SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Album
Unlike some CDs spawned from TV shows, there's not a lot to recommendSpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Albumto listeners who don't set their clocks by the Nick cartoon. But in a culture as Sponge-ified as ours has become in the six years the series has been airing, does it really matter? The resounding, Squidward-sanctifying answer is No. Songs like "Bubble Beat Box" and "Jelly Fish Jam" have their limitations, sure--for one thing, they seem to last a split second, vamoosing before a 9-year-old can really get her groove going. And it's not as though our rectangular friend was able to recruit a lineup of animation-loving rock legends to re-ripen his appeal the way he did on 2004's heavy-hittingSpongeBob SquarePants Moviesoundtrack. But as fans who invest great gobs of time studying the porous pineapple dweller know, the opportunity to play tracks like the "Campfire Song Song" and "Ripped Pants" into perpetuity is one that can't be passed up. Plus, there's some decent music here: "When Worlds Collide" shuffles along to a pleasing hip-hop beat, and for parents, the unsparing, absurdist "You're Old" plays like a laugh-serum-laced poison dart. Those songs alone make shelling out the allowance worth it.--Tammy La Gorce