon Safari', forget about the film, forget about life and just enjoy. I didn't know much of Air before I heard this(besides 'Sexy Boy', which I thought was a nice idea but ultimately a bit too cheesy). Anyway this soundtrack makes me want to buy everything they've ever produced, despite what assorted 'Moon Safari' fans say here about it being far from their best work.

I have one criticism of this soundtrack, which is that some of the tracks are way too short. Air could have made a 60 minute extravaganza here without a lot of effort and a 74 minute masterpiece with a bit of extra work, that's how good the tracks are. As it is, you get 40 minutes of exceptional work - And a work is what it is, this is no french pop album...It reminds me of Pink Floyd in quite a few places, with hints of ambient Aphex Twin and Godspeed You Black Emperor. So think excessively ambient prog rock, with sprinklings of electronica and a generally dark theme throughout.

Basically if you like music, you need this album. It's a great chill-out album, but don't expect it to be just that - the drumming on some of the tracks is fantastic and the epic quality of the whole album just pervades the room you play it in, demanding attention. It's dreamy but gothic, progressive but never over-ambitious, always sublime and if you like the film...so much more than just a soundtrack. You'll know what I mean if you get to hear it.

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.