As a companion piece to Hal Hartley's movie The Book of Life, this soundtrack is actually a bit of a curiosity at just under 58 minutes; it runs about seven minutes shorter than the movie itself, and much of the music here doesn't really fit the claustrophobic feel that Hartley generated using a herky-jerky and grainy digital-video filming process. Indeed, some of the material here is gentle and even a bit folky, like the tracks from Hub, Joey Sweeney, and Super 5 Thor. There are a couple of tracks from Hartley's house band, Yo La Tengo, and two from one of the film's stars, Polly Jean Harvey ("The Faster I Breathe the Further I Go" being a standout with its insistent fuzz bass riff). One of the tracks that keeps repeating through the movie in fairly short bursts is the instrumental number "Fugitive" by Ryful (Phlyr in disguise, no doubt), and no wonder that even with some of the heavy-hitters on this album, it's still one of the standouts. Most of the material on The Book of Life is actually quite good, but sadly, it doesn't hold together particularly well. ~ Sean Carruthers, All Music Guide