The Virgin Suicides (score)

The Virgin Suicides
Film score by Air
Released	23 February 2000 (2000-02-23)
Recorded	1999
Genre	Ambient[1] chill-out[2] progressive rock[2][3] electronica[4] electropop[5]
Length	40:27
Label	Record Makers Source Virgin
Producer	Air
Air chronology
Moon Safari (1998) The Virgin Suicides (2000) 10 000 Hz Legend (2001)
Singles from The Virgin Suicides
"Playground Love" Released: 17 January 2000[6]

The Virgin Suicides is a score composed by French electronic music duo Air for the 1999 film of the same name by Sofia Coppola. It was released on 23 February 2000 by Virgin Records. The album was nominated for Best Soundtrack at the 2001 Brit Awards.[7] The French edition of Rolling Stone magazine placed The Virgin Suicides at number 49 on their list of the 100 essential French rock albums.[8] In 2014, NME placed the album at number 11 on their "61 of the Greatest Film Soundtracks Ever" list.[9] In 2019, Pitchfork placed the album at number four on their "Top 50 Best Movie Scores of All Time" list.[10]

On 3 June 2010, Air performed the full score with the band Hot Rats (with members of Supergrass) at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.[11]

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the film The Virgin Suicides, a deluxe edition of the album was released in June 2015 as a two-disc set and a super deluxe box set. The former contains two studio outtakes on disc one and a bonus disc of previously unreleased live recordings, while the latter includes the album on 180-gram red vinyl, an exclusive picture disc featuring previously unreleased live recordings, the "Playground Love" EP on 180-gram red vinyl, the two-disc deluxe edition of The Virgin Suicides on CD, a 16-page booklet featuring an unpublished Air interview, a film poster, a replica VIP laminate pass and a download card.[12][13][14]

Background

According to Jean-Benoît Dunckel, the album was recorded quickly. At first the music was inspired by the film and an attempt was made to synchronise the music with scenes from the film; towards the end of the process, the intention was to craft songs which could be listened to on their own.[15]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100[16]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[17]
Alternative Press	4/5[18]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[19]
Melody Maker	[20]
Muzik	[21]
NME	8/10[22]
Pitchfork	7.2/10[3]
Q	[23]
Rolling Stone	[24]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[25]

The Virgin Suicides received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 77, based on 16 reviews.[16] In a 2020 review of the score, NPR's Paula Mejía praised the music for capturing the spirit of being a teenager, concluding, "Listening to the Virgin Suicides score on loop hasn't been so much an exercise in nostalgia, or even a means of escape. Reliving it is more of a prescient reminder—one I needed to hear as a teenager, and that I could use again today—that now is not forever."[26]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, except "Playground Love", written by Gordon Tracks, Godin and Dunckel

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Playground Love"	3:32
2.	"Clouds Up"	1:30
3.	"Bathroom Girl"	2:25
4.	"Cemetary Party"	2:36
5.	"Dark Messages"	2:28
6.	"The Word 'Hurricane'"	2:33
7.	"Dirty Trip"	6:12
8.	"Highschool Lover" (theme from The Virgin Suicides)	2:42
9.	"Afternoon Sister"	2:24
10.	"Ghost Song"	2:16
11.	"Empty House"	2:58
12.	"Dead Bodies"	2:59
13.	"Suicide Underground"	5:52

Japanese edition bonus tracks[27]

No.	Title	Length
14.	"Bathroom Girl" (demo version)	4:14
15.	"Playground Love" (vibraphone version)	3:50

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Virgin Suicides.[28]

• Air – production, recording
• Gordon Tracks[a] – vocals, drums (track 1)
• Hugo Ferran – saxophone (track 1)
• Brian Reitzell – drums (tracks 3, 6, 7, 12, 13)
• Pascal Garnon – drum recording
• Stéphane "Alf" Briat – mixing
• Mike Mills – drawing

