I AM SAM

Okay. Let me get something out of the way, right away. I shouldn't probably review soundtracks on here, as they're more an extension of the films they are associated with. I especially shouldn't review soundtracks for movies that I haven't seen. But this one, I feel a little okay about discussing.

Today's Music That Jason Was Underwhelmed By is the I Am Sam soundtrack. No, I haven't seen this movie. Apparently it stars Sean Penn as some guy who may or may not have mental disabilities and/or raises a child. I don't know. Did you see this movie? Was it any good? Well, anyhow, the reason I reviewed its soundtrack is because it consists of nothing but Beatles covers. This soundtrack is six or seven years old already! I seem to remember there being a fair fuss about it when it came out. And looking at the list of artists on here, I can see why. There are quite a few artists who I find interesting: Nick Cave, Ben Folds, Aimee Mann, Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, and some others.

Sadly, the musicians could not make this soundtrack interesting. Eddie Vedder's cover of "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" is decent, but it's almost a straight cover of the original; I guess The Vines' cover of "I'm Only Sleeping" stands out a little, but it's not great. I never cared much for The Vines anyway, their music seemed obnoxious in a juvenile way. The other songs are all relatively forgettable. I suppose that in the context of the movie they make more sense, but judged on their own merits, the other songs are relatively bland. In particular, covers of some of the more uptempo Beatles songs - "Revolution", "We Can Work It Out" - are mellow to the point of boring. I'm willing to admit that this is somewhat due to personal bias; I generally don't care much for cover songs, especially watered-down versions of them, and most of these songs are harmless and unremarkable enough that any one could be exchanged for any other without much difference.

To summarize: I didn't care for this album at all, maybe it fits well with the film, but it has nothing on the purity and simple charm of the original Beatles songs.

In other news:
I found out that Neko Case fell and broke her ankle, and consequently is off the New Pornographers' tour, which I am going to early next week. The whole thing is so disheartening that I may blow off the show and go somewhere else instead. Hard to say, though; I've never been to Madison, so I will probably go anyway. It's still a big letdown, and I hope I can send Neko a get-well card or something. Also I realized that I haven't reviewed any Neko Case albums here so I will have to fix that, once I get some of mine back.