The Powerpuff Girls: The City of Soundsville
Price 14.88 USD
Should Bubbles, Buttercup, and Blossom someday retire from Townsville, they could keep on breaking bad and kickin" booty in clubland. The proof"s in The City of Soundsville: Music from The Powerpuff Girls, which swirls techno beats around a launch pad of loopy electronica. Coolest of all about Soundsville is its concept: Each of its 17 tracks, save the opening title song and exit numbers "Hearts and Stars" and "Super Secret City of Soundsville Song," serves as thumbnails for a component or character from the show--thus the boingy, waterlogged sounds of "Amoeba Boys"; the faux-dramatic tones of "Him"; the raunch of "Gangreen Gang," where flatulence hits the dancefloor; and the funky thump of "Boogie Man." Also staking out a slice of the soundscape are Mojo Jojo, whose aura of doom races along to a booming backbeat; Pokey Oaks, making even a techno tune dawdle; Mayor, who declares that techno music is it, and seizes the helm; Fuzzy Lumpkins, presiding over a pulsing twang number; Professor, who blasts the beat into overdrive as his hypothesis heats up; and Princess, demanding we talk to the hand while a "Pump Up the Volume"-ish number whips Daddy Warbucks"s daughter into a techno tantrum. The girls get an individual go at carving out their crime-fighting styles in song, too: Blossom devises a heart-pounding tactical plan; Buttercup kicks up the amps and gets to smashing and crashing; and Bubbles busts a tinkly, aerobics-instructor-like move. Soundsville boils down to a bunch of loops, blips, and beats with quacky cartoon life breathed into them, but it"s brilliant--a real bounds-of-reality buster. Sample it when crabbiness creeps in, and the day is saved. --Tammy La Gorce