Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Maverick/Warner Bros.)

A review by Courtney Knopf

Over the past few years, the soundtrack has been on a steady decline. Mostly throwaway tracks by crappy bands or previously released songs that just form a mishmash and don’t seem to have much to do at all with the film they’re attached to. While the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is no Pulp Fiction or even Singles for that matter, there does seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel - even if it’s the size of a pin prick.

Madonna contributes an original track called "Beautiful Stranger," another collaboration with super-producer William Orbit that combines a touch of 60’s psychedelic rock with her own trademarked blend of 90’s dance pop. The song is fairly catchy, and surely stands to be overplayed by radio by the end of the summer, but better this than a replay of last year’s "I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing," right? Plus it seems to be a momentous occasion any time La Ciccone contributes a song to a movie she isn’t in.

Another shining moment on the disc is R.E.M.’s unexpected cover of "Draggin’ The Line." A sort of dreamy take with multitracked vocals and a synth that sounds like a trumpet. Also standing out is the sublime Burt Bacharach/Elvis Costello collaboration on Bacharach’s own "I’ll Never Fall In Love Again." I think as a collective population, we should get down on our knees and thank our lucky stars every day that these two ever decided to work together. And also due credit goes to Mike Myers for helping to resurrect Bacharach’s career with the first Austin Powers flick.

The lesser moments on the soundtrack include the painfully overwrought cover of "American Woman" by Lenny Kravitz. Something tells me that this guy needs his ass kicked, and pronto. Also forgettable is Scott Weiland’s collaboration with Big Blue Missile (who?) on "Time Of the Season." Yeah Scott, who’s your daddy?

So what have we learned from this? Covers of 60’s pop songs sound not be attempted merely for kitsch value unless Michael Stipe or Burt Bacharach are involved. Trust me on that.

Also popping up is the novelty track "Just the Two Of Us," a parody of the Will Smith song, which finds Dr. Evil rapping about how important his diminutive clone Mini-Me is to him. In the just plain weird category, Melanie G. (AKA Scary Spice) does a more decidedly drum and bass version of Cameo’s "Word Up." One has to wonder who told her that was a good idea.

While it’s not destined to be a classic, and the remix of Quincy Jones’ "Soul Bossa Nova" is damn near sacrilege, in general it’s nice to see that Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me doesn’t suffer entirely from soundtrack disease, and at least a few of the tracks have some sort of correlation with the actual film. Yeah, baby.

C+ [78%]

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