Various Artists: Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Like Austin Powers himself, this soundtrack of Nineties artists gettin' jiggy with the Sixties is a colorful anachronism that's part inspiration, part unrepentant kitsch. In the former category: R.E.M.'s analog-soaked cover of "Draggin' the Line," in which Michael Stipe sings lyrics like "My dog Sam eats purple flowers" with the trippy incandescence of a lost space cadet. Dimitri From Paris offers an equally hallucinogenic retooling of Quincy Jones' "Soul Bossa Nova," and Green Day's punko distortion on "Espionage" updates a classy spy theme for the post-Cold War world. The originals aren't bad, either. Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger'' drags at the bridge but soars when it hits its helium high in a chorus of psychedelic da-da-dadas. Leading the kitsch category: Dr. Evil's cover of Will Smith's "Just the Two of Us," which nonetheless is required listening, if only to hear the Evil One rap, "Mini-Me/You complete me." (RS 815)

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