Crushed Beatles
I AM SAM Soundtrack featuring Various Artists
- Review

1. Two Of Us - Aimee Mann/Michael Penn
2. Blackbird - Sarah McLachlan
3. Across The Universe - Rufus Wainright
4. I'm Looking Through You - The Wallflowers
5. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - Eddie Vedder
6. Strawberry Fields - Ben Harper
7. Mother Nature's Son - Sheryl Crow
8. Golden Slumbers - Ben Folds
9. I'm Only Sleeping - The Vines
10. Don't Let Me Down - Stereophonics
11. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - The Black Crowes
12. Julia - Chocolate Genius
13. We Can Work It Out - Heather Nova
14. Help! - Howie Day
15. Nowhere Man - Paul Westerberg
16. Revolution - Grandaddy
17. Let It Be - Nick Cave

Take a handful of the Beatles' classic songs (weren't they all?) and squeeze them dry of all the musical joy and fun the Fab Four filled them up with and one gets, with a few notable exceptions, the I am Sam Soundtrack.

And the saddest thing is that it was quite a good idea that lay behind the soundtrack. When Sean Penn was making the I Am Sam movie, he asked critically acclaimed artist, his brother Michael Penn and Michael's fab musician wife Aimee Mann to get some artists together to record some Beatles covers to feature in his movie about a Beatles obsessed protagonist. However, such good ideas do not by themselves make a good record. And that with a few exceptions is the case here.

Two of Us, the opener of the Beatles' Let It Be album was shot through with joy through and through when the Beatles recorded it. The married couple of Aimee Mann and Michael Penn take on this song which also serves as the opener on the soundtrack. And I am sad to say that if this be the best chemistry this talented husband-wife duo can muster up, their marriage, as gossiped, must be in serious trouble, for Lennon and McCartney at their most acrimonious (the original was recorded when the Beatles were splitting up) put in more interaction and joy than this recently wed duo.

Actually that seems to be the problem with most other tracks. Throughout the joy that the Beatles music always contained is missing and most of the readings are treated with much too solemness and respect. McCartney's Blackbird was a joyous ode when he recorded it: in the hands of Sarah McLaughlin it may be stately, but it is not fun. The Wallflowers continue to mess up the best of music. After ripping the guts and sense of desperation out of Heroes for the Godzilla Soundtrack, they turn the rollicking rocker I'm Looking Through You on this album into a limp mid-tempo stroll. The Beatles was a weird band for their time. A lot of the weirdness and innovation that made them legendary on Across The Universe is lost out in Rufus Wainright's take on Across The Universe. Chocolate Genius does serious harm to Lennon's love letter to his long dead mother in Julia and turns the songs into an addle-headed plea to a lover.

Being a Beatles fanatic I would almost have been tempted to recommend that you do not purchase this album but for a few gems that one finds on the album. A few late coming corkers salvage the whole album for me and these three alone make the album worth the purchase price:

Two rockers with the most integrity today in the music business turn in two remarkable performances. Paul Westerberg formerly of the Replacements is positively morose with Nowhere Man, but the song benefits from the vibe (one wonders however, if Paul does though). Eddie Vedder's reading of the Lennon gem You Have Got To Hide Your Love Away is excellent and shot through with passion.

However, the most remarkable song is from the most obscure of sources: Howie Day from outback Australia transforms Help into what John Lennon in later life insisted he had meant the song to be but due to commercial reason had not had the guts to record as i.e. an urgent plea for help. The song is shorn of its poppy music by Day and with simple solo guitar accompaniment he turns in a nakedly honest reading which correctly places the emphasis back on the harrowing lyrics: 'When I was younger/ so much younger that today/ I never needed anybody's help in any way/ now those days are gone/ I am not so self-assured/ now I find I have changed my mind/ and opened up the door/ help me if you can I am feeling down…'

In conclusion, other than for a few notable exceptions, the whole albums is uneven. Even our own Power Trip did a more awesome version of I want you (She's so heavy) or Oasis did with I am the Walrus and Helter Skelter. Norwegian Wood (the Bird has flown) by P.M. Dawn or Cornershop were similarly better than most of the stuff on this album. So if you do not have the originals, you are better off just getting them first for they remain the most sublime pieces of pop/rock/soul/rnb music recorded yet. If you have heard and loved the originals a million time and are a confirmed Beatles fan, this album may be worth a look

(Most of these songs can be heard at http://www.iamsammovie.com/. Try before you buy. Send comments, rants to maq@qayyums.com).