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Rating: For Lou Barlow, coming from Sebadoh and more distantly from Dinosaur Jr., the soundtrack of "Kids" was the pretext to start yet another side project of the Folk Implosion. The impetus came from the enormous and unexpected success of the single "Natural One," which, somehow, ended up in "heavy rotation" on MTV, becoming a chart phenomenon.
By mentioning the names Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr., you should already have an idea of what it's about: pure and simple and great Indie rock; starting right with the single "Natural One," an eccentric ballad dominated more by a terribly psychedelic guitar and a fittingly bewildered arrangement than by a distinct melody, this "Kids" OST stands out particularly for its cohesion and rarity of uniformity for a soundtrack, despite dealing with very diverse musical themes.
The common soul that Barlow bestows on all the tracks is, in the best Lo-fi tradition, the total lack of professionalism of his performance: polluted recordings, careless or slack voices, a deliberately raw sound; this is how the track that opens the album, "Casper," sounds like it's played by a group of seventeen-year-olds with hardly a semblance of technique. But not only that: there's also a visionary psychedelic aura that permeates all the tracks; this is how "Nothing Gonna Stop" almost sounds like a mantra with its impulsive rhythms and slow, repetitive pace, while “Casper The Friendly Ghost,” a sort of bedtime lullaby, indirectly recalls the Barrett-like atmospheres of early Floyd; ultimately, even when it ventures into Rap ("Mad Fraight Night") or adheres to filmic needs with accompanying instrumentals ("Raise The Bells," "Simean Groove"), this "Kids" OST maintains a certain uniformity that makes it, in fact, the first real album of the Folk Implosion, officially born shortly thereafter.
Qualitatively fragmented and not well-defined, therefore not indispensable, but certainly another delightful hidden chapter of '90s American Underground.
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