Various Artists: I Am Sam: The Soundtrack

Given The Beatles' many indelible songs—enough to outnumber the throwaway numbers by a healthy margin—it's strange that the group's music so rarely lends itself to covers. Outside of Elvis Presley's take on "Hey Jude" (to name a good example) or William Shatner's version of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (to name a remarkably bad one), few Beatles covers are as memorable as the originals. Maybe it's just that the first versions got it so right that other attempts seem like afterthoughts. Of course, that hasn't stopped The Beatles' successors from trying, as 17 acts do on the soundtrack to I Am Sam, a film in which Sean Penn plays a Beatles-fixated retarded man fighting for the custody of his daughter. The album's offerings range from good to laughable, but most fall into the dispensable netherworld that lies between. The collection starts well with Aimee Mann and Michael Penn's amiable take on "Two Of Us," but the track sets an unadventurous tone that proves typical of the album. Most of the performers do little but lend their voices to backing tracks that stick close to The Beatles' own versions. Therein lies the paradox of covering a group so near-universally known and loved: Try too hard to do something new and it sounds disrespectful, but stick too closely to the original and it sounds overly reverent. One of the soundtrack's best moments comes about halfway in, as Ben Folds' lovely "Golden Slumbers" slips unexpectedly into an of-the-moment version of "I'm Only Sleeping" by the promising new group The Vines. The surprise works as much as the music: Combined, the two acts find a place where the old and new meet and seem to like each other. Most of the album's remainder sounds like it should be piped directly into upscale coffee shops. It rarely comes as close to comedy as it does when Eddie Vedder bellows "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," but it seldom registers too clearly, either. Those left intrigued by the soundtrack should be warned, however, that even listening to The Wallflowers' version of "I'm Looking Through You" beats watching the movie.