Driven
Horror strikes with a first glance at the cover of this soundtrack album from Sylvester Stallone's race-car dramaDriven: could the likes of Stallone, Burt Reynolds, and Kip Pardue (who?) actually be performing these tunes? Fortunately, the presence of movie-star names up front only denotes misguided art direction or an ego trip on the part of "co-executive soundtrack producer" Stallone. The disc instead proves to hold a smorgasbord of overdramatic tracks chosen for maximum multidemographic penetration. In addition to over-the-top pop-country from Curb artistsLeAnn Rimes,Tim McGraw, andJo Dee Messina, there's a misbegottenMatchbox 20/Chili Peppersfusion byTantric, the Brit-dance-pop of Rob Dougan, and, what's this, an actual worthwhile cut byHank Williams IIIthat's more country-punk than anything on his excellentdebut. Schlocky songwriter Diane Warren's spirit is the guiding one, but her "Soon" (by Rimes) and "I Wanna Get Back with You" (Mary Griffin) are totally outcheesed by awful covers of "For the Love of Money" and "Break On Through" by respective no-names Rare Blend andSteve Holytacked onto the CD's end. They make the prospect of a Gina Gershon vocal seem not such a bad idea after all.--Rickey Wright