Search - Various Artists - Soundtracks :: Splendor (1999 Film)

Gregg Araki (The Doom Generation, Totally F**ked Up) isn't much of a director. His films have ranged from amateurish to emotionally shallow. But the music has been the one point of interest. Splendor, billed as a "freewheeling sex comedy about a trio of LA twentysomethings," includes an atmospheric blend of Brit-pop, shoe-gazer rock, and electronica. Some tracks (Chemical Brothers, Armand Van Helden) are straight from their respective albums, while others (Slowdive, New Order, Chapterhouse) have been remixed to create something new and to help the tracks segue without the discrepancies of style and age. You're forgiven if you don't immediately recognize, say, the House of Love's "I Don't Know Why I Love You," moving to a caffeinated quick step courtesy of an Atlas remix. Or imagine Blur's "Beetlebum" remixed by Moby as a millennium-ending doom ballad. But finally there's some sign of life from My Bloody Valentine, who shows up to remix Lush's "Sweetness and Light." --Rob O'Connor