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Cool Runnings (Columbia, 1993) This soundtrack to the Walt Disney film loosely based on the plight of the Jamaican bobsled team features some big names generally performing below their abilities. The once-proud Wailing Souls are the primary culprits, contributing 3 sub-par tunes, the worst being a pop/dance remake of David Byrnes' (Talking Heads') "Wild Wild Life." Since this is a soundtrack for a Disney movie, I suppose Michael Eisner & Co. wanted family-friendly fare with a crossover appeal. The Wailing Souls seemed more than happy to oblige, as did the female trio Worl-A-Girl, who contribute the as-noxious-as-it-sounds "Jamaican Bobsledding Chant," which sounds like the type of happy-go-lucky dancehall that is sung for tourists. I thought that Super Cat's "Dolly My Baby" would help, but this is the album version, not the superior hip-hop version (superior despite being remixed by Puff Daddy, that is) that was popular. Three nice tunes do buoy this sinking ship a bit, though: Jimmy Cliff's hit cover of Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now," Tony Rebel's great hip-hop-tinged tribute to his homeland, "Sweet Jamaica," and "Cool Me Down," a fun, funky love song as only Tiger could do it. These latter two, however, can and indeed should be purchased by getting the excellent Columbia albums released by Tony Rebel and Tiger (Vibes of the Time and Claws of the Cat, respectively) during this same time period. This essentially makes this album useless. A couple of disposable non-reggae instrumentals from the musical score by Hans Zimmer are thrown in for bad measure. |
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