Various Artists: Mystery Men : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

This soundtrack embodies American pop's post-cool sensibility, that seemingly enforced geekiness afloat since ska, swing, MTV beach parties, Barenaked Ladies and intentionally stupid Hollywood movies started packing in audiences stunned by tragedies in Seattle and in hip-hop. Smash Mouth offer a solid anthem for the new smile brigade with "All Star," where aggressively fake reggae verses dissolve into guitar-stoked choruses that command, "Hey now / You're an all-star / Get your game on / Go play." The song anchors a collection in which funny hats are mandatory headwear, even when things veer into hip-hop with Michael Franti and Spearhead's "Sometimes," or singer-songwriterdom with Jill Sobule's "Rainy Day Parade." Toward the end, Violent Femmes refire their old flesh-against-guitar-strings act, unhappy that there are "No More Heroes," and Moloko's "Indigo" is appropriately dutiful dance stuff. But hearing the Trammps' "Disco Inferno" and the Bee Gees' "Night Fever" flow around at the album's end is instructive. These vintage pop escape routes don't sound so forced. (RS 820)

JAMES HUNTER