Monsters, Inc. Scream Factory Favorites
Scream Factory Favoritessends a gusty second wind blowing around theMonsters, Inc.gang so that they seem never to have clomped off the screen. CreditRiders in the Sky, a cowboy-musician collective of four spiffy if over-the-hill-looking fellows, for twanging up these 13 tracks, instead of letting them go sappy or scary or in any way serious.Randy Newman's movie-derived buddy song, "If I Didn't Have You," the opener, lights a low flame beneath happy-to-be-stuck-with-you sensibilities before a run of crackup wordplay kicks in: "Doo-Wah Diddy Diddy (Mike's Song)" gets a Cyclops-specific reworking ("She looked good, she looked fine / I could not believe my eye"); "I Only Have Eye for You" oozes mush to a "scream come true" whose "kisses taste like glue"; and "Monster ABCs" fondly recalls a school-kid chorus--"A is for Aah!, E is for Eek!," etc. "Lullaby for Boo" breaks from the bogeymen, but, besides a couple of swingin' instrumentals, the rest is pure Disney-Pixar monster mash. It won't deliver you to specific movie scenes the way soundtracks sometimes do, or, spooks aside, send chills up your spine, but it does stand to lift your spirits. It's a forget-your-troubles frolic fit for all ages, and it won't fail to tickle the funny bone of anybody who walked out of the movie feeling less foolish about sleeping with the closet door clamped shut, flashlight in hand.--Tammy La Gorce