Album Review: Friends Again soundtrack

The second compilation of songs from NBC's Thursday-night ratings juggernaut is a collection of somewhat monotonous Savage Garden sound-alike music. While dozing off to depressing, somber tunes about love, relationships and the strife between men and women crooned by famous artists such as Smash Mouth, Duncan Sheik and Lisa Loeb, the highlight of the record is most certainly the sound bites of the dialogue from the series itself. Although these depict the atrocious acting skills of Jennifer Aniston and the like, they break up the droning monotony of the songs.

A few standouts are Loreta's fabulous feature single "The Trouble with Boys," which delivers powerful vocals with an upbeat sound. The "Smelly Cat Medley" is a combination of various sound bites from selected episodes, as well as a rendition of the song performed by Lisa Kudrow (as Phoebe Buffay), bolstered by the vocals of The Pretenders. The song in itself emanates hilarity, but is an odd addition to a collection of teen rock. The album concludes with a performance of "I'll Be There for You" by rapper thor-el, by far the most out-of-place track on the album. All in all, a bad combination--songs that mostly sound alike and a few oddballs that stick out like a pair of sore thumbs. C+