Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star Soundtrack CD

The soundtrack to the child star redemption comedy Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star features a mix of old and new pop singles, as well as performances from former child stars, including Leif Garrett and Corey Feldman. Unfortunately, the album includes an inferior version of one of the best songs in the movie, Matthew Wilder's new wave hit "Break My Stride." The "Stride 2003" version sounds a little slower and more tired than the original, which may be intentional but certainly isn't successful. The Grass Roots' "Sooner or Later" also appears as a poor re-recording, but at least Chic's "Le Freak" and the Temptations' "Just My Imagination (Runnin' Away With Me)" appear in all their original glory. Harvey Danger's snarky "Flagpole Sitta" is another highlight, but the soundtrack's most notable songs come from the movie's (former child) stars. Garrett continues his on-again, off-again musical career with "Former Child Star," a post-grunge-inspired song that could've come from 1997 or 2003 and doesn't offer any particular insight into being a superstar as a young teenager. It's still better than Feldman's "Negativity," a fascinatingly awful mix of industrial and alt-metal with cheesy synths and lyrics like "Denial of all things equal/Equal does not compute." "Child Stars on Your Television" is a "We Are the World"-style jam with child stars ranging from Willie Aames to Barry Williams, which admits that their lives may not be the greatest, but at least they're not as bad as Michael Jackson. "So we ask this simple question/How can it be that you occasionally don't respect their dignity?" they ask; with the last three songs on this soundtrack, they answer their own question. ~ Heather Phares

Personnel: Betsy Hammer (vocals).