Customer Reviews

Hollywood Goes Wild

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well, I reviewed this cd something like five months ago. Now that I've had time to see how the replay value is, I feel like I can write a much stronger review for it. This is a really cool cd to own. First off, you get to hear some of your favorite actors doing songs that they love. While there are a few misses on here (Jeff Goldbloom's "Born Free'ky" just didn't do much for me) this compilation is well worth the cash. I really dug "Your World" by Dogstar and "Midtown" by Brad Pitt. That song just rocks. My personal favorite on the whole cd would have to be "Island Avenue" by Billy Bob Thornton. It's a hard song to describe but the cd is worth owning just for that track alone. A track originally penned by his late brother, Jimmy Don, "Island Avenue" is a very deep, emotional song with great, complex music and Billy Bob singing in his best rocker voice. He sings everything unbelievably smooth until the chorus kicks in, then he sings out in a very heart-felt, almost Springsteen-like, voice. Greatness.

Since buying this album back in April, I've listened to that one song maybe three times a day and I have yet to get tired of it. I've played it for friends who went off and bought the album just for "Island Avenue". The guitar playing (by Michael Shipp) is downright awesome. Very bluesy and Melodic. I also love the B3 organ which gives the whole thing a classic-rock kind of vibe. Check it out.

I had never been familiar with Russel Crowe's outfit, 30 Foot Odd of Grunts, but with "Photograph Kills", I'm tempted to pick up their album. The music may be somewhat simplistic, but he has a great voice and the lyrics are very solid and meaningful. If you've never heard Dogstar before, here's a great place to start. This cd has turned me onto a lot of great bands and it's well worth picking up.

Starting off funky, with Jeff Goldblum rat-skat-skattin about "bein freaky and unique-y", segueing into the barely contained irony of Russell Crowe lamenting fame in "The Photograph Kills," this album has a strong footing and I predict will have a popular following.

While there are a few tragic tracks -- the painfully wailed "tune" by Juliette Lewis (I never made it all the way through this one) and the overly e-nun-ci-a-ted song featuring Brad Pitt being prime examples -- the compilation is a keeper. Billy Bob Thornton's "Island Avenue" track was a pleasant suprise.

I am buying a second copy to give as a holiday present. You may follow in my footsteps after your own listen. Try it, buy it.

As a huge 30 Odd Foot of Grunts fan (Russell Crowe's band), I immediately went out and bought this CD. Amazingly, many actors also have a talent for singing. I have kept up with Bruce Willis' singing career since Moonlighting, and I think he's really good. I had never heard Dogstar before, but I am beginning to like them. In my opinion, some actors/singers are better than the ones that are on Billboard's charts today (Eminem, Nelly, etc.).

I only bought there CD because Dogstar had a track on it called "Your World" [which truly ROCKS!], but I found the whole CD to be really good.

Plus, it's for a good cause, so BUY IT!!

Amazon has inserted songwriter names in the track list as if they are performers or co-performers, which they are not necessarily. Here is how it should read:

1. Born Free'ky - Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra
2. The Photograph Kills - 30 Odd Foot of Grunts featuring Russell Crowe
3. Polite - Bijou Phillips
4. MidTown - Brad Pitt
5. Hardly Wait - Juliette Lewis
6. Your World - Dogstar (featuring Keanu Reeves)
7. It's So Hard - Mare Winningham
8. Island Avenue - Billy Bob Thornton
9. On the Hill - Milla Jovovich with Plastic Has Memory
10. Crazy Mixed-Up World - Bruce Willis
11. Hollywood Affair - Iggy Pop & Johnny Depp

The vocals are pretty good on this, but some of the songs are a little strange. Still very worth a listen.

This is a review only on what I heard from snippets from my computer, but I can quickly tell that much of this will go down with some of the "Golden Throats" recordings, e.g. Leonard Nimoy, Sebastian Cabot, William Shatner, Mae West and the like. Very funny and entertaining, but not good music or performing. Actually I kind of liked Mare's very pleasant folky voice, the rest were pretty sad... Does Jeff Goldblum sing on his track? Iggy Pop's track sounds like him, but is that Johnny Depp? Kudos a little for Milla's artsy rendering of whatever the heck that was, but I do like to look at her in her movies!