I hate We Love Disney
Our resident DJ/journo wonders how the new Disney tribute album could be such a botched job
COMMENTARY
My problem with the new release We Love Disney is that it sounds way too much like Disney.
With a tribute album, you expect each artist to bring his or her own personality to the project.
You want to hear rock Disney. Rap Disney. Country Disney. Pop Disney.
That would be fun, right?
Instead, what we have is a compilation album with US uber-producer David Foster's fingerprints all over it.
He's super dull.
He built his reputation working with Earth Wind & Fire (After The Love Has Gone), Chicago (Hard To Say I'm Sorry) and Whitney Houston (I Have Nothing).
He did the St Elmo's Fire soundtrack and got a No. 1 hit with St Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion).
More recently, he has worked with the likes of Josh Groban, Michael Buble and Andrea Bocelli.
Foster isn't a musician, he's a salesman, and he belongs in the same camp with Simon Cowell - a powerful fella with bad taste who spews forth mediocre marshmallow music for the undiscerning masses.
The first problem with We Love Disney is the mix of artists.
Foster could have got anyone he wanted but he confined his search to the middle of the road.
The centre of the middle.
Ne-Yo and Jason Derulo.
Jessie J and Ariana Grande.
Tori Kelly, Kacey Musgraves, Brenna Whitaker.
All in the same basic bandwidth, not a single sharp edge among them.
The only rock band is Fall Out Boy, the rock band your grandma likes.
For country, there's Rascal Flatts, the Fall Out Boy of country.
Gwen Stefani does The Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie but don't worry, Foster has sandpapered all the kick-ass off of her.
Aside from the choice of artists, the choice of songs is also lame.
For a start, The Rainbow Connection?
Does anyone really think of the Muppets as a Disney thing?
There's also another Muppets tune, It's Not Easy Being Green.
Sorry, but those songs are from the 70s and Disney didn't buy the Muppets until 2004!
Rascal Flatts team up with Lucy Hale to do Let It Go from Frozen, a tune that hasn't been overexposed AT ALL.
Grande, arguably the biggest star on the album, does Zero To Hero from Hercules - the one Disney movie absolutely no one cares about.
Then, of course, there's Colors Of The Wind and A Whole New World because... YAWN.
Decades of great music to choose from, a galaxy of music stars to choose from, and this is the best they could come up with.
Cover your iconic ears, Mickey.
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