Rushmore

Rushmore
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The Rushmore soundtrack manages to pleasantly skirt the line between sentiment and sentimentality with a nuanced, eminently listenable combo of score and song. The songs mostly blend raw, adolescent urges and insecurity with an awkward grace. Though composed primarily of popular music from the 1960s, none of the selections is a hit of the expected Big Chill variety. In fact, compiler Randall Poster proves himself a '60s pop connoisseur, including little-known gems such as Cat Stevens's buoyant, hummable "Here Comes My Baby" (covered by Yo La Tengo on Fakebook) and the Who 's revved-up, intentionally silly proto-opera "A Quick One While He's Away." The bossa nova folk-pop of Unit 4+2's "Concrete & Clay" is lovingly contrasted by the Creation's blistering, feedback-enhanced hit-that-never-was "Making Time." Devo founder Mark Mothersbaugh's incidental music is nothing short of delightful, but the Rugrats composer clearly comes by whimsy easily. The intriguing thing about Mothersbaugh's score--seven snippets from which are sprinkled throughout the disc--is that it complements the archival tunes while combining Beethoven-lite flourishes and jazzy instrumentation with percolating mod keyboards. Like the film itself, this soundtrack is an inspired, left-field effort, and it's difficult to plot out its many charms. --Mike McGonigal

Album Tracks
1. Hardest Geometry Problem in the World - Mark Mothersbaugh
2. Making Time - Creation
3. Concrete & Clay - Unit 4 + 2
4. Nothing In This World Can Stop Me Worrin' Bout That Girl - The Kinks
5. Sharp Little Guy - Mark Mothersbaugh
6. The Lad With the Silver Button - Mark Mothersbaugh
7. A Summer Song - Chad & Jeremy
8. Edward Appleby (In Memoriam) - Mark Mothersbaugh
9. Here Comes My Baby - Cat Stevens
10. A Quick One While He's Away - The Who
11. 'Snowflake Music' From Bottlerocket - Mark Mothersbaugh
12. Piranhas are a Very Tricky Species - Mark Mothersbaugh
13. Blinuet - Zoot Sims
14. Friends Like You, Who Needs Friends - Mark Mothersbaugh
15. Rue St. Vincent - Yves Montand
16. Kite Flying Society - Mark Mothersbaugh
17. The Wind - Cat Stevens
18. Oh Yoko - John Lennon
19. Ooh La La - The Faces
20. Margaret Yang's Theme - Mark Mothersbaugh

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