Search - Various Artists :: Hype! Surviving The Northwest Rock Explosion - The Motion Picture Soundtrack

Lacking some stuff, but excellent for what's there

J. Hannan | Bay Area, CA | 12/31/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hype! was a great documentary chronicling the ups and downs of the Seattle grunge scene. This soundtrack has a really interesting selection of songs, not only in that there are several bands that wouldn't be obvious choices for a grunge compilation, but also that the songs they chose for the obvious ones are non-obvious songs (ie, the Nirvana pick is "Negative Creep"). It seems to be "missing" quite a bit though. Where are Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, Dickless, and Candlebox? Where's the side project stuff like Temple of the Dog, Mad Season, and Brad? Where's all the rest of the interesting stuff the film delved into, like Coffin Break, Hammerbox, Zipgun, and Crackerbash (which had a prominent song in the movie, I thought this was a soundtrack?)? I guess they couldn't cover *everything*, though it would've been nice for this to be a double album with all the aforementioned bands represented. Despite that disappointment it's really hard to complain about this CD, as it contains 22 tracks of pure greatness, including several rarities, and, for everyone except the most expert of grunge connoisseurs, several bands that you otherwise wouldn't bother to check out. The liner notes are pretty weak, but that's just me nitpicking.



The fact is, this is 22 tracks of grunge, only a few of which would plausibly be in anyone's collection, none of which are hit singles or on hit albums, and all of which are excellent. Get it."

Pretty good, but missing a few key songs.

Brian Thomas | Denver, CO USA | 04/03/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ok- I'll start by telling you that I love every song on this CD. The main reason that kept it from getting five stars is the exclusion of so many great songs from the motion picture. I mean, the movie went so far out of it's way to showcase some of the best bands ever crammed on to a documentary, and then the soundtrack for the most part followed the mistakes that the major record labels made when signing seattle bands- They didn't go far enough! What about Zipgun, Coffin Break, Hammerbox, and don't even tell me that the bassline & drums from the opening song (Bandages by Crackerbash) didn't make you wanna jump out of your seat and break something. All in all, a good collection, but too many bands on here that everyone has heard of already and not enough of the ones that we haven't."

Cool grunge (and not so grunge) singles

glennrpop@aol.com | Virginia, USA | 08/26/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like many people (although few would probably admit it), the mainstream hype over "grunge" is what got me interested in indie music in the first place. After renting the movie (it's really good), I realized that I had missed out on a lot of great dumb Seattle-area stuff. Not every song on this soundtrack is to my liking, but for the most part they rock, and it has pushed me out there, combing the cd stores for a bunch of new (to me) discs."