Shrek - Music From the Original Motion Picture

Like The Muppet Show or The Simpsons, Shrek is tiered with visual appeal, fantasy, and sophisticated humor that appeals to children and adults on two mutually exclusive levels. Judging by the soundtrack alone, there is some genuine emotion coming from this movie; Rufus Wainwright, the Proclaimers, and especially the Eels all pen winsome, longing tunes. Dana Glover's "It Is You (I Have Loved)" represents the soundtrack's requisite glossy ballad, but it's better than most, and John Powell's climactic, orchestral "True Love's First Kiss" makes one wish there was a full score to accompany this soundtrack. On the flip side, Smash Mouth cover the Monkees' "I'm a Believer" with a groovy treatment of crunchy hip-hop beats, and Leslie Carter (sister of Aaron and Nick) gives a perky performance on the Britney-esque "Like Wow!" The soundtrack squeezes the last drops of juice from the overplayed Smash Mouth hit "All Star," but other than that, it strikes a great balance between cute-but-not-precious pop hits, and more grown-up songs that are well within reach of young ears. --Beth Massa Amazon.com

Another soundtrack review ... it's worthy!

There are reviewers grumping about this soundtrack.

I'm NOT so grumpy about it.

Between the choice of iTunes downloads of just the songs I want vs. the cost of the CD, the entire CD wins in this case.

I give it 2 thumbs up - it's worthy of driving with the windows down!

PS ~ CD players are PROGRAMMABLE (and so are MP3 players) so you can keep the fast songs with the other fast songs, and the slow ones with the other slow ones. The soundtrack follows the order of the music in the movie. That is certainly NOTHING to complain about! (And no reason to give a good song 4 out of 5 just because it is upbeat and comes after a slow song!) September 3, 2008

Not entirely honest

I got this cd for one song and one song only - Hallelujah by John Cale - got Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright. Rufus is great and that's the reason I kept the cd, but why is it advertised as sung by John? After much research, looks like big companies can mess with their customers and get away with it - but anywhoo, being I really really like Rufus' version of Hallelujah, I'm happy. "I'm a believer" is cute too, but that's about it. August 29, 2008

Not Quite An All Star CD But I'm Still A Believer In Shrek

If you love the movie SHREK this is a fun CD with lots of music from the film that runs the gamut from raucous to melodic. All this musical variety makes for kind of a disjointed listening experience but the CD still brings back fond memories of my favorite fractured fairy tale every time I listen to it. It's a favorite CD in my classroom for high needs special education students since most of the kids are big fans of all things Shrek related. April 19, 2008

Only a few stand-out tracks.

While the Shrek movie was well done, the music on this soundtrack wasn't the greatest. There are many songs on the Cd that just don't mesh together and seem mediocre at times. After a while certain tracks begin to feel old. There are some great tracks; but they are too few and far between.

Songs like: "Stay Home", "Bad Reputation", "You Belong to Me", and "I'm on My Way" aren't too grating at first listen; but after a while, they get irritating. After a while the 5 songs are unlistenable. Of course, they aren't as annoying as some of the other tracks such as the poppy "Like Wow!" which tends to give me a migraine listening to what sounds like Valley Girls singing. Now I don't mind pop music ("All Star" is a fun song to listen to on the soundtrack) but the variety of "bubblegum pop" that "Like Wow!" has to offer never ceases to grate on my nerves. Maybe it's the lyrics, perhaps it's the paper-thin message; but either way it's irritating.

"It is You (I Have Loved)" would be a great song - the problem is that Dana Glover's vocals seem strained on this release. She sounds quite raspy and it takes away from the beauty of the music.

But, enough complaining...

Both versions of "I'm a Believer" are surprisingly well done and fun to listen to. "True Love's First Kiss" is a sweet instrumental piece that fits the mood of the movie perfectly. I enjoy the final track very much.

"Hallelujah" by Rufus Wainright is easily the best song on the album. It's a very soothing ballad that will stick in your mind even when it's over. He sings it to perfection.

With 5 out of 13 tacks being enjoyable, it's a shame I can't give the album 3 stars at least. But it falls short on delivering the music i hoped to enjoy. January 20, 2008

good product, pleasant music

exactly what I expected, and also perfect the shipment time in spite of the distance (in Italy) November 12, 2007

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