Pacific Pictures—Asbury Park Productions & Sony Music
1992

the sound: Like most soundtracks, the songs on “Fathers and Sons” run the gamut of emotions. There’s noise, pop, blues and ballads. Welsh rockers The Manic Street Preachers had just appeared on the scene when they contributed the second track, “Stay Beautiful,” a jangly, three-minute guitar-fest that may actually document the moment in time when the music world’s tastes shifted from Great White to Stone Roses. Indy darling Juliana Hatfield makes us forget how she was pining away for Evan Dando with “Yeh! Yeh,” a fun, poppy song about hanging out on the couch with a boy. Susanna Hoffs, of Bangles fame, pulls off a lovely, soft tune with “You Were on my Mind,” and Gumball channels Sonic Youth for the frightening and distorted “Chew the Chew.” Ned’s Atomic Dustbin rips with flair on “Kill Your Television,” lyrics and riffs tumbling about in dizzying directions. But it’s the last track on the album, by John Gorka, that really sells the soundtrack. An acoustic guitar piece about his boyhood, “I’m From New Jersey” is truly wonderful. “I’m from New Jersey / no, I don’t talk that way. / I watched too much TV / when I was young,” he sings, making it sound beautiful. “My mom’s Italian. / I’ve read those Mafia books. / We don’t belong.” Who knew hearing about girls with great big hair hanging out in malls could move you to tears? It’s a perfect ending, like slipping into a warm bath at the end of a long day.

the background: What, you’ve never heard of the film “Fathers and Sons?” Neither has anyone else. Check out the CD cover. Rory Cochrane stares wistfully at the camera as Jeff Goldblum stands behind him, a pensive look on his face. Must be some teen-angsty picture, right? Possibly a dad-just-meets-his-son-for-the-first-time-after-getting-out-of-prison kinda thing. The reality, however, is that it’s about a guy trying to save his son from a serial killer, with the help of a psychic played by Roseanna Arquette. Sounds awful? It is. Which is a shame, because the soundtrack is fantastic. They should have scripted a movie around it.

the significance: If anyone had been paying attention, “Fathers and Sons” would have been the “Garden State” soundtrack of the ’90s. While not all the songs were done specifically for the movie, they come together seamlessly, like a really good mix tape you would make for yourself. The producers of the soundtrack must have been 15 times smarter than whoever was in charge of marketing it, because it never even blipped on the music radar and quickly found its way into dollar bins. A few of the artists went on to conquer the college airwaves for a bit, but none of them had their special Natalie Portman / Shins moment.