Various:

Wedding Crashers Soundtrack

(New Line)

Listening to the Wedding Crashers soundtrack is akin to tuning your radio to the typical frat boy-targeted modern rock station. You will occasionally hear Bloc Party or one of Death Cab’s poppier efforts, but more often than not you’re stuck with cookie- cutter guitar rock like Jimmy Eat World and The Weakerthans. It also seems like this soundtrack was a creative battle between the film’s director and the suits at New Line. Strangely frontloaded with songs that didn’t appear in the film, to appeal to the frat boy demographic, the disc in schizophrenic throughout.

Whereas Guster’s “I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today” fits in with the modern rock of the album, as well as in a scene in the moviewhere Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams are sneaking down to each other’s rooms for an aborted midnight rendezvous, a remix of The Isley Brothers’ “Shout” works perfectly during an early montage in the film, but feels horribly out of place here on the soundtrack. Mungo Jerry’s jug band classic “In the Summertime” seems like something the director fought for, but feels distracting both here and in the film. The album’s closer, “Hava Nagilah,” as performed by Wilson and Vince Vaughn, is superfluous.

Some late album bonuses include The Long Winters’ “Cinnamon” and Rilo Kiley’s “More Adventurous,” but the main attraction is the album’s centerpiece, the unreleased “Mr. Ambulance Drive” by The Flaming Lips. The disco-driven composition is decent, but certainly not worth the price of the album. Beginning promisingly, but devolving into Yoshimi reject territory, the track is ultimately disappointing and has no discernible connection to the movie.

www.weddingcrashersmovie.com

3 Blips out of 10

By Jason “Fish” Fischer

8/2005