VA - The New Guy - Music From The Motion Picture (2002)

Ralph Sall, who wrote the music for the high school comedy The New Guy, has put his mark on the rock and rap songs on this "music from the motion picture" various-artists collection. He gets co-writing credit on four songs and produced seven of them, and he seems to have specially chosen the rest. This is not one of those soundtrack albums that really serves as a label sampler; though Sony acts Wheatus and Nine Days do turn up, most of the tracks have been licensed from other companies. Nevertheless, as a listening experience, it still comes across as a miscellaneous collection of hard rock and hip-hop. There are some interesting remakes: Eve 6 contributes a newly recorded cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" that is appropriately fierce, Green Day covers the Ramones' "Outsider," and SR-71 plays a rock version of the Dazz Band's "Let It Whip." Rehab's rap take on Tommy Roe's '60s pop hit "Dizzy" (the name of the movie's lead character) is called "So Dizzy," but it's so close to the original that Roe and Freddy Weller have retained full possession of the songwriting credit. Wheatus' "Dark Side" sounds a lot like "Wannabe Gangster" from the band's first album. J.T. Money's rap "Hi-Lo" is given a "clean" edit, but the obscenities fly in OutKast's "So Fresh, So Clean," borrowed from the duo's 2000 album, Stankonia; the disc does not carry a parental advisory sticker.~The New Guy Review by William Ruhlmann