Search - Various Artists :: Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas: Music From The Motion Picture

Make this the soundtrack for your own trip.

k | Northville, MI United States | 08/28/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps being the rabid Hunter S. fan that I am, maybe I'm too biased to review this disc. It doesn't hurt that I pored over the book and can be found catatonically transfixed by the movie at least twice a month. But even if I found the movie confusing and pointless, as many lesser individuals did, I would still love this soundtrack. It's the perfect mix of songs to stir up those old feelings of fear and loathing lurking inside you, or to blast late at night while tearing across the Nevada desert (as I tested on a recent trek across the country). They are appropriate for the sentiment of the movie and the era, without being ersatz or Forrest-Gump-soundtrack-cheesy most of the time. And, where there is cheese, it's good cheese, like Brewer and Shipley's stoner anthem "One Toke Over the Line", with a little Tom Jones and Perry Como thrown in for that Vegas feel. Other songs recall the central theme of "Fear and Loathing"--the end of the hippie dream, the center of American excess. The drug score will trip you out and have you chanting "...you took too much, too much..." and the highly memorizable sound shippets from the film are so appropriate, not to mention handy. Finally, a suprise with The Dead Kennedy's version of Viva Las Vegas, a perfect coda which makes this soundtrack stand on its own. In conclusion: Buy it. Now."

JohnnyLongStreet

G. Versch | Omaha | 10/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It is true that this is a great collection of songs.



With that said, here are two complaints:



1) The audio snippets from the movie are built into the tracks, so they're tougher to skip through.



2) The audio transfer is terrible. Somewhere in the process, either at the transfer or the mix, the audio thinned out. There's a really weak bass end, and everything sounds thin and tinny.



Not that it ruins the experience, but for someone who's actually into how music sounds, you might look elsewhere."

Excellent, BUT....

The Greatest | Nowhere Land | 08/04/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"WHERE THE HELL ARE "SOMEBODY TO LOVE" AND "JUMPIN' JACK FLASH"? If these made the soundtrack, this would definitely be a five-star release, and one of the best soundtracks ever (right up there with Pulp Fiction and Almost Famous). Personally, I also would rather have Frank Sinatra's wonderful take on "You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me", since it's infinitely better than whatever that Perry Como song is.



But beyond that, the music in this movie is perfectly used. Several reviewers have noted the anachronism of the DK's excellent rewrite of "Viva Las Vegas". The fact that it was recorded 8 or so years after the movie takes place is irrelevant- it's used during the credits. Also, to me it was quite an apt choice, since the feel and lyrics of the song suggest a frenzied, drug-addled Vegas traveller. Hmmm... sound like anything in 'Fear and Loathing..."?



P.S. After seeing this movie, you will never hear "White Rabbit" the same way again."