Juno (Deluxe Edition)

Performer: Original Soundtrack
Artist: Billy Katz
Producer: Amy Driscoll; Jason Reitman; Peter Afterman; Margaret Yen; Robert Kraft; Allison Litton (Compilation)
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Audio Remasterer: Dan Hersch. The drolly adorable movie comedy JUNO presses some of the same indie-film buttons as Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE and Wes Anderson's comedies of manners such as RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. Unsurprisingly, it has a similarly fine soundtrack. There are seven new songs here by New York anti-folk singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson, including the jaunty but gently barbed "So Nice, So Smart." The rest of the soundtrack collects impressively deep tracks from a variety of hipster heroes, including Sonic Youth's outstandingly creepy cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar," Cat Power's take on the R&B ballad "Sea of Love," Buddy Holly's "Dearest," and Belle and Sebastian's "Piazza, New York Catcher." The soundtrack ends with the film's two stars, Ellen Page (THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS) and Michael Cera (SUPERBAD), singing a slightly reworked version of one of Dawson's older songs from her days as half of the Moldy Peaches, "Anyone Else But You." Music plays a key part in Juno, the way-too-charming indie comedy directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Juno, the pregnant teen of the title role, isn't just a kid who loves rock & roll; she and her boyfriend Paulie Bleeker play guitars together, the adoptive father of Juno's kid is a recovering grunge rocker who toured the world and elsewhere in 1993, and Reitman punctuates the film with songs, both classic rock and precious twee folk tunes from Kimya Dawson, formerly of the Moldy Peaches. Some might say that the sickly sweet songs of Dawson don't fit comfortably alongside the Kinks, Mott the Hoople, and Sonic Youth's cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar," but a large part of the appeal of Juno is how the world-weary sarcasm of Gen-X rubs against the unapologetic quirkiness of Gen-Y, and the soundtrack reflects that almost more than the movie, as the Dawson songs are even more prominent on this 19-track album than within the 90-minute movie. This may not be to everybody's taste -- many found the twee tunes irritating, not charming -- but anybody who loved the movie completely will find the Juno soundtrack just as witty and warm as the film itself. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Mojo (Publisher) (p.105) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "Adam Green and Kimya Dawson's sweetly sassy tunes fit snugly with the sarky world-view of Juno's heroine." Record Collector (magazine) (p.96) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he cunning, very listenable mix of college pop, indie weirdness and vintage musical eccentricity works and flows extremely well."

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