Various: Lost in Translation soundtrack

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Director Sofia Coppola might be the granddaughter of late great film composer Carmine, but her tastes in soundtrack swerve away from the orchestral and towards her own record collection. She used French synth-duo Air for The Virgin Suicides and they return for one track (Alone in Kyoto) here on the soundtrack to her much nominated Lost in Translation.

Also helping to reinforce the film's jet-lag haze and neon-buzz atmosphere are contributions from Kevin Shields and his old group My Bloody Valentine, as well as Squarepusher and Death in Vegas. The Jesus and Mary Chain's distorto-pop anthem Just Like Honey rounds things off sweetly — though there's a late-arriving hidden track and punchline with star Bill Murray's karaoke lurch through Bryan Ferry's More Than This, a likely candidate for that future compilation: When screen stars sing so bad they're good.

Label: Emperor Norton