Various – The Cable Guy (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Pretty clear-splattered vinyl. Quiet pressing, and overall good dynamics. A great soundtrack if looking for 90s sound. The Primitive Radio Gods’ classic hit (seldom found on vinyl) is here with a handful of other gems including Lou Reed and Velvet Underground covers.

Shame that White Zombie's "More Human than Human" wasn't included but there's a few great 90s alternative rock tracks here. Some worth mentioning are a brilliant Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) track, his first solo release, a good Velvet Underground cover by $10,000 gold chain (a one off group featuring Pearl Jam's Mike MacCready), a Silverchair track only previously available as a bonus track on the vinyl version of Frogstomp, a Porno for Pyros cover of Satellite of Love (Lou Reed). Hey Man Nice Shot is worth a mention for just been an absolute belter of a track. Well worth a listen, and usually found quite cheap due to the movie's (undeservedly) poor reputation.

It's interesting looking back at these soundtracks from two generations past. I still think of anything with a Y2K aesthetic to be recent history but that was over 17 years ago already. Cable guy was even further back, longer than I want to believe. In 1996 Jim Carrey was still the biggest star in the world and audiences simply were not ready for his dark side during that summer. The movie performed "okay" but well below expectations. I liked it at the time but I've not seen it for ages, and, honestly, since writer Judd Apatow has gone full SJW recently (and Jim Carrey too for that matter) I don't think I could view it the same way unless a darker extended version came out.

As if we had anything to complain about the mid-90s. Suburbia was still comfortable, the dollar was still worth something, and the darkness that came with the new millennium was inconceivable. Perhaps that is why any of us who were teenagers at the time of the movie's release feel MUCH older than we should be now in 2017. As with Brainscan, the grungy nature of this soundtrack now feels quaint and inoffensive. I suppose that Ben Stiller had many of these tracks on a mixtape during production of the movie to help get him in the mood but the selection on offer here feels cheap and lazy. I've never heard of half of these bands. Highlights include Carrey's rendition of Somebody to Love and one track of John Ottman's cartoonish score. A bonus track popular 90s band Stabbing Westward is tacked on at the end but, as far as I remember, not in the movie itself. Perhaps from a longer cut? Or maybe it was contractual.

A victim of uninspiring times rather than an uninspiring movie. Half of these tracks are completely indistinguishable from each other.