Album Review by EDF
It is quite unusual for a soundtrack album to be released three months before a movie comes out but this one is not your ordinary soundtrack. 50 FIRST DATES is a romantic comedy staring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore and the accompanying soundtrack is full of reggae style reinterpretations of classic 1980’s love songs by modern artists.
The opening track is WAYNE WONDER’s version of the THOMPSON TWINS classic ‘Hold Me Now’, which mostly sticks to the original blueprint. Next up is 311 attempting SIMPLE MINDS’ ‘Love Song’ that is sure to have the fans of the original up in arms. Adding a bit more spark to ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN’S ‘Lips Like Sugar’ is SEAL featuring MIKEY DREAD who adds a bit of fun to the track.
The one who sounds like he is having more fun then he should be is WYCLEF JEAN with EVE who has a go at ‘Your Love’. There are some more recognisable tracks in the form of ZIGGY MARLEY’s version of THE CARS classic ‘Drive’ and BRYAN FERRY’s ‘Slave To Love’ by ELAN ATIAS and GWEN STEFANI. Strangely enough, UB40’s cover of THE POLICE’s ‘Every Breathe You Take’ is the only track that sounds uninspired.
One of the more unexpected covers to be featured here is SUGAR RAY’s MARK MCGRATH’s attempt at THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS ‘Ghost In You’. Going for more of a SKA approach is ALIEN ANT FARM’S DRYDEN MITCHELL who gives a good interpretation of THE CURE’S pop classic ‘Friday I’m In Love’. Nicole Kea’s attempt of ‘Breakfast In Bed’ is sweet while ‘Melt With You’ by JASON MRAZ threatens to turn into a dub track but unfortunately does not. The last track and thankful it is the last track, so as to ignore it, is ADAM SANDLER singing a song about Drew Barrymore’s character which sounds like it has been taken straight from the movie. This track is probably included to remind the listener that this is a soundtrack album and not a covers album.
The overall quality of the covers here are very good and ignoring a couple of average efforts, this is worth checking out. Listening through this, you suddenly realise that there were some great tracks from the 80’s and this collection just might spark off an interest to search out those long forgotten gems.
