Less Than Zero

RELEASE
1987
LABEL
Def Jam
GENRES
Soundtrack, Contemporary Pop/Rock

Album Review

The soundtrack to the definitive self-absorbed '80s film Less Than Zero is as uneven as most various-artists soundtracks, bouncing between insipid metal covers (Aerosmith's "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Blues," Poison's "Rock and Roll All Night," Slayer's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida"), competent hard rock, and a handful of interesting cuts that make the album worthwhile. The Bangles' fuzz-rock cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter" was a hit, and Roy Orbison's take on Glenn Danzig's "Life Fades Away" is haunting, but the real meat of the album is in Public Enemy's seminal "Bring the Noise" and LL Cool J's seductive "Going Back to Cali," two hip-hop classics that made their debut here. They're now available on better collections and albums, but Less Than Zero remains a good portrait of the rich, pastel-colored wasteland of the latter half of the '80s.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Track Listing

  1. Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu
  2. Life Fades Away
  3. Rock & Roll All Nite
  4. Going Back to Cali
  5. You & Me (Less than Zero)
  6. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
  7. Bring the Noise
  8. Are You My Woman? (Tell Me So)
  9. She's Lost You
  10. How to Love Again [#]
  11. A Hazy Shade of Winter