In soundtrack terms, this is somewhat of a failure: there are no outstanding hit songs, and there's no exclusive new tracks for completists.  As perhaps the least "soundtrackish" soundtrack of the year so far, this fares pretty well as an album, and provides a prime example of how a modern soundtrack should work (it's a well-known fact soundtracks have nothing to do with their respective film, unless its the film score).

   The most curious thing about this soundtrack is the large amount of Steely Dan covers.  I don't know if Steely Dan have something to do with the movie's plot, but Walter Becker and Donald Fagen wrote 8 of the 15 songs.  There's nothing wrong with Steely Dan; they're a solid band (that I need to listen to more of), but, as mentioned earlier, the reason this isn't called Me, Myself, & The Tribute To Steely Dan escapes me.

   Of course the mere fact that I only know a few Steely Dan songs severely flaws this review.  One I do know, "Reelin' In The Years", is given a wonderful energetic treatment by one of my favorite bands, Marvelous 3.  Smash Mouth offer a rather schizoid version of "Do It Again", which sounds good for the first verse but deteriorates quickly thereafter.  Although I have never heard the originals before, the covers of "Razor Boy", "Barrytown" (Bens Fold Five illustrate how to change a song without ruining it; I doubt there was this much piano in the original), "Only A Fool Would Say That", and "Bodhisattva" also stand out.

   There are also two non-Steely Dan covers on this soundtrack.  A.F.I.'s "Totalimmortal" is given a quick and dirty rendition by pop-punkers The Offspring, and Hootie & The Blowfish do a very sweet version of "Can't Find The Time To Tell You" (the original artist eludes me right now).  Newcomers Pete Yorn and Tom Wolfe provide some good (I especially like Wolfe's) alternative tracks, and the Foo Fighters offer their single "Breakout", which actually fits with the movie's theme.  As for the already-released and too-mellow Third Eye Blind track, who knows? I guess the second verse resembles a multiple-personality... ya can't win 'em all.