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. The French edition of Rolling Stone magazine placed The Virgin Suicides at number 49 on their list of the 100 essential French rock albums. In 2014, NME placed the album at number 11 on their "61 of the Greatest Film Soundtracks Ever" list. In 2019, Pitchfork placed the album at number four on their "Top 50 Best Movie Scores of All Time" list.
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.
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EP on 180-gram red vinyl, the two-disc deluxe edition of The Virgin Suicides on CD, a 16-page booklet featuring an unpublished Air interview, a film poster, a replica VIP laminate pass and a download card.
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.
Critical reception
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. 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."
Track listing
Personnel Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Virgin Suicides.
Air – production, recording Gordon Tracks – vocals, drums Hugo Ferran – saxophone Brian Reitzell – drums Pascal Garnon – drum recording Stéphane "Alf" Briat – mixing Mike Mills – drawing
Charts + Weekly chart performance for The Virgin Suicides Chart (2000–2001) Peakposition Australian Albums (ARIA) 92 European Albums (Music & Media) 31
+Weekly chart performance for the 15th anniversary deluxe edition Chart (2015) Peakposition
+ 2025 weekly chart performance for The Virgin Suicides Chart (2025) Peakposition Croatia International Albums (HDU) 6
Certifications and sales
Release history + Release history for The Virgin Suicides Region Date Label Japan 23 February 2000 Toshiba-EMI Germany 25 February 2000 France 28 February 2000 United Kingdom United States 29 February 2000 Astralwerks
+ Release history for The Virgin Suicides (15th anniversary deluxe edition) Region Date Format Label France 15 June 2015 United Kingdom Germany Digital download Parlophone United States 16 June 2015 Japan 17 June 2015 2-CD Warner Australia 19 June 2015 Germany United States 23 June 2015 2-CD
Notes
References