Not that Clueless is Melrose Place. Sure, it looked like one of those pandering, patronizing teen movie conceived by boardroom-bound adults, but it actually was fairly clever and written and directed by righteous Amy Heckerling in Fast Times-mode rather than Look Who's Talking-mode. Maybe it wasn't as edgy a teen flick as Over the Edge or River's Edge, but Alicia Silverstone's Cher was a wittier she than She's Out of Control or She's All That.
And Afghan Whigs and Liz Phair notwithstanding, the soundtrack of She's All That couldn't hold a patchouli-scented candle shoplifted from Hot Topic to the Clueless soundtrack. World Party! Cracker! Supergrass! Radiohead at their most acoustic! The Beastie Boys at their most punk! Coolio at his most soulful! Velocity Girl at their noisiest! Luscious Jackson at their partyingest! None of the covers best the originals by Kim Wilde, Psychedelic Furs, Flamin' Groovies, or Mott the Hoople, but aside from a couple of cheesy tracks by The Counting Crows (whining up a good song by Psychedelic Furs) and Jill Sobule (RIP), the Clueless soundtrack is classic.
It's now being issued on vinyl for the first time since the film's twentieth anniversary in 2015. It arrives on both black vinyl and limited-edition pink to match the cover graphics. I received the black vinyl edition for review purposes, and the plastic is perfectly quiet, centered, and flat, even though the UPS guy left it sitting in the sun for a bit instead of ringing my doorbell, which is never appreciated.
Even though Clueless is a various-artists comp recorded under various circumstances—from Velocity Girl's legit lo-fi track cut before they'd even signed to Sub-Pop to Coolio's mainstream-polished bass-heavy hip-hop—the music sounds consistently clear and noise-free, if fairly thin, which is not atypical of nineties productions. The packaging is pretty no-frills too (there's no attempt to reproduce the CD's booklet text or pics), but there are no significant issues and it's very nice to have this stuff on vinyl.
