Almost Alice – 2010 – CD review
It’s pretty much expected nowadays to have a tie-in pop album of some sort following the release of a major motion picture. I suppose it’s one of those on-going synergistic relationships between the music and film industries. Unfortunately, sometimes, the product ends up being no more than an afterthought where the record label simply cobbles together unrelated leftovers by artists currently on their roster. But thankfully, Disney put some thought and effort behind the new album Almost Alice which is a collection of songs inspired by Tim Burton’s latest film “Alice in Wonderland”.
For Almost Alice, Disney commissioned a select group of artists and bands to come up with original material related to the story. What could have been a meandering mish-mash of styles and perspectives, actually turned out to be a pretty engaging and tuneful set of songs. Avril Lavigne kicks off the set with a catchy ditty titled (what else?) “Alice”. Tokio Hotel, 3OH!3, Franz Ferdinand and All-American Rejects also contributed strong material in this set.
With a slant toward the radio-friendly teen market, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Robert Smith (of the Cure) mixed in among the younger groups. Smith does a great rendition of “Very Good Advice” (from the 1951 animated movie).
Like most various artist discs, we do end up with a few duds (Grace Potter’s carbon copy of “White Rabbit”, for instance) but all in all it’s a pretty enjoyable album.
retroGrade : B
Almost Alice
various artists
Label: Disney
Released Mar 2, 2010
Time 58:21
TrackList:
1 Alice Avril Lavigne (3:35)
2 The Poison The All-American Rejects (3:53)
3 The Technicolor Phase Owl City (4:27)
4 Her Name Is Alice Shinedown (3:38)
5 Painting Flowers All Time Low (3:25)
6 Where’s My Angel Metro Station (3:39)
7 Strange Tokio Hotel and Kerli (3:51)
8 Follow Me Down 3OH!3 featuring Neon Hitch (3:23)
9 Very Good Advice Robert Smith (2:58)
10 In Transit Mark Hoppus with Pete Wentz (4:02)
11 Welcome to Mystery Plain White T’s (4:28)
12 Tea Party Kerli (3:29)
13 The Lobster Quadrille Franz Ferdinand (2:08)
14 Always Running Out of Time Motion City Soundtrack (3:00)
15 Fell Down a Hole Wolfmother (5:04)
16 White Rabbit Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (3:21)
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