Various Artists

The Avengers: The Album (Warners/Atlantic)

By all accounts, the movie is a turkey. The soundtrack isn’t quite as bad – but it’s not far off.

Most of the tunes here are originals of one sort or another, and were commissioned by Warners specifically for the film. There’s also quite a number of very talented people involved. Sinéad O’ Connor. Grace Jones. Annie Lennox. And, of course, ex-Madness man Suggs whose contribution, ‘I Am’ is the single.

Unfortunately, the latter’s penchant for lyrics of an excruciatingly cliched nature typify the overall creative input here. Jones’ ‘Storm’ is a good imitation of Shirley Bassey but it’s too obviously based on the James Bond ‘Goldfinger’ prototype for The Avengers. There’s a hint, too, that rather than approaching the album in a uniformly thematic manner, there’s as many different artists as possible to draw in a liquorice allsorts load of people to the movie. Even Utah Saints re-working of the great Iggy Pop and the Stooges’ number, ‘Technology’, sounds as if it’s been merely watered down for the mass market, while Sinéad O’ Connor’s ‘Summer’s End’ with Ashtar Command falls short of epic status.

The constellations are present here, but they do not shine.

Patrick Brennan