Search - Various Artists :: Baseketball: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Soundtracks have been grand experiments in marketing for so long--let's match a bunch of rappers with a bunch of metalheads! electronica-ists with indie rockers!--that it's a relief that the people who put together the BASEketball soundtrack seem to have a simple guiding principle: big, dumb, fun songs that rock. It's an album full of summer-ready singles: there are gimmicky songs (Reel Big Fish's cover of a-ha's "Take On Me," Nerf Herder's "Don't Hate Me," the Cherry Poppin' Daddies' take on Harry Belafonte's "Jump in the Line"), straight-ahead rockers (the Supersuckers, Plastiscene), a couple of radio-crafted rent-a-hits (including one from the once-mighty Soul Asylum), and even a song that's already been a hit (Smash Mouth's "Why Can't We Be Friends"). Granted, Nerf Herder's track might not be a gimmick, since they pretty much always sound that way--but it, like the majority of the album, is a hell of a lot of fun. Hit the beach and turn it up. --Randy Silver