Hey, guess what? You still can’t sit with us.
Despite the fact that the film received little to no recognition come award show season (apart from some Teen Choice and MTV Movie Awards), the deliciously bitchy, endlessly quotable cultural phenomenon known as Mean Girls remains firmly lodged in the public consciousness an entire decade later — especially Mariah‘s, dahhling.
And you know what? The soundtrack’s holding up pretty well, too.
Like the movie, the Mean Girls soundtrack is a pretty spot-on time capsule of the teenage angst, feisty self-empowerment and fumbling sexual awkwardness that defined early ’00’s high school culture at its best…and, mostly, worst.
Ten years later, the songs inspire a certain amount of nostalgia for the age of AIM and LiveJournal: Gina and Gabriel Rene‘s “Mean Gurl” serves up Missundaztood-era P!nk angst well before “Stupid Girls” was ever recorded. And speaking of the “So What” songstress, before she was swinging from the rafters at every award show ever, P!nk found herself spinning onto the Mean Girls soundtrack with “God Is A DJ,” a weirdly trippy, rebel child-turned-flower child #LiveLoveLaugh anthem.
Prior to serving up a heaping helping of Food this month, Kelis was already whipping up a taste with her infectious Neptunes (Pharrell — he’s always there!) produced “Milkshake,” which was forever immortalized by a hilarious house tour by Regina’s mom. She’s not like a regular mom — she’s a cool mom! La-la, la, la, la…
But no better relic from the era exists on this collection than digital diva and “I.M. Me” chanteuse Nikki Cleary‘s horn-heavy, hater-blasting anthem, “Hated.” “You’re the real American Idol/You’re the poor man’s Mandy Moore,” she sassily sneers on the breezy kiss-off track. The poor man’s Mandy Moore — that is some deep shade in 2014.
Intriguingly (or perhaps simply some sort of prophetic jab by Regina George — it’s like she had ESPN or something), Lohan’s future dip in the lady pool DJ Samantha Ronson makes an appearance as a singer-songwriter with the pop-rock anthem “Built This Way,” while Katy Rose‘s “Overdrive” — a cross between Fefe Dobson, Hilary Duff at her most #punkrawk and one of the rowdy cuts from La Lohan’s Speak — keeps the ’00’s guitar-pop coming.
And really, what would a teen comedy be without a few modern covers of classics? The Donnas supply their spirited take on Generation X‘s “Dancing With Myself,” while Boomkat — AKA Crossroads-turned-Orange Is The New Black starlet Taryn Manning‘s deeply underrated sibling electro outfit — churn out a sneering rendition of “Rip Her To Shreds” by Blondie. (Funnily enough, Debbie Harry and the gang wind up on the soundtrack too with “One Way Or Another.”)
There are even some fairly left-of-center selections that would likely please the indie bloggers of the time, including Anjali‘s breathy, featherlight “Misty Canyon” and Fatboy Slim‘s remix of Pierre Henry‘s “Psyche Rock.” And of course, there’s Peaches‘ “Operate” — one of the happiest surprises of the soundtrack — which pulsates through the Halloween party scene as Peaches murderously purrs, claws and yowls her way through tense electro beats.
Although the compilation could have used a few more songs featured throughout the movie (and by that, I mostly mean Legendtina‘s “Beautiful”), as well as some Lohan deep cuts off of Speak, it’s still a solid, if not nostalgic listen.
Wait — is a soundtrack a carb?
