Ilya has decided to start reviewing old soundtracks. And who are we to stop him! —Ed.

Ah, the ’90s—along with all your bloody low points (boy bands, Britney Spears, Limp Bizkit), you also gave us a whole bunch of noteworthy soundtracks. Whether Helmet bashing out a tribute to The Crow or Trent Reznor bitching about dead souls calling him, we’ll never experience anything like this again . . .

While they don’t have connections to one another per se, I always saw soundtracks to The Crow, Natural Born Killers, and Lost Highway, the subject of our discussion, as extensions of one another. Part of it, perhaps, has to do with certain artists being featured on all three (Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor). A certain vibe is created when Dr. Dre, Leonard Cohen, and Henry Rollins all somehow end up coexisting with one another.

Lost Highway, then, follows the pattern set by the other two—it’s a peculiar mishmash of old (Lou Reed and Marilyn Manson paying homage to ’50s/’60s via covers of “This Magic Moment” and “I Put a Spell on You,” as well as the spirit of Antonio Carlos Jobim making an appearance via “Insensatez”) and new (industrial/metal in the form of Reznor, Rammstein and Manson).

Mashed in between those tracks are a variety of oddities—pre-Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins dipping their toes into synth-pop/electronics with “Eye,” a plethora of soundtrack-ish ambient/dub cuts courtesy of Angelo Badalamenti/Barry Adamson, and, finally, one of the better ’90s tunes from the Thin White Duke himself (“I’m Deranged,” presented here both in abridged and full versions).

While there are a few skippable tracks (I’m not particularly fond of MM’s and Rammstein’s original contributions, and there’s only so many times you can listen to the sounds of Fred and Renee making love, or listen to the depressive sounds of “Fats Revisited”/“Fred’s World”), overall it still holds up well some 20 years after its release and makes a worthy companion to the two aforementioned soundtracks.