CD Reviews

Superbad: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Lakeshore

By CHARLES TAYLOR | September 5, 2007

3.5 Stars

Teen movies have long used the funkiest black music to throw into relief the shenanigans of the nerdiest white guys. But for the Superbad soundtrack, Lyle Workman, proving himself as smart as the movie he’s scoring, assembled a line-up that includes revered P-Funk alums Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell and James Brown vets Clyde Stubblefield and John Sparks. The result is the most purely pleasurable straight funk album in years. Although it’s frequently hilarious, with Bootsy’s interjected paeans to the movie’s über-nerd/would-be stud McLovin, Workman plays it straight, treating the music as neither pastiche nor parody, and creating jams that can stand alongside the tracks from the Bar-Kays, Curtis Mayfield, Jean Knight (whose “Do Me” proves that “Mr. Big Stuff” wasn’t all she had in her), and others. The roast-without-the-gravy titles only emphasize the flash and feeling of the music — how can anything so fierce be called “Seth Pulls into Lot”?

"Wise asses: some words with the class clowns of Superbad." By Chris Braiotta.
"Comic relief: Superbad respects teens and comedy." By Chris Braiotta.

Related: Are you Superbad?, Wise asses, Right to choose, More

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