There’s generally no accounting for taste when it comes to Kevin Smith, but the “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” soundtrack has some decent tunes on in. Sort of. The film leans heavily on bad ’90s nostalgia hits like Primus and Marcy Playground, but even some of those types of one-hit wonder tracks are ok (Len’s “Steal My Sunshine,” while kind of annoying now, is a decent pop song, we suppose). The nostalgia makes sense too considering, ‘Porno’ starts off at a high school reunion and what follows kick starts the narrative off into high gear, but the use of Primus at the beginning is haphazard, out of nowhere and odd.
Due November 11 on Verve records, the 23-track soundtrack disc also features songs by the Jesus & The Mary Chain (yeah, it was in “Lost In Translation,” but we approve of the song), DMX, Blondie (sweetly used in the film), MC Chris, Canadian indie-rockers The Dears, Bronski Beat, and the Pixies’ “Hey,” from Doolittle and a song that might just be the most memorable, “movie-music” moment in the film (which despite our usual distaste for Smith, a movie we didn’t entirely dislike). The Dears track runs a close second on the memorable music moments (a wistful song that captures the more endearing qualities of the film quite well).
Featured in the film, but not the movie is heinous struggle-rock ’90s band Live (“Hold Me Up”), Forbidden Ensemble (“My Assistant Will Take Notes”), DJ Kool (“Let Me Clear My Throat/Klassic Cool Original Version”) and Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen (“New Frontier”) but most, if not all of the film’s key tracks are represented on the disc. The rest of the tracks on the album is dialogue from the film.
The guy who did the score, James L. Venable ( who also contributed the song, “Smile, I Think She Likes You”) doesn’t have his music featured here which is good because we honestly thought his goofy music was godawful and pretty similar to lame sitcom music. This guy composes a lot of ham, music for all the “Scary Movie,” “Epic Movie” franchise, “Powerpuff Girls,” “Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo,” all the Kevin Smith films and a lot of other low-grade stuff.
Zack and Miri Make A Porno soundtrack tracklist
1. The Idea Comes…Hard
2. Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver – Primus
3. Sex & Candy – Marcy Playground
4. Steal My Sunshine – Len
5. Salutations
6. Smalltown Boy – Bronski Beat
7. The Rosie Defense
8. Just Like Honey – The Jesus & Mary Chain
9. The Money Montage
10. Star Whores
11. Fett’s Vette – MC Chris
12. Meet The Producer
13. Dreaming – Blondie
14. Delaney’s Lament
15. Party Up (Up In Here) – DMX
16. Hey – The Pixes
17. The Worst Porno You’ve Ever Seen
18. You And I Are A Gang Of Losers – The Dears
19. Ain’t Love Grand
20. I Love You – Climax Blues Band
21. The Dutch Rudder
22. We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off – Jermaine Stewart
23. Parting Shot
The Dears – “You And I Are A Gang of Losers”