Forgotten Fridays is a
weekly feature here at If It’s Too Loud.. where we go back and find the lost records
of our glory days. We played these on our college radio shows, put them on
countless mixtapes, and then forgot they existed. Once a week we go back and
remind you, and help decide if they were any good.
Cashing in on the 70s nostalgia kick of the mid 90s, Saturday Morning Cartoon’s Greatest Hits features
19 cartoon classics as performed by bands of the moment. It’s a pure novelty
album that made perfect sense then, but just feels silly now. But that’s not
necessarily a bad thing. The quality varies wildly between songs, with
perfectly fun, infectious tracks right next to one of the worst things you will
ever hear in your life. One of the most fun qualities of the album is hearing
acts that are normally considered serious artists letting loose and having fun.
Right off the heels of Whipsmart, Liz
Phair teams with Material Issue for “The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two
Banana)” from The Banana Splits. Helmet
has the most rocking track with the Gigantor
theme, while Violent Femmes have the most fun with “Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah (Means I
Love You)” from The Jetsons.
When this album is fun, it’s really, really fun. Juliana
Hatfield and Tanya Donelly form a 90s power pop dream team with “Josie and the
Pussycats.” Another interesting pairing that delivers is Mary Lou Lord with Semisonic
for “Sugar Sugar.” It doesn’t hurt that it was actually a hit song when The
Archie’s did it in the 60s. Frente!’s version of “Open Up Your Heart and Let
the Sun Shine in” from The Flintstones has
all the charms of Pebbles’ original, and is just a pretty song. “Spider-Man” by
the Ramones is the best known track on the album for a reason: It’s actually
fantastic and fits right alongside other classic Ramones tracks. It’s even
featured on some of their greatest hits compilations.
But when this album is bad? Yikes. “Go Speed Racer Go” by
Sponge? Collective Soul covering “The
Bugaloos?” Awful. Even promising tracks like Tripping Daisy doing “Friends/Sigmund
And The Seamonster” and Matthew Sweet with “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” are
just dull. I remember loving Sublime’s version of “Hong Kong Phooey,” but now
it’s as unlistenable as I find the rest of Sublime’s catalog. The absolute
worst of the entire bunch is Wax inexplicably covering “Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy”
from Ren & Stimpy. This song is
an absolute abomination and made me despise “Southern California” for years until I could push it out of my brain.
You can find copies of Saturday
Morning Cartoon’s Greatest Hits on Amazon varying in price as much as the
songs do in quality, from $3.23 to $59.99.
No comments:
Post a Comment