 "Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can. Spins a web any size, catches thieves just like flies." Ah, the nostalgia. The song that introduced the 70s cartoon version of Spidey kicks off the soundtrack to Sam Raimi's big screen spectacular. The movie is excellent, but does the soundtrack keep up the quality?
Well if you thought Nickelback were radio-friendly then Chad Kroeger on his own is likely to scare you. Hero, which features Saliva's Josey Scott is saccharine laced power ballad which has already lodged itself in the upper reaches of the UK chart. If you haven't heard this one yet then it's time to crawl out from under that rock . . .
Sum 41's What We're All About is rescued from Half Hour Of Power, and on this evidence it's no surprise that it took the follow-up All Killer No Filler to break the band into the big league.
Black Lab and Bleu provide more faceless radio-rock before Alien Ant Farm's Bug Bytes. Well it's better than some of the filler from Anthology, but not by much.
Slipknot's Corey Taylor provided the album's biggest surprise, delivering a respectable string-backed acoustic number, that's the polar opposite of his usual output.
The Strokes contribute When It Started, which has little of the charm of their Is This It material; a fact especially apparent when it's placed back-to-back with The Hives' awesome Hate To Say I Told You So.
Other notables include Macy Gray (mixing it up wth Rage Against The Machine's Tom Morello) and Pete Yorn before Aerosmith chuck up their own 'individual' take on the vintage Theme From Spider-Man. Oh, the humanity. There's some quality material on offer here; The Hives track alone is worth the cost of a CD, but unfortunately not this CD. The tracks by the big name bands are generally B-side grade, and the unknowns all offer indentikit radio rock.
If you think Alien Ant Farm were the best thing to happen to to music in 2001, and your tastes run from Nickelback to, let's say Cold then you have my blessing. Otherwise, avoid.
:: Rowan Shaeffer |
