Search - Various Artists :: Series 7

Alterna-stars Girls Against Boys step up to the plate to score this soundtrack for a movie about a fictitious "reality TV" show. The addition of several unrelated tracks--from Joy Division and others--disrupts the album's cohesive flow somewhat. However, it's nothing a little programming can't fix. "One Dose of Truth" sports a pop melody undercut with a Mark E. Smith-style vocal. Less orthodox industrial clang follows. The freedom from conventional song structure spurs GVSB's instrumental chops. The lugubrious postpunk drone of "Creeping Feeling" and the techno grandiosity of "Whole World Watching," with its paranoiac spy-novel keyboard swirls, reveal a band that could ably substitute a mosh pit for an orchestral one. In a further diversion, GVSB leader Eli Janney collaborates with Julie Stephanek for the dull prom-date piano ballad "Sweetness of Mine." --Rob O'Connor