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CD Review
Publisher: Atlantic Records
Sun, 9 January 2005
by: Ando
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Take a few serves of pungent cliche rock with copious amounts of profanity. Stir in a handful of nauseating cheesy love ballads with numerous references to how bad the Pearl Harbor Movie was. Add some choice orchestral and techno cuts and garnish with a few Asian spiced jingles and a repulsive broadway musical and what you have is the soundtrack to the hit new movie – Team America…And man does it blow – F@#k Yeah
I think that’s the whole point isn’t it? It’s bad, it’s cheesy, it’s clichéd and I love it. It’s so good at taking the piss, it takes the piss out of itself. Anyway, I’ll get to that later. What I would say first about this kind of soundtrack is it’s an acquired taste (hah… another recipe reference and I didn’t even have to try). So for those who have been living under a rock, or indeed stranded in the wilderness with no contact with the outside world – this movie is the handy work of the talented duo of South Park fame – Trey Parker and Matt Stone. These boys have somewhat of a knack for musical comedy and have established their musical comedy credentials with previous film exploits like Cannibal the Musical - 1996 and South Park - Bigger Longer and Uncut - 1999 in which atleast Trey Parker takes a very active part in the writing, recording and performance of the soundtrack. This time round is no different.In this new movie - Team America they have taken one of the most weighty and politically sensitive issues of our time in the War on Terror and turned it on it’s head or probably more to the truth – given it a wet willy, atomic wedgey and a Chinese burn altogether to help us look at it all a little less seriously. I’m not going to go any further into the movie except to say that it is a lot of fun and from my perspective makes one very serious point – the whole war on terror in general is a joke. Take that, stick it in your crack pipe and smoke it Dubya.
I digress…THE MUSIC, it’s all about the music man and you know what - it is. You could call this a tribute album to classic clichéd rock, token yearning love ballads and even the film industry’s use of music in itself copes a dig (Montage – Think Rocky on the come back road in every frickin Rocky movie they ever made) and it’s all the better for it if you ask me. They’re all there - the love ballads, the poignant reflection song, the come back soundtrack (Montage) and of course hero march. But there are some other gems in there worthy of note.
Some of the stand out tracks are:
The End of an Act - One of my favorites essentially for the brutal references to Ben Afflecks acting abilities. I think I also was impressed with the way in which this generic love ballad is used as such an effective vehicle for slandering the movie Pearl Harbour.
Excerpt:
I need you like Ben Affleck needs acting school…..He was terrible in that film.
Freedom isn’t Free – The country ballad with a message. This little number would seem more comfortable in the Garth Brooks back catalogue, and has about as much appeal musically as Garth at his best. It’s appeal is on another level though - with enough patriotism in it to kill a Rhino it makes a political statement of a kind although I’m not quite sure what that is.
Excerpt:
Freedom costs a buck’O five
America – F@#k Yeah – The flagship track for obvious reasons. It has the hallmark feel of a Whitesnake recording except none of the vanity and hair. The sarcasm is hard to miss, (although I think a few Americans might) as it portrays the USA attitude as macho and over the top. The overwhelming sense that reality is not that far removed from here makes it all the more effective. There is somewhat of a movement growing around this song, with the obvious association with macho aggressive attitudes and arrogance perceived to be a part of American society. It serves quite effectively as an anti-(what I just said) flag for the left leaning, free range eating, heart bleeding hippies to wave.
Only a Woman - Another love ballad coated in melted cheese - I just had to have this excerpt
Excerpt:
Only a woman….Is allowed to touch me there - (sung with rock ballad gusto)
Montage – Montage as I discussed earlier is a pun on a particular part of action movie folklore that we’ve come to expect from the Stallone and Van Damme type movies of our time. This is the sequence where they come back from defeat, using every inch of strength to build themselves into the ultimate fighting machine, determined to defeat the enemy and reach for ultimate glory. All contained in 3 minutes of the movie.
Excerpt:
Always fade out in a montage….If you fade out it seems more time has past in a montage…. (sung as music fades out)
Some of the tracks get a little ugly – The Broadway musical number for instance “Everyone has Aids” has you cringing the first time you hear it and then tapping your feet more and more as you become engrossed by the vibrant liveliness of it all. There is also a sorry awful attempt at replicating some Asian styled Classical and Cabera music that is just plain bad and might have been better left on the cutting room floor, but hey it’s a small price to pay for the other quality ear candy on offer. Another noteworthy addition for all you geeks is the almost carbon-copy rendition of the background music from the tatooine bar in Star Wars. It has been changed just enough to avoid legal proceedings but the essence is there and it gives us Star Wars geeks a little morsel of extra satisfaction to take in from the whole affair.
There is a lot of fun to be had with this soundtrack. It’s very dynamic with various moods and atmospheres, and providing you are of the right mindset or political persuasion if you like you, will find yourself enjoying what you would have to say, is totally crap music (at least for the most part) and for that impressive achievement, I highly recommend it.
by: Ando
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