Before you ask, no, I’ve never seen an episode of Gossip Girl. I hear that it’s a halfway decent show, but the title itself just sort of throws me off and makes me think of a post-millennium Beverly Hills 90210. Oh wait. Nevermind. The bottom line is that I’m currently inundated with far too many quality shows to watch, be it LOST, Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, or Pushing Daisies. But with a soundtrack this varied, this enthusiastically different, Gossip Girl may be the next show that I add to my DVR.
In 49 minutes, OMFGG takes the listener on a musical roller coaster that features such varied genres as indie pop, rock, dance, and straight-up techno. The Kills’ “Sour Cherry” starts things off on a high note, with a percussion-driven dance rock groove that gets you makes you feel like you should be busting out of the doors of your high school in slow-motion with your trendy clothes and aviators on. Phantom Planet’s “Do the Panic” is equally as awesome, with a chorus that will have even the most hardened hip-hop fan singing emphatically by the last time it comes around.
Other highlights include “Got Your Number” by Nadia Oh, which starts off slightly annoying and ends up slightly endearing, or Crystal Castles’ entrancing “Crimewave.” There are appearances from this year’s almost-“it” band, The Ting Tings and The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. as well. In all honesty, there’s something for everyone – as cliche as that may seem. It won’t exactly elicit the same reaction as a party as, say The Jackson 5 would, but you could certainly do much worse. Aside from a few tracks that most will feel compelled to skip (The Teenagers and The Virgins, specifically) OMFGG is a fairly solid soundtrack in a world where most soundtracks aren’t worth anyone’s time. As far as watching the show goes, I’ll probably continue to avoid it. For now, I can get my hipster music from Chuck, which is more my style anyway.
Key Tracks:
1. “Sour Cherry” – The Kills
2. “Do You Wanna” – The Kooks
3. “Do the Panic” – Phantom Planet
4. “Crimewave” – Crystal Castles
5. “We Started Nothing” – The Ting Tings
7 out of 10 Stars
Audio Overflow 