REVIEW: Soundtrack, Kiss Me Guido (A&M)

- Sean Eric McGill

You can't walk down the aisles at your local music store without seeing at least twenty albums proclaiming to be "The Party Album of the Year". Regardless of your musical tastes (with the possible exception of metal), there's an album suited to your needs. You like the chessy Top-40 stuff? Theres one with "The Train" and "DJ Girl" (or God forbid, "Barbie Girl"). Dig that hip new electronica sound? Then there's an instant party CD just for you, featuring Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, and the usual suspects.

And in a lot of ways, the soundtrack to Kiss Me Guido is a lot like that. As a party album, it's damn good. Whereas the soundtracks for films like Spawn and both The Crow films were dark in overall tone, Kiss Me Guido is uplifting with every track. Of course, this has a lot to do with the overall tones of the films, as well, but that's another issue altogether.

I've struggled long and hard to come up with a way of describing the overall sound of the album without causing any ruckus (a first for me), and have decided that the best way to describe - while it may cause some ruckus - is still the best way. The soundtrack for Kiss Me Guido sounds like the soundtrack for the best night a club you could have - especially if it's a gay nightclub.

How am I, a heterosexual, qualified to make this judgment? Well, when I first started DJing in the early nineties, one of the few places I could not only get a job but get an appreciative crowd was in the local gay clubs. The audiences responded more to my own personal style (a mix of Parliament and Prodigy, with emphasis on the former) than the other clubs, where kids just wanted to hear "Baby Got Back" or some variation of "Whatever! There it is!" all night.

Tracks like The Gap Bands "Burn Rubber On Me" have been a staple of my DJ sets from day one, and fit in perfectly with some of the newer dance tracks like Love Tribe's "Stand Up" (featured here in the eight-minute "Narcotic Mix"). And thats pretty much the span of the album - old school meeting the new kids and having a party. Edwin Starr's two contributions, "Contact" and "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio" make for some of the best moments, but Miquel Brown's "So Many Men, So Little Time" also stands out.

So, should you buy it? If this is your thing, yeah, you should. This is an album that wasn't put together with hit singles in mind - it was put together with a sense of fun, and it shows.