Gathering songs and dialogue excerpts from all three seasons of
MTV
's reality teen
soap opera
,
Laguna Beach: Summer Can Last Forever
captures the show's drama queen highs and lows. The way sunny, easygoing songs like
Soulkid #1
's
"More Bounce in California,"
Ginger Sling
"Out of My Head,"
and
Sugarcult
"Bouncing Off the Walls"
segue into
Dashboard Confessional
"Rooftops and Invitations,"
Alissa Moreno
"Next Time,"
and other angst-ridden
ballads
reflects how, in the artfully edited reality of the show, the Laguna kids go from frothy shopping and sunbathing to tearful fights and breakups, seemingly in the blink of an eye. Meanwhile, anthemic tracks such as
Angels & Airwaves
'
"The Adventure"
Atherton
"California"
try to give some widescreen atmosphere to the decidedly small-screen antics of rich kids dating and hating each other.
Laguna Beach
soundtrack
isn't bad, but it is a little bland and unexciting on its own, especially in comparison to the wonderfully bitchy empty TV calories that the show delivers. ~ Heather Phares