Olivia Newton John's scene-stealing turn as a coke-snorting mother of the bride in 2012's Aussie comedy A Few Best Men came as something of a shock, considering she'd spent the decade prior seemingly content to drift into late middle age with a string of easy listening covers, duets, and spiritual albums. This unexpected wild streak appears to have carried over to its official soundtrack, with the 63-year-old reinventing herself as something of a dance diva on 14 club-friendly renditions of classic '60s and '70s songs heavily featured in the Stephan Elliott-directed film about a young groom (Xavier Samuel) traveling to the Blue Mountains with his three best friends. This
Cher-like change in direction works wonders on the classy, progressive, electro cover of
the Seekers' "Georgy Girl," her slinky R&B treatment of
the Cowsills' "The Rain, The Park & Other Things," and the
Goldfrapp-esque electro-glam interpretation of
Suzi Quatro's "Devil Gate Drive," while the filtered house adaptation of
Jack Jones' "The Love Boat" theme and original composition "Weightless" recall the unashamedly campy pop of her "Physical" heyday. But there are occasions when the impressive array of remixers gets it hopelessly wrong, whether it's Chew Fu's HI-NRG trance-pop take on
the Monkees' "Daydream Believer," Archie's heavily Auto-Tuned drum‘n'bass reworking of
Melanie's "Brand New Key," or
Pablo Calamari's glitchy techno edit of
the Mixtures' "The Push Bike Song," all of which try far too hard to propel the vintage material into the 21st century. The six contributions from the rest of the cast (credited here as "the Wedding Band") are no more enjoyable, turning
the Rascals' "A Beautiful Morning" and
Starland Vocal Band's "Afternoon Delight" into novelty reggae numbers, while one of the actors seems to think he's in a different movie altogether, judging by the pirate-esque sea shanty vocals on
Mental as Anything's "The Nips Are Getting Bigger" and
Skyhooks' "Living in the 70s." A curious affair then, and it's certainly not without merit, but
Newton-John would have perhaps been better off saving the best songs for a new studio album rather than frittering them away on a mixed bag of a soundtrack which makes the fatal mistake of being more fun to record than to listen to. ~ Jon O'Brien