The medically minded Scrubs is an eccentric affair, populated by a zany cast of residents saving lives while learning life's little lessons in the process. Though lacking the show's oddball humor, its soundtrack is undenia... more »bly earnest, with a rich understanding of the pleasures and hardships faced by the hospital workers. The show's theme song, Lazlo Bane's quirky banjo twanger, sighs "I'm no Superman," as an uncharacteristically subdued Guided by Voices track cautions to "Hold on Hope." Ex-Men at Work frontman Colin Hay lends his sage advice with acoustic renditions of "Beautiful World" and the chestnut "Overkill," while Eels' "Fresh Feeling" begins with a tuning orchestra and turns into a tripping beatfest. The highlights, though, belong to Francis Dunnery, sounding uncannily like Peter Gabriel on the high-tea string elegance of "Good Life," and the Shins, with "New Slang," a humble campfire song. Puttering along pleasantly, Scrubs, while a little bland, is nevertheless a life-affirming collection that's as hopeful as the aspiring young doctors on the show. --Annie Zaleski« less
The medically minded Scrubs is an eccentric affair, populated by a zany cast of residents saving lives while learning life's little lessons in the process. Though lacking the show's oddball humor, its soundtrack is undeniably earnest, with a rich understanding of the pleasures and hardships faced by the hospital workers. The show's theme song, Lazlo Bane's quirky banjo twanger, sighs "I'm no Superman," as an uncharacteristically subdued Guided by Voices track cautions to "Hold on Hope." Ex-Men at Work frontman Colin Hay lends his sage advice with acoustic renditions of "Beautiful World" and the chestnut "Overkill," while Eels' "Fresh Feeling" begins with a tuning orchestra and turns into a tripping beatfest. The highlights, though, belong to Francis Dunnery, sounding uncannily like Peter Gabriel on the high-tea string elegance of "Good Life," and the Shins, with "New Slang," a humble campfire song. Puttering along pleasantly, Scrubs, while a little bland, is nevertheless a life-affirming collection that's as hopeful as the aspiring young doctors on the show. --Annie Zaleski
Helen P. from ACWORTH, GA Reviewed on 9/13/2011...
I love Zach Braff's taste in music (he also chose the soundtrack for Garden State). This is a fun variety of quirky music, but not so quirky it takes a specific type to listen. It's "easy quirky listening". I think of the artists chosen as right on the cusp of becoming almost mainstream (if the current mainstream music choices didn't suck). Think Iron & Wine, Sublime, Shawn Mullins, and other such independent artists.
CD Reviews
Got it for Colin Hay's "Overkill", but the rest is great too
Albert G. Smith Jr. | Daytona Beach, Fl USA | 01/01/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Like many cool things, I am late to the "Scrubs party", having never seen a single episode in all of the years that it was on in first run scheduling. Lucky for me, it seems to be on many hours a day now on Comedy Central and other channels, so now I kick myself daily for not having enjoyed this show when it was in the proper sequence. I may have to invest in the DVDs to watch the correct order of this terrific show. It has everything that I love about offbeat comedic situations and characters that are truly original.
While doing my daily dose of catching up, I saw an episode in which the main character was coming to work after having a rough night of no sleep due to stress. As he passed a bench on the street, a man was strumming a guitar. That man was Colin Hay, the lead singer from "Men at work", who launches into a solo version of Overkill... "I can't get to sleep..." This was a great two and a half minutes of television, and made me a fan of the show on the spot. Colin was in various incarnations within the hospital through out the entire song still strumming that guitar and delivering one of the finest solo rendition I have heard in a long time of a song I have long forgotten from 20-something years ago. I had to have that song, so I now have this CD.
The whole CD is easy to listen to, and while I might not be in the target demographics, it is not so "young" that I can't enjoy most if not all of the songs. It might be a compilation, but other than the opening song "Superman" and off course that acoustic solo version of "Overkill", everything was new to me. What is constant is the style, so I have let this disc play through many times now and enjoy the entire group of songs. This makes a nice driving CD or a "background" CD around the house.
