The soundtrack to Dave Grohl's film about Los Angeles recording studio Sound City is a star-studded affair and big and beautiful-sounding. But there are a few patchy moments where the collaborations sound like modern-day rehashes of a bygone era, such as the gonzo Sunset Strip schlock of The Man ThatNever Was with Jessie's Girl rocker Rick Springfield. Or in the case of modern metal screamer-cum-serenader Corey Taylor, who eases into Stone Sour mode rather than his Slipknot guise on From Can To Can't, it's plain bog standard and bland.
And not that it's a competition or anything but Grohl goes one better than Courtney Love, whose band Hole covered Fleetwood Mac's Gold Dust Woman, by getting Stevie Nicks on the album - even if You Can't Fix This sounds pretty much like an ineffectual 80s-era Fleetwood Mac pop rocker.
Elsewhere it's all killer, with Paul McCartney in rough and rugged form (not quite Helter Skelter, but close) on Cut Me Some Slack, the Grohl-Queens of the Stone Age reunion on Centipede starts off tranquil and acoustic before (thankfully) escalating into life, and last track Mantra is a two-parter with Grohl taking a gentle hand at the beginning before Trent Reznor steps in to mangle and mash it up.
