John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band - "Original Soundtrack (Eddie and the Cruisers)" (1983)

As someone who prefers to listen to albums rather than individual songs, and someone who likes to delve deep into the unsavory depths of many a mediocre band's discography, I have something of an aversion to soundtrack albums. Even when they're good, I find myself wondering what the point really is. Fortunately, the soundtrack to the now-forgotten 1983 film Eddie and the Cruisers is essentially just an album, one recorded by John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. So at least for my reviewing purposes, that makes it the good kind of soundtrack. Unfortunately, it's not that good of a record.

Perhaps not surprisingly for a film titled "Eddie and the Cruisers" and a record cover featuring a young tough with slicked-back hair, Cafferty and his band adopt a sound that is indeed an ode to late 50s rock. Especially in the early 80s, this could have turned out terribly, but they relatively do justice to the sound, and show at least some sense of innovation by attempting to unify 50s rock with Bruce Springsteen. That said, the band's Springsteenisms are so overt that you can barely tell the difference between tracks like "On the Dark Side" and "Tender Years" vs. "Thunder Road." This is impressive in a sense, but I think "Thunder Road" is kind of overrated anyways, so "Tender Years" doesn't exactly get me excited. Weirdly, the band actually fares better with slower 50s-style material like "These Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me of You)" but come off rather flaccid when they go up-tempo. Overall, this is not an uninteresting record, and there a couple songs that I like, but ultimately too much that I dislike. Blue bin!