The Beach [Original Soundtrack]

1	Snakeblood / Leftfield 5:39
2	Pure Shores / All Saints 4:24
3	Porcelain / Moby 3:58
4	Voices / Dario Gand 5:19
5	8 Ball / Underworld 8:51
6	Spinning Mary / Sugar Ray 4:24
7	Return of Django / Harry Beckett 4:17
8	On Your Own / Blur Crouch End Broadway Mix 3:32
9	Yeke Yeke / Mory Kanté Hard Floor Mix 3:54
10	Woozy / Faithless 7:52
11	Richard, It's Business as Usual / Barry Adamson 4:17
12	Brutal / New Order 4:48
13	Lonely Soul / UNKLE 8:54
14	Beached / Angelo Badalamenti 6:44

Barnes & Noble

The soundtrack to Leonardo DiCaprio's latest film -- a screen adaptation of Alex Garland's excellent, edgy novel -- has thoughtful propulsiveness that goes well beyond your average soundtrack. Unlike so many slapped-together compilations that accompany movies these days, most of the songs here were actually written with THE BEACH's thrilling, youth-centric plot in mind. Set on a tiny island off Thailand, the story follows DiCaprio's involvement with a hidden community of Gen Xers who duck local drug lords and Thai authorities, but discover their real enemies are within themselves. In keeping with the characters' youth and ex-pat European makeup, the bulk of the accompanying music comes from electronica mainstays. Danceable but dark-edged tracks from Moby, Leftfield, Underworld, Faithless, and New Order all illuminate the story's LORD OF THE FLIES-meets-BRAVE NEW WORLD creepiness. Two exceptions come from British pop sensation All Saints, who contribute the bouncy, anthemic synth-pop tune "The Beach," and U.S. rockers Sugar Ray, who delve into synthetic sounds with "Spinning Away" (it even includes an orchestral-sounding synth break!). Asian Dub Foundation's instrumental "Return of Django" winks at both swinging jazz with sax and trumpet accompaniment and at dub, with a groovy, rubbery bass line running like a riptide through the track. A spare, new remix of Blur's "On Your Own" proves haunting, as do two tracks incorporating film dialogue into their eerie grooves: Barry Adamson's "Richard, It's Business As Usual" and "Beached," a collaboration between British techno masters Orbital and veteran film scorer Angelo Badalamenti. U.N.K.L.E.'s "Lonely Soul" features the searching vocals of The Verve's Richard Ashcroft, and his yearning, desperate tone fits the film's -- and the album's -- overall mood to a tee. THE BEACH could very well be 2000's TRAINSPOTTING: a soundtrack so hip and now, you'll want to own it as much for its timely relevance as for its musical acumen. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

Like the soundtracks for Danny Boyle's other films, the music collected for his adaptation of Alex Garland's novel The Beach is a hip mix of British and American rock and electronica. Asian Dub Foundation's "Return of Django," Moby's "Porcelain," Leftfield's "Snake Blood," and the Hardfloor remix of Mory Kante's "Yeke Yeke" are among the album's electronic highlights, while Blur's "On Your Own (Crouch End Broadway Mix)" and New Order's "Brutal" add a touch of British pop to the set. "Business as Usual" is a collaboration between Barry Adamson (whose albums seem more filmic than most scores) and the film's star, Leonardo DiCaprio; composer Angelo Badalamenti and Orbital collaborate on "Orbital Mix." All Saints and Sugar Ray contribute the previously unreleased tracks "Pure Shores" and "Spinning Away," respectively, making The Beach an entertaining, if somewhat scattered, collection of music featured in the film. Heather Phares