"
Great Soundtrack
tvtv3 | Sorento, IL United States | 04/13/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Scrubs is one of the wittiest shows on television. It's also one of my favorites. Unlike many shows, Scrubs is a carefully integrated show. Like life itself, minor characters reappear in episodes and not just as a cardboard-character, but as fully developed individuals with their own lives and back stories that sometimes play into the main plot of the show. Continuity is important and the writers, producers, and directors go to great lengths to maintain that. Things that happened in an episode two seasons before can have ripples two years later. Every part of the show is a part of this careful integration, including the music. The music that is used on the show isn't usually the typical type of stuff that one can hear played on pop radio stations (though there are some songs like this). Not only that, each song is carefully selected and instead of distracting from the action on the small screen the songs augment whatever is happening on screen. In this way, the Music from Scrubs is more like a movie soundtrack than a television soundtrack. Not only that, but because of the sometimes obscure and relatively unknown selection choices, Music from Scrubs is a great soundtrack with almost an entire cd that is enjoyable to listen to over and over and over again. Of the 15 tracks on the album, the only song that I really don't enjoy listening to is track #4, "Good Time" by Leroy. I love every other song on the album. From the shows theme song, "Superman" by Lazlo Bane to the sad ballad of unrequited love, "Good Life" by Francis Dunnery to the upbeat "Hooch" by Everything, this is a great collection of music. Having worked in radio on and off during my life and being involved in theatre, I have built quite a collection of movie soundtracks. The Music from Scrubs is one of my favorites, if not favorite soundtrack that I own."
Okay, but it's missing 2 must-have Scrubs songs
Philip Riley | Austin, TX United States | 10/10/2002
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Scrubs is a great TV show, and the song selections on it are terrific, and so that makes this CD worth owning...But! BUT! BUT!! Two of the most memorable songs from the show are AWOL.ONE: Nil Lara's "Fighting For My Love" (From the ep "My Drug Buddy")
Remember the first time JD and Eliot hooked up, and the great song that played?
("Now I'm standing next to you. I think I've changed my point of view.")TWO: The UNDERDOG theme (from the ep "My Hero")
C'MON!! To me this is like the Dr Cox theme song. It's abscence is just about unforgivable."
CD Information Incorrect
lesroll | Busy, KY USA | 10/19/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This CD is excellent. I listen to it quite a bit, and enjoy it very much. I bought the cd because it had the music of Colin Hay on it, who was featured in the season premiere as a wandering troubadour singing his former Men at Work hit "Overkill." This is the best song on the album, in my opinion. However, on the track list for the CD, Amazon is missing this song. It is the last song on the cd. Also - another reviewer lamented the lack of Nil Lara's "Fighting for my love" on the cd. This is confusing, as the song is, in fact, on the cd, though it is also missing from the track list. Interesting. None of this takes away from the excellent music, however. I had never heard of many of these artists before buying this cd, and I'm certainly the better for listening to their work."
Since its not listed on Amazon at the moment you may wish to
James N Simpson | Gold Coast, QLD Australia | 02/11/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Scrubs has sensational music soundtrack that compliments its episodes including a great theme song in Lazlo Bane's Superman. If you also purchase the DVD season collections and go back and watch after listening to this album the songs will mean a lot more as well.
It may also interest fans of this great show that there is also a sequel to this soundtrack which is called the very imaginative title of Scrubs Original Soundtrack vol.2 It has music from the first five seasons of Scrubs being the following tracks.
I Want To Know by The Mavericks
Dreaming Of You by The Coral
Our Love by Rhett Miller
Why by Elefant
Question by The Old 97's
In The Sun by Joseph Arthur
Winter by Joshua Radin
Light & Day by The Polyphonic Spree
Half by G Tom Mac
Cindy by Tammany Hall NYC
Diner by Martin Sexton
My Brillant Feat by Colin Hay
Honestly by Cary Brothers
Sideways by Citizen Cope
At the time of this review, this sequel album was not available on Amazon.