Artist: Various Artists
Title: “Fantastic Four” – Soundtrack
Label: Wind-Up Records
Release Date: 7/5/2005
Genre: Alternative
Rating: 7

I feel as though Wind-Up Records have optioned all the recent crop of super-hero soundtracks outside of Spiderman and l use the release of “Fantastic Four” to cement my statement. I had enjoyed listening to the “Daredevil” and “Elektra” pieces so I expected more of the same when it came to “Fantastic Four”. This piece however would be a half and half of good and bad in my opinion. There are some highlights from outside of the Wind-Up family such as Velvet Revolver and Sum 41. Each of the bands delivering a solid track. Simple Plan however simply ruins the classic Cheap Trick tune “Surrender”. Reviewing the contributions from the Wind-Up roster is the tune by Alter Bridge (the new band formed from the ashes of Creed) as well as another track from Ben Moody (co-founder of Evanescence). This time around Ben has Anastacia with him and this track has some heat to it. Ben has been keeping busy since he left Evanescence and hopefully will have a full release soon.

Another plus was not one but two tracks from Megan McCauley who first made an appearance on the “Elektra” soundtrack. Megan shows us the power and passion that her work possesses with these tracks and it makes looking forward to her debut CD something I am looking forward to. Submersed and Breaking Point each also has nice additions from their releases as well. On the downside there are a few tracks that slow this momentum down. Adding Rap tracks does mix things up a bit but using the tunes by Chingy, Ms. Eighty 6 and Miri Ben Ari was a mistake. I admit there are some good Raps but these were unimpressive and appear lost in the larger aspect of a rock release. The tune by Orange Range was just something that made me say yikes.

As there are too many ups and downs on this CD for me to say run out and buy it, I instead recommend hitting I-Tunes for this one. Grab the tracks that you don’t have by your favorites and make that medium work for you. The cmpletist might like it just the same as it does come with a nice amount of photos from the movie.

Track Listing:
1. “Come on, Come In” – Velvet Revolver
2. “Error Operator” – Taking Back Sunday
3. “Relax” – Chingy
4. “Whatever Happened To The Heroes” – Joss Stone
5. “Waiting (Save Our Lives)” – Omnisoul
6. “Always Come Back to You” – Ryan Cabrera
7. “Everything Burns” – Ben Moody feat. Anastacia
8. “New World Symphony” – Miri Ben-Ari
9. “Die For You” – Megan McCauley
10. “Noots” – Sum 41
11. “Surrender” – Simple Plan
12. “I’ll Take You Down” – T.F.F
13. “On Fire” – Lloyd Banks
14. “Reverie” – Megan McCauley
15. “Goodbye To You” – Breaking Point
16. “Shed My Skin” – Alter Bridge
17. “In Due Time” – Submersed
18. “Disposable Sunshine” – Loser
19. “Now You Know” – Miss Eighty 6
20. “Kirikirimai” – Orange Range

Official Web site: www.WindUpRecords.com