Friends With Benefits [Original Soundtrack]

The soundtrack for the romantic comedy Friends with Benefits, starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, features a mostly winning mix of sunny indie pop, rainy day, diary-writing balladry, and retro-dance jams (Kriss Kross!). Opening with a totally unnecessary remix of Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" (simply adding a Madchester-inspired house beat does not equal forward-thinking), the collection makes for a fairly solid listen, cruising along with the slacker, white boy hip/hop of G. Love and Special Sauce's "Booty Call," an earnest, folksy take on the Cure classic "Boys Don't Cry" by former Grant Lee Buffalo frontman Grant Lee Phillips, R&B futurist Janelle Monae's impossibly catchy "Tightrope," and a custom cover of OK Go's "This Too Shall Pass" by Oakland-based indie rockers Rogue Wave, before closing predictably, yet appropriately with Semisonic's "Closing Time." ~ James Christopher Monger