Search - Various Artists :: Weeds: Music from the Original Series/O.S.T.

'And they all look just the same'

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 10/05/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"WEEDS is an instant American Classic of a series made for television - albeit Showtime television available only through cable. It is a funky, funny, socially erudite, brave little parody on suburban life in 2005 where instant new towns are popping up on the hillsides of California with identical houses, identical people doing identical lives - and the influence of the drug culture stemming from the most absurd places. This cloned model town of WEEDS is Agrestic, and does it have its wacky population! Much of the success of the show lies in the astute portrayals by Mary Louise Parker and Elizabeth Perkins and an entire entourage of funky folk.



How to set this little show to music? Well, this CD gathers many of the tunes from the first season and allows even the non-WEEDS watcher to see exactly what the mood of Agrestic is. The show opens with clever titles (everything is cloned) and the background music is Malvina Reynolds mawkishly singing 'Little Boxes': it is hilarious. There are many similar good bands on this entertaining but very off beat CD - Peggy Lee sings 'A Doodlin' Song', Hill of Beans offers 'Satan Lend Me A Dollar', The Mountain Goats strum 'Cotton', and NRBA does a terrific 'Wacky Tabacky'.



This is one of those CDs to keep in your car to lighten the drudgery of primetime freeway traffic as you drive by the hillsides of communities that 'all look just the same'. A little voyeuristic perhaps, but good for a bunch of chuckles. Let's hope the show and the music return for another season...or several. Grady Harp, October 05"

Grows on you like a weed

E. A Solinas | MD USA | 09/30/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"With "Queer As Folk" and "Sex and the City" history, and "The Sopranos" soon to follow suit, Showtime has unveiled a new controversy-courting series: "Weeds," the tale of a suburban widow who supports her family by becoming... a local pot dealer.



Opinions vary on the show itself -- either it's provocative or it's limp as a dead marijuana leaf, take your pick. But the soundtrack continues the current TV trend of memorable music, and has quite a few good bands and singers included on it.



There's a strong alt-rock, folky edge to this soundtrack. It kicks off with Malvina Reynolds' gently wobbly lo-fi, one of the weaker spots on this soundtrack, and follows on through to stuff like Peggy Lee's piano-led singing, Marion Black's heavy folky rock, and Joey Santiago's rippling, complex folksy tune.



But it excels on the indie-rock edge as well. Up-and-coming Scots "Sons and Daughters" create a heavy, hypnotic atmosphere with "Blood," which is enough to set your head spinning. That raw dark sound is lightened by the energetic indiepop of the New Pornographers, and the dreamily entrancing neo-folk of Sufjan Stevens.



Round it off with the bouncy pop melodies of the Be Good Tanyas, and Nelly McKay's catchily sweet "David. Add in the obvious choice for subtle hip-hop ("Ganja Babe," by Michael Franti and Spearhead"), and you have a well-rounded kind of sound for this show. There's little of everything -- pop, jazz, rock, hip-hop, and folk.



What is unusually appealing about this soundtrack is that it sounds a little rough and unpolished. From Sons and Daughters' roiling guitars to the lo-fi warbling at the start, there's always something raw-sounding for every polished bit of indiepop or jazz. However, the wild differences do make it feel... not exactly uneven, but certainly not quite balanced.



From hit indiepopsters to underground dark rockers, "Weeds" has an eclectic assortment of music. A somewhat disconnected collection, without much cohesion, but a wonderful collection with some glorious bands."

Weeds Soundtrack is AWESOME!

Candy Webster | Jupiter, FL United States | 11/09/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The 'Weeds' soundtrack is a wonderfully eclectic blend of musical genres with one underlying theme. Starting with Malvina Reynolds scathing ode to suburbia, followed by Nellie McKay's bouncy tune - "David". Classic Peggy Lee. Ethereal Sufjan Stevens. Michael Franti and Spearhead light up "Ganja Baby"! Seventeen winning songs that end with Hill of Beans "Satan Lend Me a Dollar" - just TRY not sing when that starts playing!! Well worth the money."