VA - Fever Pitch - Music From The Motion Picture (2005)

As far as soundtracks for romantic baseball comedies go, the 15 songs that populate Peter and Bobby Farrelly's big-screen adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel Fever Pitch are as geeky and offbeat as the 2004 Boston Red Sox themselves. While the producers have seasoned the pot with plenty of New England-based artists -- they would have been lambasted for not opening the film with "Dirty Water" or including a Jonathan Richman tune -- there's enough left-field material for even the most seasoned pop fan. Nick Drake's sumptuous "Northern Sky," Marah's twangy and wordy "My Heart Is the Bums on the Street," Dropkick Murphys' fiery sports bar singalong "Tessie," and "Who Killed Tangerine," one of the standout tracks from Tears for Fears' overlooked 2004 psych-pop cornucopia "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending," along with a couple of FM classics and an oddball dance track from Joe Pernice round out a collection that's the perfect soundtrack to a day on the porch with the game on mute.~ Review by James Christopher Monger