erewolf movies got down with rock in John Landis' comedy-thriller An American Werewolf in London. Now Wes Craven picks up the glove and offers a 21st-century spin on rockin' the lycanthropes.
Bowling for Soup opens the show with a nicely made redo of the old Sam the Sham hit "Little Red Riding Hood." The Soups have updated the original's shuffle beat to a straight-up rock performance, with obvious foot-tapping success. Unfortunately, the rest of the Cursed soundtrack isn't quite up to the opener, although there are a good number of bright spots.
Collective Soul make their second appearance on a Wes Craven soundtrack with "Better Now," the album's second cut. It's a guitar-driven tune, and happily these guys know the difference between blurry power chords and appropriate use of guitar to help a song along. Oddly enough, though, the guitar fails in the last section of the song, where it has a short 4-bar segment at about 2:20. The dynamics here sink a bit too low. At least there's a nice solo as the song fades out. This tune is the collection's first single release and leads off the latest Collective Soul album, Youth. They also appeared on the soundtrack of Scream 2.
The third cut, "Are You Ready," is by Three Days Grace, who seem to be a love-'em-or-hate-'em type of band. There's a decent chorus going on here, but the verses bumble along until the chorus comes back again. The group seems a bit tentative about their performance, and the lead vocals sound strained.
"You'll Never Catch Me," by Smashmouth's Steve Harwell, is as accomplished as one would expect, however, with a driving beat and Harwell's interesting phrasing (see above and below) to help things along. This tune doesn't display his voice at its best, but fans probably won't mind.
Track five is "Stadium Parking Lot" by Apollo 440, a British band not well known on this side of the Big Ditch. Here they sound a lot like Madness. Apollo 440 has been around since 1990, but this tune doesn't serve them particularly well. The vocal phrasing is really not happening at all. Go check out some Stevie Winwood, guys. The whole piece has a garage-band feel to it. Interestingly, in 1997 Apollo 440 wrote the Rapid Racer score for PlayStation, and they may be the first group to be asked to write an entire game soundtrack.
Werewolves of London again
After a straight-ahead (and very '80s) rendering of "I'll Be Just Fine Without You" by the Alkaline Trio, a highly regarded power punk-emo band from Chicago, the rest of the album gets a little problematic. Most of the remaining tunes fall into a dance groove thing, such as "Spirits," a tasty Thompson Twins-flavored piece by Junkie XL with a forceful kick drum beat that just won't quit; "If You Don't Jump (You Are English)" by Gus Gus; "Still Need Your Love" from Reno; and offerings from The Crystal Method and Whodini.
Dashboard Confessional's song "This Is a Forgery" is on the beat, but otherwise surprisingly thin in terms of musical ideas. Haven't these guys ever heard of dynamics? The song bangs along at one level with nary a shift in energy. At least they can sing basic third and fifth harmonies. Seven Wiser's tune "Sick" gets back into rock with some nice syncopated guitar work in the chorus. MBD closes the set with "Let Me Out," which serves well enough but is not as well produced as some of the other cuts.
It's surprising that there is such a strong dance groove going on here; Cursed looks ready to rock the house. Patrons in the next theater trying to watch a quiet drama may hear the walls vibrate. Be that as it may, this disc sounds like it would function pretty well as party music. Worth a try, especially for listeners into remixes—there are three of 'em, including the Collective Soul song.
