Cars [Original Soundtrack]

Overview

Disney's latest heart-warmer replaces the anthropomorphic playthings of Toy Story with humanized automobiles -- but it retains the careful balance of good-time pop and gently rollicking, family-friendly rock 'n' roll that made for such an enjoyable soundtrack. Cars relies a bit more on big names and familiar tunes than its Pixar-ish predecessors, but those elements are conjoined in ways that aren't entirely expected. Country kingpins Rascal Flatts, for instance, are called upon to retool Tom Cochrane's "Life Is a Highway" -- a song that takes well to its relocation to Nashville's interstate -- while John Mayer tries his hand at updating "Route 66." Mayer does a credible job, offering an appealing rendition that's practically bursting with eagerness; but he can't quite manage to outstrip Chuck Berry's original (a fact that's hard to ignore, since the Berry version is also presented here). Sheryl Crow's "Real Gone" easily stamps itself as the best of the disc's freshly minted songs, thanks to the singer's playful, coquettish delivery, but the real treat is Randy Newman's score, which takes up the last half the disc. Admittedly, incidental music is usually just that, but Newman packs these ten pieces with enough offbeat instrumentation and stylistic winks to make them worth going back to again and again -- especially for those whose musical diet is sorely lacking in bluegrass tuba workouts.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/06/2006
Label:	Walt Disney Records
UPC:	0050086134977
catalogNumber:	861349
Rank:	3375

Tracks

1. Real Gone, song
2. Route 66
3. Life Is a Highway
4. Behind the Clouds, song
5. Our Town, song
6. Sh-Boom, song
7. Route 66
8. Find Yourself, song
9. Opening Race
10. McQueen's Lost
11. My Heart Would Know, song
12. Bessie
13. Dirt is Different
14. New Road
15. Tractor Tipping
16. McQueen and Sally
17. Goodbye
18. Pre-Race Pageantry
19. The Piston Cup
20. The Big Race

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Chuck Berry   Vocals
Randy Newman   Conductor,Vocals
James "J.T." Taylor   Vocals
James Taylor   Vocals
Chords   Band,Ensemble
Sheryl Crow   Vocals
John Mayer   Vocals
Hank Williams   Vocals
Brad Paisley   Vocals
John Mayer   Vocals
Rascal Flatts   Vocals,Ensemble
Chords   Ensemble

Technical Credits

Randy Newman   Composer,Producer
Bobby Troup   Composer
Tom Cochrane   Composer
Sheryl Crow   Composer
Niko Bolas   Engineering
Frank Filipetti   Engineering
Dann Huff   Producer
John Mayer   Producer
Chris Montan   Executive Producer
Justin Niebank   Engineering
Hank Williams   Composer
Frank Wolf   Engineering
William Edwards   Composer
Brian David Willis   Engineering
James Edwards   Composer
Carl Feaster   Composer
Claude Feaster   Composer
James Keyes   Composer
Floyd McRae   Composer
Sandy De Crescent   Score Conductor
John Shanks   Composer,Producer,Engineering
Mark Cross   Engineering
Greg Hayes   Engineering
Richard Barrow   Engineering
Steve Jordan   Producer
Brad Paisley   Composer
John Mayer   Producer
Glen Lajeski   Composer,Marketing
Rascal Flatts   Producer
Frank Rogers   Composer,Producer
Adam Michalak   Engineering
Russell Bartmus   Supervising Copyist
Jeff Rothschild   Engineering
Mark Graham   Supervising Copyist
Darla K. Anderson   Producer
John Lasseter   Director
Unspecified   Composer
Richard Barlow   Engineering

Editorial Reviews

With a track listing that's roughly half rock, country, and pop songs and half Randy Newman's score, the Cars soundtrack is probably the least inspired collection of music to support a Pixar film. However, that's only in comparison to the brilliant soundtracks to their other movies -- especially Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Both the pop music and score for Cars fit the film perfectly, and neither is totally predictable. Indeed, the biggest surprise may be the soundtrack's opening salvo, Sheryl Crow's "Real Gone." With a stomping beat and driving (no pun intended) riff that echoes the Who's "I'm Free," this is the most fun her music has been in years. As good as she is at the thoughtful, mellow ballads that made up Wildflower, she's truly incandescent as a smart but happy-go-lucky rock chick. There's also a '50s undercurrent to the soundtrack, nodding to the fact that many of the characters in the film are cars designed during that decade, including a 1959 Impala and a 1959 Fiat 500. The Chords' "Sh-Boom" and Chuck Berry's "Route 66" add a sweetly nostalgic feel to the album (later on, John Mayer contributes a blandly slick version of "Route 66" that could appear on virtually any soundtrack). The soundtrack also ties in the film's NASCAR motif with country songs like Rascal Flatts' version of "Life Is a Highway," which sounds like a slightly twangier take on Tom Cochrane's smash hit, and Brad Paisley's "Behind the Clouds," a sweet, affable, traditional country song that is one of Cars' highlights. Newman's score, meanwhile, follows in the tradition of his Toy Story and A Bug's Life work, translating his witty musical style into orchestral pieces that are rooted in traditional film music but never sound stuffy. "Opening Race" alternates between brass fanfares and revved-up guitar riffs, while the thrilling strings on "McQueen's Lost" and "Dirt Is Different" suggest curving roads and wide-open landscapes. And as always, the whimsical love theme "McQueen and Sally" and self-explanatory "Goodbye" show that Newman is still capable of being sentimental without being schmaltzy. Even though a soundtrack that consisted entirely of Newman's pieces and songs would be more in keeping with Pixar tradition, Cars does a good job of balancing its pop and score elements.

All Music Guide - Heather Phares