Charts

Weekly chart performance for The Virgin Suicides

Chart (2000–2001)	Peak position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[30]	92
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[31]	37
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[32]	89
European Albums (Music & Media)[33]	31
French Albums (SNEP)[34]	34
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[35]	26
Irish Albums (IRMA)[36]	27
Scottish Albums (OCC)[37]	23
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[38]	51
UK Albums (OCC)[39]	14
US Billboard 200[40]	161

Weekly chart performance for the 15th anniversary deluxe edition

Chart (2015)	Peak position
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[41]	27

Certifications and sales

Certifications and sales for The Virgin Suicides

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
France (SNEP)[42]	Gold	100,000^*
United Kingdom (BPI)[43]	Gold	100,000^‡
United States	—	159,000[44]
^* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Release history for The Virgin Suicides

Region	Date	Label	Ref.
Japan	23 February 2000	Toshiba-EMI	[27]
Germany	25 February 2000	Record Makers Source Virgin	[45]
France	28 February 2000		[46]
United Kingdom			[47]
United States	29 February 2000	Astralwerks	[48]

Release history for The Virgin Suicides (15th anniversary deluxe edition)

Region	Date	Format	Label	Ref(s)
France	15 June 2015	2-CD box set digital download	Aircheology Parlophone	[49][50][51]
United Kingdom				[52][53][54]
Germany		Digital download	Parlophone	[55]
United States	16 June 2015			[56]
Japan				[57]
	17 June 2015	2-CD	Warner	[58]
Australia	19 June 2015	2-CD box set digital download		[59][60][61]
Germany		2-CD box set		[62][63]
United States	23 June 2015	2-CD	Rhino Parlophone	[64]

Notes

1. Gordon Tracks is a pseudonym of Phoenix lead singer Thomas Mars.[29]

References

1. Kaufman, Gil (3 February 2000). "'Virgin Suicides' Floats On Ambient Air Score". MTV News. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
2. Roberts, Chris (2015). "Air: The Virgin Suicides". Prog.
3. Schreiber, Ryan (29 February 2000). "Air: The Virgin Suicides". Pitchfork. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
4. Strong, Martin (10 October 2006). "Air". The Essential Rock Discography. Canongate Books. pp. 15–16. ISBN 1-84195-860-3.
5. Shapiro, Peter (2003). "Air". In Buckley, Peter (ed.). The Rough Guide to Rock (3rd ed.). London: Rough Guides. pp. 13–14. ISBN 978-1-84353-105-0.
6. "Playground Love". Amazon. United Kingdom. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
7. "Brits 2001: The winners". BBC News. 26 February 2001. Retrieved 26 February 2012.
8. "Les 100 disques essentiels du rock français selon Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone France (in French). No. 18. February 2010. ISSN 1764-1071.
9. "61 Of The Greatest Film Soundtracks Ever". NME. 8 January 2014. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
10. "The 50 Best Film Scores of All Time". Pitchfork. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
11. "Air et Hot Rats (Supergrass) jouent "The Virgin Suicides"" (in French). Cité de la Musique. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
12. "The Virgin Suicides – 15th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" (Press release). Rhino Media. May 2015. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
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14. Scheetz, Cameron (12 June 2015). "Win the new vinyl boxset commemorating The Virgin Suicides' 15th anniversary". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on 21 November 2019. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
15. Cole, Rachel T. (14 August 2015). "Q&A: Air's Jean-Benoît Dunckel On The Future Of The Band, Working With Sofia Coppola, And Inspiring The Name "Stereogum"". Stereogum. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
16. "Reviews for Original Motion Picture Score for The Virgin Suicides by Air". Metacritic. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
17. Bush, John. "The Virgin Suicides [Original Soundtrack] – Air". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
18. "Air: The Virgin Suicides". Alternative Press. No. 141. April 2000. pp. 76–77. ISSN 1065-1667.
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23. "Air: The Virgin Suicides". Q. No. 162. March 2000. p. 99. ISSN 0955-4955.
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25. Sheffield, Rob (2004). "Air". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 10–11. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
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28. The Virgin Suicides (liner notes). Air. Virgin Records. 2000. CDV 2910.
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30. Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 10.
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