Bean - The Album

There are some albums you pick up just because you really want one song, and it's the only way to get it. Well, that was how it was before mp3's anyway. Bean, The Album, which is the soundtrack for the first Mr. Bean movie, is one of those albums. The album is full of shit covers, of some equally crappy songs. However, it's not all bad. There are some songs, and even one cover, that I enjoy.

The album opens with a cover of Randy Newman's I Love L.A., which is being performed by OMC. I think it stands for Only Massive Crap. They took a song that was at least okay, and turned it into complete ass.

Boyzone and their Picture Of You can be skipped with extreme prejudice. That was you can get to I Get Around from the Beach Boys. This was a favourite of mine as a kid. Ever since I first saw Flight Of The Navigator. It's just a good, fun, summertime song.

Walking On Sunshine by Katrina And the Waves is another one of those fun songs. It's not my cup of tea, but I understand the enjoyment this song brings. That's one thing I do really like about this album. As much as it sucks, it's also very upbeat and fun.

I'm not sure why they added so many audio clips from the movie either. I find that in most cases it takes away from the album. It's not like they are putting in clips of great dialouge like Tarantino does with his soundtracks. It's just one or two sentences that are being used to set up a song, sort of.

Feel free to skip Wet Wet Wet's cover of The Beatle's Yestersday. It's not a bad cover, but I'm not a fan of the original song either. I'm not a big fan of water coloured memories songs.

Running Back For More by Louise is continuing the trend of music I don't care for. In fact this one song sounds like Motown stock, that was dug out of some last tape found in the basement of a studio, where it should have stayed buried.

Thomas Jules-Stock can take That Kinda Guy and sodomize himself with it. Also, whoever thought it should go in the movie, or on this CD should also be sodomized by That Kinda Guy too.

I'm not sure why there's so much Adult Contemporary on this album. Gve Me A Little More Time by Gabrielle has the exact same appeal for me as Running Back For More. In fact these may have been recorded during the same session even, which I know they weren't, but it really sounds that way. The only bright side to this song is that it will cure insomnia, as I'm falling asleep writing this.

He's A Rebel also fits into what I wrote about Running Back For More, except this is a bit more upbeat, and the most enjoyable of all the cheesey Motown sounding stock songs on this album.

One of my favourite songs of all time came from a movie soundtrack. Resevoir Dogs introduced me to Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel. This album has a completely shit cover of that song by Susanna Hoffs. It's like they tried to make it a Hip Hop/Country/60's Classic Rock hybrid, and it only comes across as a second rate Sheryl Crow wannabe cover instead. I would like Mr. Blonde to reinact his famous scene using Hoffs as the cop.

The band 10cc is one of those bands from the 70's I don't know that well. They are a British Art Rock Band, but I think they sound more like Frank Zappa wannabes, at least if you go by Art For Art's Sake, which is the song from them on this album. You can skip Blair's Have Fun Go Mad as well. It's okay, in a very stock Funk kind of way. You can do the same thing with Code Red's Can We Talk (Pure Radio Mix). What a piece of crap. Worst song on the entire album.

Now, what I normally do when I feel like listening to this album, which is never, is skip to track fourteen and let it play through the rest of the album. Bean Theme (Mad Pianos) by Howard Goodall is fantastic. It's your typical movie score styled song, but it's a much needed break here from all the other crap. The Piano work on this piece is just awesome.

Which brings me to the last song on the album, which is the whole reason I bought this album. Bruce Dickinson performing Alice Cooper's Elected. Well, it's specifically Mr. Bean And The Smear Campaign (Featuring Bruce Dickinson). I love this cover, because Bean's humour is just hilarious on this song. I love his campaign promises, and the cheap shots at various public figures. Then there's the fact that Bruce Dickinson is covering an Alice Cooper song. How the hell do you go wrong with this? It's just genius. However, I would love to have a version of this song without Bean's part as well.

I will not suggest anyone pick up this album. It's complete crap, with the exception of the three songs I Get Around, Bean Theme, and Elected, as far as I'm concerned. I would suggest downloading those three, but nothing more.

2/10 - content

5/10 - production

2/10 - personal bias