| | |  | | Home » Muppets: The Green Album | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | The MOST Celebrational, Tributational, Compilational NEW album from today's MOST Sensational artists! Chock-full of 12 new versions of favorite classic Muppets songs performed by contemporary rock and alternative artists. Muppets The Green album follows in the footsteps created by Nightmare Revisited and Almost Alice where contemporary artists put their unique sound to memorable Disney franchises. This time artists such as OK-GO, Weezer and My Morning Jacket will revisit some of The Muppets classics like: Rainbow Connection, It's Not Easy Being Green and The Muppets Show Theme and more! Sure to be a favorite album of the summer, enjoy this evergreen classic in the making! | | | Product Details: | | | Audio CD Release Date:
| August 23, 2011 | | Studio:
| Walt Disney Records | | Number Of Discs:
| 1 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 51 reviews |
| | | Track Listing: | | | 1. | Muppet Show Theme Song - OK Go | | 2. | Rainbow Connection - Weezer and Hayley Williams | | 3. | Mahna Mahna - The Fray | | 4. | Movin' Right Along - Alkaline Trio | | 5. | Our World - My Morning Jacket | | 6. | Halfway Down the Stairs - Amy Lee | | 7. | Mr. Bassman - Sondre Lerche | | 8. | Wishing Song - The Airborne Toxic Event | | 9. | Night Life - Brandon Saller of Atreyu and Billy Martin | | 10. | Bein' Green - Andrew Bird | | 11. | I Hope That Something Better Comes Along - Matt Nathanson | | 12. | I'm Going To Go Back There Someday - Rachael Yamagata | |
| | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 51 customer reviews )
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59 of 67 found the following review helpful:
 REASONS TO BUY THE GREEN ALBUM:Aug 23, 2011
By Andrew H. Lee
"Constant Listener"
Reasons to buy THE GREEN ALBUM:
- You grew up watching THE MUPPET SHOW and you have a bit of a nostalgic streak.
- You smiled and laughed throughout the preview to the forthcoming movie THE MUPPETS.
- You've always felt that Muppets instantly make everything more fun.
- You own anything with a Muppet on it.
- You are already a fan of any of the bands that make an appearance on THE GREEN ALBUM.
- You are open minded enough to listen to a few hipster/indie rock style interpretations of your childhood memories.
- You are traditional enough to appreciate that most of these songs are played relatively straight.
- You think you can forgive OK GO for possibly effing up the opening track by making it too weird.
- You like the idea of a compilation/tribute album of cover songs from a thirty-five year old puppet show being able to stand on its own as an album - only a few songs are chained to The Muppet Show here, the others could make it on their own in the world if they wanted to.
- You're still looking for "the rainbow connection" - the lovers, the dreamers, Kermit, and you...or maybe you've found it, in which case you might also be picking up a copy of the new Barbra Streisand album that was released today.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Not bad, not greatSep 22, 2011
By Jesse
This is a fun little collection of cover songs, but ultimately there was only one song on the album that I felt was comparable in quality to the original. Weezer re-imagines Rainbow Connection as a duet, which ends up working pretty well. The rest of the songs just don't have the same magic or energy as the original Muppet versions. I don't know if that speaks poorly of the bands involved or if it's just a testament to the care that went into the movies. There were also a few songs that I really wish were included, most notably "Can You Picture That?" from The Muppet Movie.
The Green Album is definitely worth a listen, but not necessarily a full-price purchase.
6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
This Album Makes Me HappyOct 26, 2011
By Beth Lane
I'm not going to do a music review, I'm just going to say that owning this album makes me happy. Listening to this album makes me happy. It's silly and wonderful and it makes me just...you guessed it... happy. If you're one of the many who grew up watching the Muppet Show, you will enjoy these new takes on old childhood classics.
