Various Artists
Music from "The O.C": Mix 4
Warner Brothers

During its first two seasons, "The O.C." positioned itself as the place to find the hippest music on television, at least according to people who aren't too hip to be concerned with such things. With its much-noted Death Cab for Cutie conversation and frequent indie-rock guest appearances, the show keeps its audience apprised of the hottest kind-of-unknown acts around. With that reputation firmly in place, the program has already managed to release four compilations of music (one a brief collection of Christmas music). The newest release reveals the weak spot in the process.

While the CD might technically be a soundtrack, it does claim to be a "mix" in its own title. It's a clever strategy. The idea of a "mix" symbolizes painstaking care, a too-obsessed friend spending hours at his tape decks putting just the right songs in just the right order. The mixtape has also become integral in underground hip-hop, and even prominent MCs and DJs have been putting together these discs to keep their names floating about. By marketing their soundtrack as a mix, the producers suggest both a personal investment and an anti-mainstream business model. This "mix," however, lacks the feeling that the best compilations give you: that someone cared enough to make this mix for you. Part of the problem stems from song selection; the artists are mostly tested favorites, but their strongest songs don't often make the cut.

The compilers filled the album with established acts (Beck, Modest Mouse), hyped acts (the Futureheads, A.C. Newman), and artists you should know (Sufjan Stevens, Aqueduct). This works well as a quick indie primer (you'll be able to name-check enough bands so the record store clerk will think you know what the heck you're talking about), but the tracks are assembled haphazardly. Still, within this batch of music, some surprises come through.

The disc's standout track belongs not to any of the big names, but to Aqueduct. The band's "Hardcore Days and Softcore Nights" starts out with a unique and memorable drum beat and keyboard hook, followed by vocalist (and only member) David Terry's seemingly injured voice. The album's other highlight closes the collection. Matt Pond PA provides a cover of Oasis' "Champagne Supernova" that might one-up the original. Pond's softer delivery brings out an emotional quality that the Gallagher brothers failed to convey. Given the roots of both bands, it's not an unusual choice of covers for Matt Pond PA (who also released several others on a recent EP), but the fact that the band pulls it off so well is impressive.

These standout tracks are a comment on the strength of the artists who have their best tracks still tucked away. As much as the show's music is about creating, reinforcing and following musical trends, the producers have done a good job of selecting quality artists. No artist on the disc is purely a product of hype (although the Futureheads come close and Beck and Modest Mouse have already broken through). Music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas and creator Josh Schwartz are actually fans of the artists featured, and for them, the music choices ostensibly come from what they listen to, rather than what focus groups tell them they should pick.

How much that actually happens remains a mystery, but it feels like that's the case. It would be nice for this to be true, that executives at a hit television show would actually be invested in music, that the disc in the stereo — the one put out by a major label for a major network — came from other music lovers. The hope might be gullible, but the sentiment behind it wouldn't exist if the music didn't hold up, even making the slapdash organization palatable.

On the surface, it would be easy for hipsters to dismiss "The O.C." series as an overly commercial tie-in to a mass-appeal television show, but I doubt any fans of the show (or sincere ones of its music) would care. With the fourth volume in the set, the compilers have created a mostly successful, but somewhat haphazard, collection of indie rock. Sure, it works on one level as an advertisement, but it also has 12 good songs on it.

Just don't tell your sexy, detached barista where you first heard Imogen Heap.

— Justin Cober-Lake (cober at nlx dot com)