The trick to a good soundtrack is not necessarily stringing together a few Top 40 hits by big-name artists, but rather to capture the feeling of the film it represents.

Rushmore does all that and more.

The quirky film about an over-imaginative, lovelorn prep-schooler has an equally quirky soundtrack loaded with an array of '60s British Invasion rock and original score pieces by former DEVO member Mark Mothersbaugh.

Director and album producer Wes Anderson takes Rushmore's theme of unattainable love and peppers the soundtrack with appropriate songs.

After a short instrumental, the catchy opening riffs of Creation's "Making Time" kick in, and the CD never looks back.

Unit 4 +2's "Concrete & Clay" and The Kinks' "Nothing in this World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout that Girl" follow and reinforce the film's ideas on love.

Throw in two songs by Cat Stevens, some John Lennon, a dash of The Who and The Faces "Ooh la la," and this CD is one of the best soundtracks in a while.

The only dry parts are Zoot Sims' "Blinuet" and Yves Montand's "Rue St. Vincent," which sound like nothing more than elevator music and slow the upbeat pace of the rest of the disc.

Mothersbaugh's score selections are cheery, melodic and original - proving that he has a future on the fringes of movie-making's composer circuit.

What sets this disc apart from soundtracks like Godzilla and puts it alongside soundtracks like Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction is its use of meaningful, older songs as opposed to songs written specifically for the film. These songs capture the visuals, feelings and atmospheres that the directors were looking for and are not money-motivated like the majority of soundtracks today.

Rushmore stands tall among most of its competition. It carves a definitive place on the face of movie soundtracks.

- D. Eaton