Customer Reviews

Muppets: The Green Album

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Reasons to buy THE GREEN ALBUM:

- You grew up watching THE MUPPET SHOW and you have a bit of a nostalgic streak.

- You smiled and laughed throughout the preview to the forthcoming movie THE MUPPETS.

- You've always felt that Muppets instantly make everything more fun.

- You own anything with a Muppet on it.

- You are already a fan of any of the bands that make an appearance on THE GREEN ALBUM.

- You are open minded enough to listen to a few hipster/indie rock style interpretations of your childhood memories.

- You are traditional enough to appreciate that most of these songs are played relatively straight.

- You think you can forgive OK GO for possibly effing up the opening track by making it too weird.

- You like the idea of a compilation/tribute album of cover songs from a thirty-five year old puppet show being able to stand on its own as an album - only a few songs are chained to The Muppet Show here, the others could make it on their own in the world if they wanted to.

- You're still looking for "the rainbow connection" - the lovers, the dreamers, Kermit, and you...or maybe you've found it, in which case you might also be picking up a copy of the new Barbra Streisand album that was released today.

This is a fun little collection of cover songs, but ultimately there was only one song on the album that I felt was comparable in quality to the original. Weezer re-imagines Rainbow Connection as a duet, which ends up working pretty well. The rest of the songs just don't have the same magic or energy as the original Muppet versions. I don't know if that speaks poorly of the bands involved or if it's just a testament to the care that went into the movies. There were also a few songs that I really wish were included, most notably "Can You Picture That?" from The Muppet Movie.

The Green Album is definitely worth a listen, but not necessarily a full-price purchase.

I'm not going to do a music review, I'm just going to say that owning this album makes me happy. Listening to this album makes me happy. It's silly and wonderful and it makes me just...you guessed it... happy. If you're one of the many who grew up watching the Muppet Show, you will enjoy these new takes on old childhood classics.

"The Green Album" is a tribute to the Muppets to help promote the upcoming movie "The Muppets" and includes 12 tunes that sound awesome! If you're old like me, you're sure to remember this zany bunch of characters including Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy. The songs from the show were classic and helped define each episode. And now they've been re-made with a modern rock-punk-indie feel to it. The results are fun, the music is great, and talk about re-living some child memories! OK Go gets things started with the "The Muppet Show Theme Song" and they couldn't have done better. The tune has a melodic groove and is filled with fuzzy distortion. It's catchy, as it was back in the day, but the best part about it is OK GO seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Even Weezer seem to be having fun as they team up with Paramore's Hayley Williams and belt out "Rainbow Connection" (originally sung by Kermit from 1979's "The Muppet Movie and nominated for an Oscar). The result is, believe it or not, beautiful! One of the most catchiest songs is "Mahna Mahna," sung by The Fray with all the original silliness fully embraced. The piano and hand claps really add to the song and you'll be nodding your head in no time. My Morning Jacket add their own unique touches to "Our World" and make it sound like it could belong on one of their own albums. A banjo and slide guitar add a cool texture, and the sound is amazing. "Mr. Bassman," performed by Sondre Lerche, features a cool acoustic guitar and is a great change of pace. Brandon Seller picks the pace back up on "Night Life" which is one of the faster, more rockin' songs on the album. The guitar rocks and there's a great drum solo. It simply sounds incredible. Andrew Bird sings "Bein' Green," my personal favorite. With a country influenced fiddle and crisp drumming, it has a lot of energy and is just beautiful. "I Hope That Something Better Comes Along," originally sung by the dog Rowlf, is brought phenomenally back to life by Matt Nathanson. Who better to sing about dog related puns? Overall, The Green Album is a fun, worthy tribute to a bunch of my childhood idols. Highly recommended!

Caring whether your kids have "good" (read: "your") taste in music, books, and movies is a foolish thing to do, so it means something that the day that my daughter said she really didn't like The Muppet Movie was one of the very few times when I actually, well, cared. It's a great movie, a little cheesy at points maybe, but funny and tender, one of the great movie musicals of the past half-century. (Seriously -- there are very few post-1960s musical on the AFI list of the Greatest Movie Musicals, and even fewer created specifically for the screen.)

Why do I relate the story? Well, more so than most albums reviewed here, it's my opinion, not that of kids, which matters here, because Muppets: The Green Album isn't really a kids music album. The album is a collection of 12 Muppet-related songs, drawn mostly heavily from The Muppet Movie or from songs heard on The Muppet Show. Much like Disney's collections of covers from their own stable of American tunes, Disneymania, Disney's approach here is to get popular (critically or otherwise) artists to tackle the Jim Henson-related songs. The fact that some of these artists weren't yet born when The Muppet Show went off network television doesn't seem to have hurt their recruiting efforts. (The fact that the rest of 'em were kids when the show was still on probably helped tremendously.)

