Cars Soundtrack and Girl Authority CD Reviews

There are nine members of Girl Authority.

Courtesy of Rounder Records

Summer is approaching and you need some upbeat tunes to get in beach mode. What's going to get your vacation rocking and what's going to rain on your parade? Kidzworld investigates!

The Cars soundtrack features songs from Sheryl Crow, John Mayer, James Taylor and tons of other artists.

Courtesy of Disney

Girl Authority - Girl Authority

On their self-titled debut album, Girl Authority covers some of your fave songs - with a few oldies thrown into the mix. The nine - count 'em - nine girls range from eight to 13 years old and are pretty predictably grouped into Spice Girl-esque moulds (Party Girl, Urban Girl, Fashion Girl etc). As if creatures as complex as tween girls could be so easily defined! For the most part the album is pretty weak. The girls are talented but don't bring anything of their own to the songs they cover. If we want to listen to Holla Back Girl sung like Gwen Stefani, why wouldn't we just listen to Gwen Stefani sing it? One exception to our dis-fest is the cover of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful, which sounds too sweet for words sung in "Urban Girl's" wobbly yet confident pre-teen voice. Bottom line: Your little sis might love it but you should save your allowance for those skate shoes you've had your eye on.

Girl Authority - Girl Authority Fun Facts

Girl Authority will promote their debut album in a summer 2006 tour of Six Flags amusement parks, among other venues.

All the girls were in a theater group together before forming Girl Authority.

Kids' singer Raffi and Kevin Bacon's band, The Bacon Brothers, are signed to Girl Authority's label, Rounder Records.

Girl Authority - Girl Authority Hot Tracks

Beautiful

Girl Authority - Girl Authority Rating:

Cars Soundtrack

If we had to sum up the Cars soundtrack in two words, they would be family friendly. This is the album you can crank in the living room and no one is going to shout, "You call this music?! In my day, we knew what real music was..." (this is usually where you tune out). Tracks like Sheryl Crow's Real Gone and John Mayer's Route 66 are bound to be crowd pleasers, but Sh-Boom by The Cords and Brad Paisley's Find Yourself might be so 'rent-friendly that they'll steal your CD. There are tons of songs from the score on this album, which is cool if you're a soundtrack kinda person, but if you're, say, an urban music kinda person, it is SO not going to speak to you. This album will make good background music to your next family games night.

Cars Soundtrack Fun Facts

The song Our Town and the score to Cars were written by Randy Newman, who also composed the soundtrack to Toy Story One and Two, Monsters Inc. and A Bug's Life, among others.

Green Day song Westbound Sign plays in the teaser trailer for cars but doesn't make the soundtrack.

Sheryl Crow - who sings Real Gone on the Cars Soundtrack - was once romantically linked to Owen Wilson, who voices the lead Cars character Lightning McQueen.