American Teen: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack CD

Few soundtracks can claim to have such contemporary taste in music as American Teen, which features a near-definitive set list of buzz bands from the mid-2000s. Nanette Burstein's documentary tracks five high-school students during their senior year, and the accompanying soundtrack takes much of its material from those students' iPods. With tracks by the Ting Tings, Frou Frou, MGMT, and Black Kids, the album suggests that kids in northern Indiana have the hippest taste in the country. Whether or not that's actually true, American Teen is the rare sort of soundtrack that stands on its own and enhances the context of the film, as it provides a rare insight into the characters' tastes. Watching Burstein's movie allows one to appreciate the way Cat Stevens' "Trouble" (one of the few vintage tracks here) orchestrates the protagonist's absence from school, but simply listening to the song (as well as the remaining 14 tracks) proves to be just as enjoyable. ~ Andrew Leahey