Various Artists, True Blood soundtrack. The HBO series bears very little relation to my own feelings when reading the Charlaine Harris vampire novels on which the show’s based. I like the books for their surface whimsy, their breeziness and perkiness, all of which are in short supply on the TV adaptation. That’s my problem, probably, for not wanting unexpected depth, because that’s what you get with screenwriter/producer Alan Ball. This album shows that True Blood approaches its soundtrack with the same dark energy which it brings to the dialogue. Light pop tunes chosen, no doubt, simply for their supernaturally themed titles) are stretched and mutated and blackened by artists such as Karen Elson (duetting with Donovan on his “Season of the Witch”), Lavventura,  Paper Pilots and Dick Israel and the Soothsayers (for three, count ‘em three, separate and disparate takes on “She’s Not There”). The smartest gloomy voices are enlisted—P.J. Harvey and Gordon Gano (together!), Nick Cave, Siouxsie Sioux. New Orleans traditions are exalted with Slim Harpo’s “Tee Ni Nee Ni Nu” highly placed at track number three.

I gotta give that show another chance.