Daily Staff Writer

“Run Lola Run”

Motion Picture Soundtrack

THREE STARS

“Run Lola Run” is a soundtrack for the postmodern age. It is wall-to-wall electronica that gets under your skin and stays there like a freaky ringworm on acid.

The album features Franka Potente, Susie van der Meer, Thomas D, Sun Electric and Tommi Eckart in a non-stop pounding montage of coalescing images.

The end result is an atmospheric landscape of urban dance that will make you get up and stay up if you are into this sort of thing or take a lot of drugs.

The whole thing is like that feeling you get when you play a video game for a really long time. Your eyes start to glaze over, your mind goes blank, and then you know you are in the zone.

It’s like whale-watching with Woody Allen and the Marquis de Sade, you know something is going on, but you can’t quite put your finger on it.

It’s like making reservations at your favorite French restaurant for you and your girlfriend but when you get there, they say they’ve never heard of you. You made the call but your woman looks at you like your bum and you could just kill that smug maitre’de cause he knows, man, he knows.

It’s like rain on your wedding day, only not ironic.

Some of the tracks are in German and that is a nice touch, too. If you want to sit around your crappy one-room apartment pretending to be all suave, sophisticated and European, nothing says “pretentious Euro-trash wannabe” like the hypnotic strains of some German guy screaming at you.

This soundtrack would be great for anyone who enjoyed the film “Run Lola Run.”

It would also be great for anyone into really kinky, sexually deviant acts. Or leather.

-Greg Jerrett

“Eyes Wide Shut”

Music From the Motion Picture

FOUR STARS

One of the most essential elements of any Stanley Kubrick film is the soundtrack. The most memorable moments from his films have often involved an unconventional, yet striking underscore.

Who didn’t develop a different take on Gene Kelly’s “Singing in the Rain” after seeing “A Clockwork Orange?” Who doesn’t remember Vera Lynn sweetly singing “We’ll Meet Again” as an atomic bomb wipes out humanity?

Like these past Kubrick classics, in “Eyes Wide Shut” the musical and visual elements are in complete synthesis.

The soundtrack opens with the powerful and haunting “Musica Ricercata, II (Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale)” by Gy”rgy Ligeti, and performed by Dominic Harlan. The piece, which is heard in most of the previews, is an almost random sounding set of piano intervals with an occasional rumbling chord, set to a very free time.

The piece underscores the bulk of the film, and fits almost perfectly the mood of the film. Its unusual tempo highlights the feelings of paranoia and uncertainty that run through the film.

The soundtrack moves on to “Waltz 2 From Jazz Suite,” by Dmitri Shostakovich, a light, soaring piece of music. It is in such stark contrast to “Musica Ricercata” that it becomes readily apparent that two very different worlds exist in the film.

Continuing this theme is “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing,” written and performed by pop balladeer Chris Isaak. The underlying anger of the song makes it powerful, despite it’s slightly clich‚d blues style.

The remainder of the album continues to feature a wide variety of mood, from the dark, ritualistic “Masked Ball” by Jocelyn Pook to the familiar pleasantry of “Strangers in the Night” performed by the Peter Hughes Orchestra.

In the context of the film, these songs are a perfect partner to the actions of the film. On their own, they are still a powerful statement on the mood and style of the film.

-Ben Godar

“Showoff”

Showoff

ONE STAR

The debut album “Showoff” by the pansy punk-rockers of the same name is a mediocre attempt at being punk music’s new glory boys. Instead of spouting off politically incorrect mantras backed by the speedy crunch of a guitar getting its ass kicked by its master, this foursome comes across as a pack of mallrats with a Green Day complex.

Actually, to be honest, this album doesn’t get off to a bad start. Its just that after the first four songs, everything else begins to sound the same.

The album opener, “Backstab,” is a pretty good tune, edgy and powerful, but lacking in the vocals department. Singer Chris Envy (yeah, that’s his real name, not some punk moniker) has an annoyingly nasal singing voice, an unfortunate quality which seems to be the staple of punk music these days.

Another good song is “Ralphie.” The song has a great little guitar riff that keeps the tune moving, and a catchy chorus rounds it out.

Perhaps the best song on this album is “The Anti-song.” The pace is fast, but what really sells this song is when John Feldmann of Goldfinger, who produced this album, joins in on the sing-along and pokes fun at the band.

Not only does Feldmann have a buff singing voice which steals the show from this band — a sad enough feat when you consider he did about 30 seconds of vocals — Feldmann’s knowledge of the music biz and what listeners want to hear helped to polish off this album and make it reasonably listenable. Goldfinger’s axe-slinging Charlie Paulson even shows up on the song “Coalition” to show the band how it’s done, but even he can’t save them.

Don’t worry. “Showoff” isn’t a Goldfinger rip-off. This band and its debut album just leaves me wondering what it is this band has to show off, except for maybe their Green Day haircuts.

-Kevin Hosbond