Description
From the song selection on the Wedding Crashers soundtrack, it seems the disc’s creators have seen the phenomenon that is the Garden State soundtrack and have come to capitalize. They didn’t get alternative darlings the Shins nor alternative superstars Coldplay, but they do have Spoon (cool), Death Cab for Cutie (cooler), and Rilo Kiley (stone coolest.) Not to mention a new song by those venerated, middle-aged uncles of art rock, the Flaming Lips. (The Lips’ “Ambulance Driver” is no “Spiderbite Song,” but what can you do? They can’t all be pearls.) But it’s unlikely that Wedding Crashers will make a Garden State-sized splash: a) the movie itself has zero indie street cred, and b) unlike the latter CD, Wedding Crashers fails to evoke a particular mood. One wouldn’t expect existential melancholy from a Vince Vaughn vehicle, but might at least hope for a soundtrack that goes over-the-top-romantic/cheesy/funny to fit the midsummer night’s sex comedy plot. One of the few tracks here that is memorably present in the film is “In the Summertime,” by ’70s one-hit wonders Mungo Jerry–again not a pearl. Even the Vaughn/Owen rendition of “Hava Nagilah” barely features the stars’ voices. This CD is worth owning, but it’s best appreciated as a stand-alone compilation, not as a musical partner to the film. –Leah Weathersby
