The Virgin Suicides (Sdtk)

1	Playground Love 3:32
2	Clouds Up 1:30
3	Bathroom Girl 2:25
4	Cemetary Party 2:36
5	Dark Messages 2:28
6	The Word 'Hurricane' 2:33
7	Dirty Trip 6:12
8	Highschool Lover {Theme from "The Virgin Suicides"} 2:42
9	Afternoon Sister 2:24
10	Ghost Song 2:16
11	Empty House 2:58
12	Dead Bodies 2:59
13	Suicide Underground 5:54

Barnes & Noble

It has become customary for soundtracks to function merely as marketing tie-ins to a film, but Air's music for Sofia Coppola's fine directorial debut, "The Virgin Suicides," brings listeners toward the movie rather than taking them away from it. The film, set in mid-'70s suburbia, could easily have relied on a soundtrack of retro-fitted, leisure-suited cheesiness without making any kind of modern musical statement. But Air's Nicolas Godin and Jean Benoit Dunckel are able to capture the oppressive artificiality of the setting while also sounding incredibly au courant. As on their debut, MOON SAFARI, the duo build their sounds on Moog and Fender Rhodes keyboards, but the music is leaner and more evocative. Unlike Yes, ELP, or other monsters of prog rock, their music has the light touch of Brian Eno's '70s work, especially his collaborations with David Bowie. "Playground Love" with vocals by Gordon Tracks captures the wistful tone of the movie's narration. Playful harp runs lend a campy atmosphere to "Dirty Trip," which echoes the movie's use of Heart's "Magic Man" (available on a soon-to-be-released, non-Air-related soundtrack) in an introductory scene. Godin says that the duo composed the music while watching the film, and it shows in their close adherence to the movie's narrative. There is even a hypnotic voice-over summarizing the film's events at the end. Although it is only 40 minutes long, THE VIRGIN SUICIDES is more than just a fine trailer for the movie -- it serves as a preview of what new directions may be found on Air's proper sophomore recording. Martin Johnson

All Music Guide

Two years after the arrival of their debut album, the French twosome Air returned, not with a proper sophomore LP, but with The Virgin Suicides, a full soundtrack to the directing debut of Sophia Coppola. Only one track, "Playground Love," has vocals, and that comes from an outsider (Gordon Tracks) who sounds more like the Auteurs' Luke Haines than Beth Hirsch, the only real vocalist employed previously. The trademarked Air sound is for the most part unchanged; as on Moon Safari, producers Godin and Dunckel rely on contemplative electronic mood-music in a minor key, heavy on the analog synth and organ yet with plenty of traditional textures (guitar, brass, strings, live-sounding drums) in keeping with lounge music and space-pop from the 1960s and '70s. And though all the music here is as meticulously detailed as the tracks on Moon Safari, the soundtrack cultivates an atmosphere more in league with traditional scoring -- instead of focusing on pop songs in an electronic context, Air constructed these tracks as mere soundbytes, simple themes with little embellishment on the basic ideas. Of course, that's perfectly in keeping with the secondary role soundtracks should play to truly serve the movies for which they're composed. Listeners eager for a second dose of the exquisite electronic pop found on Moon Safari will be pleased with much of The Virgin Suicides, but will probably have to wait until Air's proper follow-up to find more evidence of their greatness. John Bush

Rolling Stone

The album is exceedingly strange yet scrupulously crafted and intelligent. James Hunter