4 out of 5

Produced by: Various

Label: MCA Records

I was a fledgling film fan, not yet old enough to get into R-rated films.  I hadn’t seen Clerks, but I think I knew it was cool; when the ads played for Mallrats, I know I knew it was cool.  Not having the easiest time getting to the movie (it was only playing at one theater in my town, way out in the world), and not sure if I’d be able to “sneak” into an R-rated flick as I was underage, I fell back on another way I used to connect with films: the soundtrack.

Of course, Kevin Smith flicks tend to speak to a certain phase of adolescence, and the soundtrack – stocked 1000% with grunge and somewhat indie alternative acts – does the same.  So I loved it.  I loved every dialogue snippet; I love every (okay, most) of the bands, and this may have been what introduced me to Wax, as I diligently tracked down albums from all the groups with which I wasn’t familiar.

Eventually, we did make it out to that theater, but failed to get in (not because of age; I think it had stopped showing the day we got there), but Mallrats would become a staple of my home viewing when it became rentable, fueled, almost certainly, by my familiarity with some of the punchlines and the music that popped up sporadically.  Retrospect opinion on the film and Smith is quite different – and I won’t go into that here – but the soundtrack holds up.  These are quality acts (even if you’re anti-90s heavy hitters like Silverchair and Weezer, GVSB and Belly are there for street cred), and giving the disc further legitimacy is that you get some originals, and some great ones at that – I’d still claim Bubbles to be one of Bush’s best tracks, for example.

The non-stop guitar crunch and alterna-vibe does wear thin toward the end, though, with the disc concluding on probably its weakest offering, Silverchair’s shaky Stoned, which is preceded by Sublime’s Smoke Two Joints – reminding you amidst the 120 Minutes approved tracklist that this was a Jay and Silent Bob-featuring film, after all.