High School Musical: Special Edition Soundtrack CD

When high school jock Troy and class brainiac Gabrielle meet cute auditioning for roles in the school musical, they upset the expectations of their friends and earn the jealousy of the school's two top performing talents. The soundtrack to Disney's enjoyable 2006 original movie (the Disney Channel's first venture into musicals) features stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hudgens in duets and solo settings, as well as winning performances from supporting cast members Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel. Songs range from the hip-hop style "Get'Cha Head in the Game" to the dreamy "When There Was Me and You," and there are also karaoke versions of the musical's two romantic duets, "Start of Something New" and "Breaking Free."

In the Disney Channel's original movie High School Musical, the star basketball player and a brainy new arrival discover their love of singing at a karaoke night, then try out for the school musical and challenge the status quo of their cliques in the process. While the movie's soundtrack isn't exactly challenging, it does feature a pretty engaging mix of music and empowering messages, most of which can be found in earnest ballads such as "Start of Something New," "When There Was Me and You," and "Breaking Free." Meanwhile, "We're All in This Together" sets lyrics like "Everyone is special in their own way/We make each other strong" to music inspired by "Hollaback Girl"'s marching-band/cheerleader motif, and "Get'cha Head in the Game" mixes and matches an urban pop melody with sound effects like dribbling basketballs and squeaking sneakers. The soundtrack flirts with satire on "What I've Been Looking For," a number sung by the theater kids who are threatened by these upstarts from other cliques invading their territory: the song's melody is so bright and the vocals so relentlessly cheery, it sounds like a parody of a show tune. Likewise, the big chorus on "Stick to the Status Quo" urges everyone to just "go with the flow." At other times, High School Musical comes closer to sounding like the usual teen pop product issued by Disney, especially on "I Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" and the Latin-flavored "Bop to the Top." Still, the album has enough personality to set it apart from the status quo of the studio's other releases, and the karaoke versions of "Get'cha Head in the Game" and "Start of Something New" will appeal to aspiring singers -- whether they're jocks, drama club members, or math whizzes. ~ Heather Phares

Additional Tracks; Special Edition

Personnel: Andrew Lane (keyboard programming, drum programming).

Audio Mixers: Alex Bush; Andrew Lane.

Ensemble: B5.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.