Author: Various Artists

Format: Soundtrack

Release Date: 20-04-1999

Details: Amazon.ca Like its late-’90s spiritual soulmate Rushmore, director Alexander Payne’s Election is a sharp, mature comedy of morals and character in high-school drag, pitting obsessive overachiever and student-body candidate Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) against a multifrustrated teacher’s (Matthew Broderick) best efforts to stop her. And like Rushmore, its smart, eclectic soundtrack eschews the tyranny of Top Fortydom for an eclectic mix of modern pop and a few suitably ironic chart chestnuts (Donovan’s hippy-dippy “Jennifer Juniper”; the Commodores’ “Three Times a Lady”) that gratifyingly becomes an integral part of the film’s ethos rather than a tacked-on marketing clause. Late-’90s pop of the jangly school (Taxiride’s raga-rock inflected “Get Set,” Hurricane #1’s “Rising Sign”) mixes with subtle, country nods (Mandy Barne