The Soundtrack Is All Right

Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations are reserved for Mrs. Linear Tracking Lives! and I to catch up on all of the films we have wanted to see during the year. We go to the movie theater all of the time, but it's for flicks like 'How to Train Your Dragon,' 'Toy Story 3' and the like. That's just where Mommy and Daddy are right now, but we do like to be grownups, too. So, we fired up the DVD player and crossed two films off the list this past weekend with 'Please Give' and 'The Kids Are All Right.' Both were worth the wait. I assumed I would be at least a little disappointed with 'Kids' because, frankly, I couldn't imagine it would live up to the critics' praise. I was wrong. Several of the performances should be remembered at awards time.

LTL! is about music, however, and I want to highlight the excellent soundtrack. The opening credits are accompanied by Vampire Weekend's "Cousins." I don't know about you, but thanks to the 'Saturday Night Live' appearances and the Tommy Hilfiger commercials and the car ads and the seemingly endless plays on horrible radio stations... I have lost all zeal for this band. So, needless to say, this was not a good start. Then, something wonderful happened. I heard a few seconds of one of my favorite early David Bowie songs, "Panic in Detroit." More Bowie followed, as well Deerhoof and X. By the time MGMT closed the film I realized this was potentially the best soundtrack I had heard this year... if all of the songs actually made the cut.

A quick search showed that, indeed, a couple of the best songs in the film didn't make the soundtrack. Still, if you don't have many of these songs, this record is worth $10. In order, here is a complete list of the songs used in 'The Kids Are All Right.' It makes for a nice mix. The songs with an asterisk are the ones that can be found on the soundtrack. Buy the soundtrack here. I'll also include a couple of my personal favorites.

Deerhoof - Milk Man (mp3)
David Bowie - Panic in Detroit (mp3) This file was removed by the powers that be.

Vampire Weekend - "Cousins"
Leon Russell - "Out in the Woods"*
Tom Hirschmann - "Tailgating"
Tame Impala - "Sundown Syndrome"*
David Bowie - "Panic in Detroit"
David Bowie - "Win"*
Deerhoof - "Milk Man"*
Trespeso - "A Matar En La Disco"
Quadron - "Slippin"*
Tom Hirschmann - "Red Handed"
David Bowie - "Black Country Rock"*
Deerhoof - "Blue Cash"*
X - "The New World"*
Uh Huh Her - "Same High"*
Fever Ray - "When I Grow Up (D Lissvik Remix)"*
Ge-ology featuring Yukimi Nagano - "Blues Alley"*
Gabor Szabo - "Galatea's Guitar"*
Little Dragon - "Fortune"
Betty Wright - "Good Lovin'"*
Joni Mitchell - "All I Want"*
CSS - "Knife"*
MGMT - "The Youth"*