The Virgin Suicides was not a bad movie. It was a painfully accurate representation of high-school longing with some amusing turns, great voiceover work by Giovanni Ribisi and a somewhat over-the-top ending. That said, the score is roughly a hojillion times better. As John Tynes said, "there was a far more interesting film trapped in the music than the one that got made."

It's delivered by Air, the French ambient popsters responsible for Moon Safari, 10,000 Hz Legend (which recycles hooks from this album) and Talkie Walkie. Only opening track "Playground Love" bears any real resemblance to their other work; it's the only song that doesn't sound like it was co-written by Vincent Price. Seriously, The Virgin Suicides may have been all dreamy nostalgia and teenage tragedy, but the score is a brooding, minor-key hulk of a thing with track names like "Suicide Underground", "Dead Bodies", "Empty House" and "Cemetary Party". It could easily be the score to Silent Hill or something very like it.

The instrumentation is modestly electronic, with organ, piano, guitar, drums, bass and ethereal vocals interspersed. The early tracks are hauntingly beautiful, but halfway through track six ("The Word 'Hurricane'") there's a sample from the movie followed by a broken jangle of piano that marks the more moody second half. After a pause for breath at the theme ("Highschool Lover") comes a fall into gentle, lush spookiness. The album reaches a two-part climax with "Empty House", a drum-heartbeat overlaid with creepy harp strums and angelic voices, then "Dead Bodies" which gives us frenetic piano, then bass, then drums -- real chase music. By the end I feel like I've run five kilometres.

This is music for outrunning monsters and exploring abandoned buildings to.