And as is the case with any such collection, Disney or otherwise, this album succeeds or fails based on how good the songs are and whether the artists bring anything new to them (or, if they ruin their charm). As to the former issue, I think I've made clear my admiration for the Paul Williams-Kenny Ascher-penned songs for The Muppet Movie, but in addition to those classics, you also have songs like the Joe Raposo-penned Sesame Street song "Bein' Green."

What do the artists do with them? Well, some combinations work really, really well -- punk group the Alkaline Trio give "Movin' Right Along" a fun kick in the pants it didn't know it needed, and Sondre Lerche resurrect "Mr. Bassman," a song from a Muppet Show episode. I liked The Fray's take on "Mahna Mahna" more than I expected to, though it's probably the most faithful cover here. OK Go put their own spin on the theme song, and even though I could do without the tacked-on guitar solo, they do manage to keep the listeners' attention during what is, well, a theme song. And Andrew Bird's take on "Bein' Green" nails Kermit's wistfulness without making his cover a carbon copy.

But following Kermit is a tough act, and while many attempt to cover "Rainbow Connection," very few succeed, and I can't say that Weezer and Hayley Williams from Paramore do, either. As for "Night Life" from The Great Muppet Caper, covered here by Brandon Saller of Atreyu and Billy Martin, I'll just quote my wife after hearing it for the first time: "I never need to hear that ever again."

So, is this a kids' album? Not really. I'll put the age range for the album at ages 8 and up, not because any of it is inappropriate for younger kids, but because unless they've seen lots of Muppets on TV/DVD, they won't have the context for the music. (Older kids can enjoy the music on their own terms, or perhaps even recognize a few of the bands.) For a little while longer, you can stream the album here.

In the end, Muppets: The Green Album has a number of very good recordings from an underrated American songbook. Is it a great kids' album? No. Is it a lot of fun for those of us of a certain age who are still able to tap the kid inside? For the most part, yeah. For those Muppet fans, it's recommended. (If I could give it 3.5 stars instead of 4 I probably would, but I'm rounding up. After all, I'm a Muppet fan.)

[Review originally appeared on Zooglobble.]

This isn't the first time the Muppets have been covered by other bands, from cheap bargain bin bands to groups that made them into hits, but this album reinvents these classic Muppet songs in a way that feels fresh but still loyal to the original song. Each band/performer on the album isn't just phoning it in. There is remarkable talent displayed on many of these songs. Weezer does a really heartfelt "Rainbow Connection" with Hayley Williams, the Alkaline Trio does a toe tapping "Moving Right Along", Brandon Saller from Atreyu does a super hard rock version of Electric Meyhem's "Night Life", Sondre Lerche (who I had never heard of before until this album) won me over with "Mr. Bassman"... The point is, every song on this album has something to offer. I am not always in the mood for every song here due to the wide range of styles, but song for song this is probably one of the best albums I've ever bought. Every time I listen to it I hear something new that broadens my appreciate for it.

Each song is a fun visit to my childhood! Some songs I didn't even remember, but upon looking them up on youtube, quickly remembered them, and enjoyed the new versions right away. Some songs, like the Wishing Song (sung by Gonzo on The Muppet Show) are very rare and hard to find originals of. I do wish they had listed where each song was originally from. I had to do a lot of personal searching to find this out for myself. For those wondering:

1. Muppet Show Theme Song (Personally? The music video version of this song is better.)

2. Rainbow Connection (The Muppet Movie, Kermit)

3. Mahna Mahna (The Muppet Show, various cast)

4. Movin' Right Along (The Muppet Movie, Kermit and Fozzie)

5. Our World (Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, various cast)

6. Halfway Down The Stairs (The Muppet Show, Kermit's nephew Robin)

7. Mr. Bassman (The Muppet Show, Dr. Teeth and Scooter)

8. Wishing Song (The Muppet Show, Gonzo, rare find!)

9. Night Life (The Great Muppet Caper, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem)

10. Bein' Green (Various venues, Kermit)

11. I Hope That Something Better Comes Along(The Muppet Movie, Kermit and Rolfe)

12. I'm Going To Go Back There Someday (The Muppet Movie, Gonzo)

Hope this list helps the curious! :)

I think I bought this just because I felt like spending money on my Amazon mp3 app on my phone. NOT the best jumping off point for the welcoming in of a new musical experience, but I had already listened to this album in its entirety and thought it was a cheerful, eclectic listen.

