Gay-friendly songs enrich ‘Love, Simon’ soundtrack

Nick Robinson on the album’s cover

Just as the coming-of-age film “Love, Simon” celebrates individuality and freedom, its official soundtrack offers a collection of mostly impassioned and starry-eyed songs about romance and secrets.

Many of the tracks in this collection are heard onscreen, making it an approximate companion piece for the movie, about the unconventional love story of the titular gay teenager.

It’s nicely bookended by songs by the Bleachers, led by prolific singer-songwriter Jack Antonoff, who’s also a member of Fun, and has collaborated with Lorde and Taylor Swift.

Bleachers has four, lively pop-rock and new wave-ish ditties (“Rollercoaster,” “Wild Heart” “Alfie’s Song” and “Keeping a Secret). And Antonoff has a separate collab with MØ, the bouncy “Never Fall in Love,” which sounds like ’80s bubblegum pop.

The 1975 has the enthralling “Love Me,” which sounds like an unearthly mashup of David Bowie’s “Fame” and Isley Brothers’ “It’s Your Thing.”

There’s that Whitney Houston classic, too, the chart-topping “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” from that cute dream sequence where mild-mannered Simon Spier (Nick Robinson) wonders what kind of gay guy he’ll grow up to be.

Troye Sivan’s cool and breezy “Strawberries and Cigarettes,” about two young guys’ implied trysts, doesn’t resemble the main character’s more wholesome gay love story, but it’s undeniably one of the album’s catchier songs.

Also endearing is Amy Shark’s ethereal “Sink In,” a confessional ballad about intimacy.

With 13 songs totaling approximately 46 minutes, the soundtrack is loop-worthy, a gathering of notable talents that’s both a standalone compilation and an audible supplement to the “Love, Simon” experience. —OLIVER M. PULUMBARIT