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  The
cover of the R.M. soundtrack has the tagline "From the guys
who made The Singles Ward". Not having seen either film yet
(Buffalo, NY wasn't exactly teeming with 'Mormon cinema' and neither
is my local video store in Washington), I'm not really sure if The
R.M. would be considered a 'sequel' to The Singles Ward. From what
I can gather, it is not, but nonetheless, the soundtrack is sort
of a sequel to the great Singles Ward
soundtrack. And thankfully, it's a sequel that stands well enough
on its own, you know, like Friday the 13th part 37, but not like
Friday the 13th part 62.
This time around, instead of modern rock versions of primary songs,
we get modern rock versions of hymnbook and Janice Kapp Perry standards.
The result is probably no less jarring to anyone who is only used
to hearing these songs on piano or organ in Sacrament Meeting, with
Sister Pitchy's boisterous voice overtaking the chorus. But for
the other days of the week, these are some very entertaining alternatives.
"In the Hollow of Thy Hand" by The Sugerland Run starts
things off in high gear, with chugging, octave-laden guitar riffs,
galloping drums and a powerful contrast between the verses and choruses.
"Love is Spoken Here" has Clay singing with a "that
singer from Cake" delivery. The music is upbeat pop-punk, with
sort of a "Jessie's Girl" sound and with some breaks that
almost make you wonder each time if the song is over.
"Give Said the Little Stream" by Matt Harding sounds like
a blend between Everclear, Ziggy Marley and something you'd hear
at your local Oktoberfest. A chorus of children singing along on
the chorus gives this a timeless vibe that is really cool. My favorite
track so far.
The major seventh chords are let loose in droves on The Debra Fotheringham
Band's version of "I Need Thee Every Hour". The singer/songwriter
version of this hymn is nice, but kind of falls flat for me after
a while, reminding me too much of Edie Brickell in its melodic meanderings.
"Abide With Me; 'Tis Eventide" by the Beck-ish Ponchillo
has some funky vibrato guitar and a lazy groove that turns into
an amazing "David Lynch filming a troupe of belly dancers"
section after each chorus. Wow, I love that part.
"Onward Christian Soldiers" by The Cretins is next, and
is a total Ramones cop, obvious in an "uh, duh" way from
the "Eh! Oh! Onward go!" chant at the beginning. Yeah,
this is cool, but I think I'd have preferred something more "in
the spirit of The Ramones" than something that's kind of like
"doing a C.S.I. examination on the walls of CBGB's to find
where Joey Ramone spit so you can apply his DNA directly onto the
mix". It's almost a bit creepy in that sense.
Jerrytown performs "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" next,
and it's kind of like Matchbox 20 and Hootie and the Blowfish. Those
were never favorite acts of mine, so I'm not too enamored by this,
but it's well done for what it is.
Maren Ord lends her trembling voice to "Where Can I Turn for
Peace?" and it builds nicely throughout with some panned EQ
filtering bouncing around. This kind of goes on a bit long, but
is pleasant enough.
Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband perform "I Hope They Call Me
on a Mission" as if it were "Happy Trails". Some
virtuoso wood block playing, barbershoppy harmonies and fluttery
whistling make this a real hoot.
Edit Nothing does a pop punk rendition of "Called to Serve"
that is everything you'd expect from the genre, and I mean that
in a good way. I like the singer here, who uses his own unique voice
and doesn't resort to the oh so common and grating "fake British
accent". The chorus double-times and really propels the idea
of going onward and forward.
On "My Heavenly Father Loves Me", One Cent Stamp sings
a simple electric guitar and voice intro that suddenly kicks into
an upbeat rawker. There is a guitar harmony interlude that takes
me back to my Iron Maiden days. I'm not usually keen on (uh, does
anyone use the word "keen" anymore? If not, then please
subsitute "into" in place of "keen on") songs
that have deceptively mellow intros and then kick into something
totally different. That can sometimes seem like a cheap effect or
like 'false dynamics'. But I really like how this song ends by coming
back to that intro style, so I can forgive the beginning for the
ending's sake.
Next up is another version of "Onward Christian Soldiers",
this time by Stretch Armstrong. Wow, he has the same name as that
old toy? Whaddya know. This is in a super fast Mighty Mighty Bosstones
style, and is a lot of fun. The vocals trade off from being telephone/megaphone
distant to in-yer-face and there are some funny counterpoint parts,
where I could swear they once say "Go team!". Hilarious.
But then again, I'm not entirely sure that they don't actually say
"goatee!", which would just be weird. The rhythm breaks
down and builds up from the middle to the outro and really gives
it a powerful third act. Bravo! This is a very creative rendering
of this song, and I much prefer it to the "Look ma, we can
sound like The Ramones" of the earlier track.
"If You Could Hie to Kolob" always seemed like kind of
a bizarrely cool hymn to begin with, and Kirby Heybourne and Marc
Thorup accentuate that with their take on it, which sounds like
Live meets Soundgarden. The meters are suitably odd, the production
rich, and this could work as a modern rock radio hit.
Hudson River School does an epic rock "We'll Bring the World
His Truth (Army of Helaman)". There are some interesting aspects
of this, but at six minutes it kind of wears on after a while.
Closing out the disc is Sweet Haven's "Go Back", an original
acoustic ballad that suddenly kicks into a heavy punk sound... No,
actually it doesn't, but I was half expecting it to after hearing
that One Cent Stamp track. This does pick up naturally and fills
out with drums and strings and has some Paul MacCartney-esque (his
better solo work) melody. There are some amusing vocal yodel attempts
that don't always quite work out, but I admire the effort.
All in all, this was a great job by producer Scott Wiley and Hale
Yeah! Records. It's hard to compare this objectively to The
Singles Ward soundtrack, though. In some senses, I'd say that
I don't like this CD quite as much as that one, but I have to wonder
if that's a matter of proximity. In other words, if I had listened
to this disc first, and then The Singles Ward, I might very well
say that I don't like The Singles Ward quite as much as this. Regardless,
there's a lot of great music on The R.M. soundtrack, and it certainly
compares favorably to The Singles Ward, so to be fair I've got to
rate it the same.
****
1/2 (four and a half stars out of five)
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Eric
Endres
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