Clerks II
For better or worse, this soundtrack reflects not only the movie (with plenty of excerpts from the film's dialogue) but the tastes of director Kevin Smith--a connection laid out in his detailed liner notes, where Smith readily admits that he's "got a real disconnect when it comes to what's musically hip or in vogue. " The album is like a peep into the head of an aging New Jersey teenager, from King Diamond's "Welcome Home," an over-the-top metal song that must have inspired hours of air guitar, to Talking Heads' "(Nothing But) Flowers," to Soul Asylum's "Misery," to Samantha Fox's über-'80s "Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)." Smith's regular composer, Jim Venable, contributes two serviceable instrumentals: the glammy stomper "Neckin' on the Swing" and the funky "Goin' Away Party."--Elisabeth Vincentelli