ãCruel Intentionsä - Original Soundtrack

Arizona Daily Wildcat

"Cruel Intentions" is a great movie; a film that keeps you guessing and slightly agog all the way through. Unfortunately, the soundtrack doesn't share these traits.

The songs all work really well on screen, but if you don't already own the Verve's brilliant Urban Hymns you've got some musical therapy to go through. And if you do, you've already got "Bittersweet Symphony," which is the most prominent song, screen-time-wise.

There are other good tracks, too, like Fatboy Slim's current hit, "Praise You," Craig Armstrong's "This Love," (featuring the stunning vocals of the Cocteau Twins' Liz Fraser), and Blur's "Coffee & TV" (which remains exciting only as long as you don't realize it's included on their new album, out this week). But most of the rest ranges from the average to the atrocious (Counting Crows fall into the latter category with "Colorblind," proving that if there's one thing they're truly good at, it's tainting every project they touch).

The one real bonus is Faithless' non-album track, "Addictive," which shows the techno-hopsters at their finest, but will probably turn up as a b-side soon anyway.

- doug levy