The Road Mix: Music from the Television Series One Tree Hill, Vol. 3

iTunes Review

What would a contemporary teen soap opera be without a well-chosen sampling of introspective ballads and effusive rock-pop to embroider the hopes, fears and triumphs of its characters? This third installment of music for cable's One Tree Hill is immediately anchored in that tradition by the angst-ridden urgency of Dashboard Confessional's "Don't Wait" and "Stay Away" by The Honorary Title, while star Tyler Hilton offers up another slice of expected acoustic sensitivity via "You'll Ask For Me." But other performances here gratifyingly begin to push the show's musical envelope beyond familiar formula via the pop effervescence of The Kooks' "Naïve," Lupe Fiasco's hip-hop-lite "I Gotcha" and Gym Class Heroes retooling the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" into spare, street-smart shuffle. Elsewhere, the emo-introspective indie sensibilities that drive the series' music are variously retrenched by the The Constantines' "Soon Enough" and Lucero's "Tell Me What It Takes," or liberated by the soaring harmonies of the Wreckers' bracing "Lay Me Down."