Zodiac: Songs from the Motion Picture

by Various Artists

As befits a movie set mostly in the late '60s and early '70s, this album, spanning rock, jazz and soul, is made up of tracks from that time; the happy surprise is how utterly smart the selection is. (David Shire's score is available on a separate CD.) With heavy irony, since the movie is about the hunt for a serial killer, the CD opens with Three Dog Night's cover of "Easy to Be Hard" from Hair ("How can people be so heartless' How can people be so cruel'"). This is in keeping with the overall vibe, which emphasizes the period's more sinister underbelly--not so much the flower-power vibe as the way the country crash-landed with Vietnam. The most startling pick may well be the Animals' apocalyptic 1968 epic "Sky Pilot," which includes a bridge that mixes diving-bomber noises, earth-shaking explosion rumble, bagpipes (!) and gunfire, before going off into romantic ballad mode complete with string and horn sections. Lynn Anderson's country-pop hit "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden" suddenly becomes a taunt, while those who only know Santana from his recent lite offerings will be shocked by the manic fervor and darkly sexual drive of "Soul Sacrifice," from his debut album. As for Donovan's psychedelic "Hurdy Gurdy Man," which plays a big part in the movie's narrative, it sounds positively terrifying in this context. --Elisabeth Vincentelli