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Rockin' Album Brings Back Childhood MemoriesAug 23, 2011
By Polar Bear
"The Green Album" is a tribute to the Muppets to help promote the upcoming movie "The Muppets" and includes 12 tunes that sound awesome! If you're old like me, you're sure to remember this zany bunch of characters including Kermit the Frog, Fozzie Bear and Miss Piggy. The songs from the show were classic and helped define each episode. And now they've been re-made with a modern rock-punk-indie feel to it. The results are fun, the music is great, and talk about re-living some child memories! OK Go gets things started with the "The Muppet Show Theme Song" and they couldn't have done better. The tune has a melodic groove and is filled with fuzzy distortion. It's catchy, as it was back in the day, but the best part about it is OK GO seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. Even Weezer seem to be having fun as they team up with Paramore's Hayley Williams and belt out "Rainbow Connection" (originally sung by Kermit from 1979's "The Muppet Movie and nominated for an Oscar). The result is, believe it or not, beautiful! One of the most catchiest songs is "Mahna Mahna," sung by The Fray with all the original silliness fully embraced. The piano and hand claps really add to the song and you'll be nodding your head in no time. My Morning Jacket add their own unique touches to "Our World" and make it sound like it could belong on one of their own albums. A banjo and slide guitar add a cool texture, and the sound is amazing. "Mr. Bassman," performed by Sondre Lerche, features a cool acoustic guitar and is a great change of pace. Brandon Seller picks the pace back up on "Night Life" which is one of the faster, more rockin' songs on the album. The guitar rocks and there's a great drum solo. It simply sounds incredible. Andrew Bird sings "Bein' Green," my personal favorite. With a country influenced fiddle and crisp drumming, it has a lot of energy and is just beautiful. "I Hope That Something Better Comes Along," originally sung by the dog Rowlf, is brought phenomenally back to life by Matt Nathanson. Who better to sing about dog related puns? Overall, The Green Album is a fun, worthy tribute to a bunch of my childhood idols. Highly recommended!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Not really a kids' album, but a number of very good songs from an underrated American songbookNov 30, 2011
By Stefan Shepherd
Caring whether your kids have "good" (read: "your") taste in music, books, and movies is a foolish thing to do, so it means something that the day that my daughter said she really didn't like The Muppet Movie was one of the very few times when I actually, well, cared. It's a great movie, a little cheesy at points maybe, but funny and tender, one of the great movie musicals of the past half-century. (Seriously -- there are very few post-1960s musical on the AFI list of the Greatest Movie Musicals, and even fewer created specifically for the screen.)
Why do I relate the story? Well, more so than most albums reviewed here, it's my opinion, not that of kids, which matters here, because Muppets: The Green Album isn't really a kids music album. The album is a collection of 12 Muppet-related songs, drawn mostly heavily from The Muppet Movie or from songs heard on The Muppet Show. Much like Disney's collections of covers from their own stable of American tunes, Disneymania, Disney's approach here is to get popular (critically or otherwise) artists to tackle the Jim Henson-related songs. The fact that some of these artists weren't yet born when The Muppet Show went off network television doesn't seem to have hurt their recruiting efforts. (The fact that the rest of 'em were kids when the show was still on probably helped tremendously.)
And as is the case with any such collection, Disney or otherwise, this album succeeds or fails based on how good the songs are and whether the artists bring anything new to them (or, if they ruin their charm). As to the former issue, I think I've made clear my admiration for the Paul Williams-Kenny Ascher-penned songs for The Muppet Movie, but in addition to those classics, you also have songs like the Joe Raposo-penned Sesame Street song "Bein' Green."
What do the artists do with them? Well, some combinations work really, really well -- punk group the Alkaline Trio give "Movin' Right Along" a fun kick in the pants it didn't know it needed, and Sondre Lerche resurrect "Mr. Bassman," a song from a Muppet Show episode. I liked The Fray's take on "Mahna Mahna" more than I expected to, though it's probably the most faithful cover here. OK Go put their own spin on the theme song, and even though I could do without the tacked-on guitar solo, they do manage to keep the listeners' attention during what is, well, a theme song. And Andrew Bird's take on "Bein' Green" nails Kermit's wistfulness without making his cover a carbon copy.
But following Kermit is a tough act, and while many attempt to cover "Rainbow Connection," very few succeed, and I can't say that Weezer and Hayley Williams from Paramore do, either. As for "Night Life" from The Great Muppet Caper, covered here by Brandon Saller of Atreyu and Billy Martin, I'll just quote my wife after hearing it for the first time: "I never need to hear that ever again."
So, is this a kids' album? Not really. I'll put the age range for the album at ages 8 and up, not because any of it is inappropriate for younger kids, but because unless they've seen lots of Muppets on TV/DVD, they won't have the context for the music. (Older kids can enjoy the music on their own terms, or perhaps even recognize a few of the bands.) For a little while longer, you can stream the album here.
In the end, Muppets: The Green Album has a number of very good recordings from an underrated American songbook. Is it a great kids' album? No. Is it a lot of fun for those of us of a certain age who are still able to tap the kid inside? For the most part, yeah. For those Muppet fans, it's recommended. (If I could give it 3.5 stars instead of 4 I probably would, but I'm rounding up. After all, I'm a Muppet fan.)
[Review originally appeared on Zooglobble.]
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