I LOVE just about all these songs in their original incarnations. I will admit that I consider the OMT ("Original Muppet Trilogy") to be canon; I hold it up to the same (well, not quite) esteem as I do the Original Star Wars trilogy. I'm of course talking about THE MUPPET MOVIE, THE GREAT MUPPET CAPER and THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN. The songs from those movies I think are interesting, though ultimately unnecessary reworkings of classic movie soundtrack songs. The songs from the Muppet Show (with the obvious exception of the Main Theme and Ma-Na-Ma-Nah or however its spelled) aren't as familiar to me and are actually made even less interesting for it.

There are some good bands that cover some of these songs, and others that I've never heard of and are quite forgettable.

If you've got 8 bucks to burn you can listen to a lot worse, but after listening to it a few times it's unfortunately more of a merchandising tie-in (albeit a creative idea for one) than a legitimate musical creation that stands on its own.

Getting there is half the fun, come share it with me!

"The Green Album," a collection of Muppets songs performed by modern indie rock bands, could have gone either way - it had the potential to be a playful, wonderful homage, or a horrific experiment in poor taste and bad marketing. Thanks largely to some very talented musicians, I'm happy to say it's mostly on the wonderful, playful side.

I grew up on the Muppets. I have quite a soft spot for Kermit, Fozzie, Animal, Gonzo, and especially those old curmudgeons Statler and Waldorf. These songs and this music are as familiar to me as the books I read and re-read, as hopeful as the comfort of a darkened theatre as the opening credits of a movie come up. Which presents a challenge - for people like me, how to make this music fresh and keep those feelings intact?

The answer is get some musicians who clearly feel much the same way and let them run with it. OK Go clearly had a lot of fun with the opening track, the Muppets theme song. Weezer and Hayley Williams (lead singer of Paramore) manage to pump new life into the tried-and-true "Rainbow Connection." The Fray lends a whimsical note to "Mahna Mahna."

And perhaps my personal favorite (because she's one of my favorite modern singers), Rachael Yamagata closes the album perfectly with a soulful, tender performance of "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday."

Alkaline Trio, Amy Lee of Evanescence, the Airborne Toxic Event... the list keeps going and each band lends their own flavor to the song they chose. With only a few exceptions, it's a mix that works well. Most of the songs come out sounding fresh and fun and modern, but with a hint of nostalgia in each.

It's a short album - 12 tracks clocking in at just under 40 minutes of music, but unlike most CD's, almost every song here has something worth listening to, whether it's Amy Lee's soaring vocals or Andrew Bird singing about the troubles of green skin.

It's enough to make an old softy like me remember the days when he was smaller, and less wise; when a frog could sing about rainbows, and that was just fine.

Picked this up on Amazon yesterday for $4.99 (mp3 download). It's a mixed bag but some of it is fantastic making the full album worth $5 at least. Highlights are the weird OK Go version of the theme song, the Weezer/Hayley Williams (whoever that is) version of Rainbow Connection, and the Alkaline Trio version of Movin' Right Along. Andrew Bird's Bein' Green is pretty fantastic, and as much as I wanted to hate it, because it was Matt Nathanson, the cover of I Hope that Something Better Comes Along is very good. The clear winner for me though is My Morning Jacket's take on Our World from Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas. I'm on the fence about Rachel Yamagata's I'm Going to Go Back There Someday. This is one of my favorite Muppet songs, actually one of my favorite songs in general, so I want to like it but I'm struggling with it. The original is undeniably low key as is Yamagata's version but her's is downright doleful which would be okay on it's own yet it has some weird whimsy thrown in that seems out of place. The melancholy harmonica parts that make the original great, in my opinion, are completely absent.

On the other side of the coin there are some real stinkers on here as well. Amy Lee's Halfway Down the Stairs and Brandon Sallers's Night Life do nothing for me, but this could have more to do with not being familiar with the songs... must be from something I haven't seen. Why The Fray bothered wasting studio time recording Mahna Mahna I do not understand, they simply could have taken the original to Kinko's if they wanted a carbon copy.

Airborne Toxic Event and Sondre Lerche turn in okay tracks with Mr. Bassman and Night Life respectively but the original material here isn't nearly as strong as the rest of the album so those two songs end up being kind of meh almost by default.

Overall I would recommend it if you can get it at a good price like I did. Fans of the show will enjoy most of the album at least. And while I would skip most anything Weezer does these days, and I'm not a huge fan of OK Go, and don't care for the The Fray or Matt Nathanson at all, the material and spirit of the album trump my feelings for them and they actually deserve credit for doing the material justice.