This soundtrack has a nice balance of the different types of music featured on the series. Because each song is fairly different, the CD is unmixed, which is unfortunate because some of the songs sound like they’ve been cut off in the middle and the transitions between songs are a little jerky.

The album opens with the new theme song by Burnside Project, which is fine, but I liked the old one "Spunk." It instantly prompted images of gym bunnies in cowboy hats dancing around with boas. It brought up one of those rare opportunities for me to indulge the inner fag in 50 seconds or less. I don’t know what Showtime is thinking changing the theme song so late in the game. But at least it’s an entire four-minute song.

My favorite song on this offering is Jason Nevin's "I’m the Main Man." It’s rockin' and danceable with big fat honkin' beats that sound eerily similar to Love & Rockets or Bauhaus’s "Telegram Sam." After doing some digging, I found out why: Nevins is a DJ/Producer/Mixer extraordinaire that mixed the super hot version of Elvis’ Rubberneckin as well as working with the top names in the pop music, including the holy trinity of Missy, Britney, and Madonna. Am I saying it’s good? Why, yes I am. It's just too bad it isn’t longer.

Another song I like is "Love of the Loveless" by Eels. It is very different from Nevins’ tune. It sounds more like a sweet, School House Rock-inspired ditty, which is fairly ironic since their album Daisies of the Galaxy was a posterchild for the need to rein in indecent language in media during the George Bush/Dick Cheney 2000 campaign. (This perhaps enhanced the Eels' reputation, however, since they appear on numerous soundtracks including Shrek and American Beauty.)

Andrea Menard provides a modern swing/jitterbug track that could have been lifted right out of the soundtrack to Chicago. She is sultry as she sings this torch song about what she’d make her ladies do if she were a man (why she needs to be a man to appreciate women in heels or speak with authority I don’t know, but it’s a cute song). Ms. Menard is an interesting artist who hails from the Metis tribe in Canada and performs on stage and writes her own material.

Several of the tracks are pretty downtempo and mellow. "7 Minutes" by Circlesquare is moody and evocative like that song by Orb, "Little Fluffy Clouds," but much slower. Suede and Goldfrapp contribute some low key tracks as well but they are not very interesting. Origene kicks up the beat a little with "Sanctuary," which is pretty mellow for house, but accessible and not annoying. It is pretty standard with predictable beats and dropouts.

The Uncut’s "Understanding the New Violence" is ho-hum electro rock 80s new wave redux. A Hot Topic-like regurgitation of an era’s flavor, but more bland--it could stand less imitation and more innovation. TV On The Radio’s contributions is just annoying, but not as bad as the last song, "Wonderful Life by Black." With Kenny G easy listening-style saxophone and Casio keyboard canned beats, the only thing this track is good for is breaking up a party.

Overall, this soundtrack has about three or three-and-a-half really good songs on it, which is pretty good for a soundtrack. Since most songs came out in 2004 or 2003, it’s not a bad sampler of some of the dominant styles happening in the last year and a half--but QAF fans will probably enjoy this CD most for the images evoked by the songs.

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