The Beautiful Lie

Recipe for romance: grab your special lady or gent, hop in the car, pick a nice stretch of highway, and put this on. It’s not quite right to call a soundtrack an album, so we’ll go ahead and call the this what it is – the late-night seduction mixtape. And it’s so, so good.

Again, it isn’t really fair to call this an album. What we have here is a collection of singles from some absolutely incredible artists. But what a collection – House of Lies has a truly pitch-perfect soundtrack behind it. There’s a predilection for soulful-voiced male artists and smoky, jazz-inspired backgrounds that fits perfectly into the sleaze of the show. Literally everything you’ll here on this is just dripping sex. Sorry– not sure that’s a positive image, but there’s no other way to put it.

Unifying themes aside, what really impressed us about the soundtrack was the attention paid to artists unfamiliar to your average American listener. Kim Cesarion is Swedish, Thomas Dybdahl is Norwegian and Freddy’s Fat Drop hails from New Zealand. You get the idea– diverse artists, and all of them absolutely stellar. For this reason alone, the soundtrack is worth a listen. You’re going to run into a bunch of new musicians, and you’re going to love them all.

The soundtrack kicks off hard with “Bright Lights” by Gary Clark Jr., a Texan jazz prodigy. And lord this is good; “Bright Lights” is a swaggering, growling big-city romp. Menacing, drugged-out and sexy as hell – doesn’t get much better than this.

Other album highlights include literally every song on here, but we’ll restrict ourselves to a couple and let you fill in the rest. Aloe Blacc has worked his way to superstardom recently, but the inclusion of “Take Me Back” really hammers home what an incredible singer the guy is. A tension-laden chorus, mixed with Blacc’s trademark soaring vocals makes for a bombshell of a track. Fat Freddy’s Drop contributes “Clean the House,” a beautiful, mournful jazz number that trickles through headphones like liquid velvet. And “Smoke Filled Lungs”…wonderful. Gritty, tired, end-of-the-night minimalist electronica.

There’s variety here, there are a couple of running themes here, and there’s so, so, so much talent. Bravo.