The 70's were the age of all those bad (or good) karate films, and just oh-so-much excess. The latest Jackie Chan film, Supercop, takes the 70's karate films into the 90's with a soundtrack that echoes the timeline of the film.
Tom Jones, together with Leslie Rankine from Ruby, takes Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting" to new levels - either good or bad, again, depending on your point of view. The key point is that the soundtrack is *fun*, not to be taken completely seriously. Siobhan Lynch's slowed down, Coil-like cover of the Bee Gees' "Staying Alive" will make a fan of those too young to remember Travolta's white leisure suits. And that offbeat group, Devo, do one of the coolest covers of the year - totally reconstructing Nine Inch Nails' "Head Like A Hole".
As one critic who does not profess to have any liking for the West Coast gangsta rap, it may come off as a backhanded compliment that the Warren G/Adina Howard rap re-working of Tina Turner's hit, "What's Love Got To Do With It", comes off without a hitch and is a perfect candidate for pop radio. But the song works quite well, and the two vocalists' voices perfectly complement each other.
On the "new" tracks, Shaun Ryder leads Black Grape into yet another baggy, Manchester-type song which would have suited the Happy Mondays five years back, "Harry The Dog". Pantera's Dimebag Darrell contributes the metal "Caged In A Rage", and newcomers Polara, who have recently signed to Interscope, toss in a re-recorded version of their 1994 song, "Scorched Youth Policy".
An appetizing combination of new and old. Call it kitsch, alternative style.
