The Gilmore Girls: Our Little Corner of the World (CD - 2002)

Only on the soundtrack records for the films of Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums) does one find such a unique and unpredictable collection of well-chosen music by such strong artists -- almost universally using distinctive LP tracks over the usual singles favored everywhere else for soundtracks and compilations. In fact, this differs from all the other bogus TV show compilations in one other crucial fact: Every one of these 24 songs has appeared on a Gilmore Girls episode, and quite prominently at that. Aside from one truly asinine track by Black Box Recorder and an ineffective college-try effort from the ageless Claudine Longet, there are so many corners of fun and enterprising pop here, one hardly knows where to begin. Any comp/show that so prominently features the magnificent Pernice Brothers ("Clear Spot"), the Shins ("Know Your Onion!"), and Ash ("Girl From Mars") gets this writer's approval. But who wouldn't stop dead for the older, immortal beauty of Big Star's Olympian Radio City track "Thirteen" from three decades ago? Joey Ramone's "adios amigos," fare-thee-well cover of "What a Wonderful World" is inarguably great, too. And for all this -- and both John Lennon and Yoko Ono separately -- for this writer's money, the collection is nearly stolen by the heartfelt theme song, an exclusive from the far-from-washed-up Carole King and daughter Louise Goffin (so it's still a Goffin & King match, if a very different one). "Where You Lead I Will Follow" is a song that remembers King's most affecting penwork, and her lead vocal still grabs you by the aorta. The sentiment of the song, fitting for a modern single mother/daughter drama, is also apropos for this CD as a whole. There is a great demand for lasting, quirky, non-rote, singular music, instead of the rote formulas the industry so fearfully, shortsightedly clings to like famine survivors with stale crusts of baguettes. It's all over this. ~ Jack Rabid minimize