Not acid enough

Various Artists: "The Acid House Music From The Motion Picture" (EMI Soundtracks)

Various Artists: "The Acid House Music From The Motion Picture" (EMI Soundtracks)

Adapted from the short stories of Irvine Welsh, The Acid House sounds like it's got plenty of room for having it large, and you'd expect the soundtrack to be spiked with some hard-edged beats from the latest crop of chemical generation acts. Bentley Rhythm Ace, Death In Vegas and the ubiquitous Chemical Brothers aside, however, there's precious little acid house in the house, but no shortage of Britpop, post-rock, and chill-out kitsch.

Predictably, Primal Scream crawl over the opening credits with Insect Royalty, while Oasis and The Verve roll up with Going Nowhere and On Your Own, respectively. However, it's Belle & Sebastian's Slow Grafitti and Arab Strap's I Still Miss You which really capture the post-party downer. The mood lifts with some lounge-core beats courtesy of The Sons Of Silence and Dimitri From Paris, while T. Rex's Hot Love provides some historical hysteria - it would have been nice to hear a few more classic party tunes thrown in among the usual suspects. Like the movie itself, the soundtrack is a somewhat episodic affair, lurching from one style to the next without a cohesive sense of where it wants to end up. Despite its stellar cast of contributors, The Acid House is unlikely to challenge its chemical soul brother, Trainspotting, as the kingpin of 1990s British movie soundtracks.

Kevin Courtney

Kevin Courtney

Kevin Courtney is an Irish Times journalist