Various Artists : I Am Sam (Original Soundtrack)

The film stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Penn and it looks like a
modern retread of Kramer Vs Kramer with mental problems but let's
not worry about that because the soundtrack is the interesting bit.


Essentially an opportunity to hear 20 cool and uncool cats
have a stab at recording their favourite Beatles songs, you've got
Rufus Wainwright and Eddie Vedder getting all intense on 'Across The Universe'
and 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' respectively, young
bucks The Vines sleepwalking their way through, erm, 'I'm Only Sleeping'
and the Stereophonics 'doing' 'Don't Let Me Down.'


A silly piece of self-indulgence for all concerned, but three cheers to
Grandaddy for at least having the guts to take a hatchet to 'Revolution'
and conditional respect to Nick Cave for a totally peculiar version of
'Here Comes The Sun'.


Uneven and frequently boring in its entirety, but
a modern curio nonetheless.

Jim Wirth