VA - Crank - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2006)

One has to give credit where it's due. Crank is an outlandish story that encapsulates all sorts of action -- sex, violence, car chases and adventures. We can be thankful that the soundtrack producers didn't decide to use all industrial music, gabber, drill 'n' bass, and what-not to fill up the digital grooves on this one; in the '90s, they would have without a doubt. What is here is imaginative, creative, and head-scratchingly cool. While it's a very tacky and overly obvious thing indeed to end with the Jefferson Starship tune "Miracles" (why not just give away the ending, huh?), this set is pretty much unassailable. Anybody who can place Quiet Riot, Gerald LeVert, Harry Nilsson, Control Machete, Loverboy, and NOFX in a single soundtrack deserves kudos for the cojones it took to try to pass that buy the record company's licensing department. It plays well, too. There are also the now de rigueur dialogue clips with the all of the clever lines to underscore your fave jams.~ Review by Thom Jurek