I Am Sam
Various Artists
V2

Soundtrack comprising entirely of Beatles covers for the movie starring Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer.

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With the tagline 'love is all you need', which perfectly fits the storyline involving the fight of a mentally handicapped father fighting for the right to raise his daughter alone, the soundtrack to I Am Sam is made up solely of the songs of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Well mostly John and Paul actually, 'Here Comes The Sun' being the only 'Harrisong' in the 20 cover versions on the soundtrack album. As with all cover versions, and as we Beatle fans know better than most, some are great, some are not bad and some should never have even been considered! Among the best on this album in Sheryl Crow's laid back and beautifully sang version of 'Mother Nature's Son', Heather Nova giving a nice twist to the phrasing of 'We Can Work It Out' and the excellent all-out rocking 'Don't Let Me Down' by the Stereophonics, for whom this song could have been written; it suits Kelly Jones' vocal style so perfectly.

Aimee Mann and husband Michael Penn give a nice if almost-exactly-the-same-as-the-original album opener with 'Two of Us', although oddly the song is again covered later in the album by Neil and Liam Finn. The songs covered are mostly acoustic ('Blackbird', 'Julia', 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away', 'Across The Universe') but there are a few good up tempo songs; 'Revolution' by Grandaddy, The Black Crowe's on 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever' (Ben Harper). Ben Folds' version of 'Golden Slumbers' isn't too bad but the link into the next track; Australian band The Vines doing 'I'm Only Sleeping', is terrible, although the song itself very good - I especially like the drumming! The only inclusion I really dislike is Nick Cave's awful 'Here Comes The Sun'. Travis who performed the song as a tribute to George at the Top of The Pops Awards last year would have been ideal for this song. Nick Cave however manages to turn a light, positive song into a depressing dirge, in which the sun seems to be hidden behind a big black cloud! He also covers 'Let It Be' and again his voice doesn't really do the song justice. I admit to not being a fan but both these inclusions bring down an otherwise balanced and high quality album. I'll be interested to see the film and see in what context the songs are used in it.

Nina Douglas
TWIL Issue Eight August 2002