Orange County [2 CD]

Contains a limited edition bonus CD of new music from new artists.
The soundtrack to this movie about mistaken identity in continuing education in Southern California is packed with both newer MTV-friendly acts and some welcome reappearances by those of yesteryear, all of whom make this original soundtrack album well worth the price of admission. The Offspring contribute a rarity in the incendiary "Defy You," and those hardy LA perennials Social Distortion, give a live rendition of the "Story of My Life" that has echoes of the Beatles' "In My Life" as seen through the eyes of fin de siecle LA punk rock kids, and also reminds us that Social Distortion are the ancient ancestors of such latter day punks as Green Day.
No California-based movie worthy of the name would be complete without a Brian Wilson song, and here two are featured, performed by the man himself--"Lay Down Burden," a slice of MOR that still manages to retain some youthful innocence, and "Love and Mercy," a neat little number that both harks back to '60s Beach Boys glory days and reflects on more contemporary concerns. No stranger to film soundtracks (he did the score to the Farrelly Brothers' ME, MYSELF AND IRENE), Pete Yorn contributes "Lose You," a minor slacker classic.