Various Artists – Taken Soundtrack

The beginning of this miniseries soundtrack is as surreal and spooky as it is eclectic. Not so much that the songs, individually, will make your hair stand on end, but packaged together they make for wonderfully weird listening—recommended for late-night drives down foggy back-country roads. With jazz standards (Dinah Washington), old-school country (Wynn Stewart and The Tourists) and early ’60s quirkabilly (Sheb Wooley’s “Purple People Eater” and Eddie Cochran’s “Skinny Jim”) rounded out by Bob Dylan and The Stooges, the mix has a wonderful case of multiple-personality disorder. And though The Swimming Pool Q’s momentarily tarnish the set (their “More Than One Heaven” sounds like it was plucked from an ’80s aerobics tape) the album is brought home by some mellow rock and Americana from The Grateful Dead, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller. While not as interesting as the first half of the disc, it’s still a nice transition back to reality.