Some times, some classics should be just left in peace and watched / listened to with nothing else but respect and humility. Sorry for sounding like your usual old fart, I’m all for the whole “High School Musical” craze with youngsters, but just stick to that and don’t try and turn “Fame” into some hip hop R&B flick for ten years old. What next? Revisiting “Flashdance” with a modern Jennifer Beals dancing on Simon Cowell’s desk to the sound of 50 Cent or Ludacris? Please!

No, I haven’t seen the movie (and I won’t), but the soundtrack is enough to know what we’re dealing with. The original Irene Cara ‘Fame’ made you want to dance in the streets of New York, jump all over Times Square in your neon leg warmers screaming “Remember my name.” This awful, overproduced remake by Naturi Naughton makes you want to get the remote, switch on the telly and scream “Shut up, I’m watching Pop Idol!” Who remembers that introductory catchphrase in the TV series? “You want fame? Well, fame costs and right here’s where you start paying... in sweat!!!” Sadly, it doesn’t work that way anymore, and don’t let me get into a full rant with regards to the tedious moaning about how hard it is to make it alive out of the Big Brother house. “Sweat” is definitely an unfashionable word nowadays, and not only because of welcome progresses in the deodorant industry.

The main songs on this soundtrack are in the hands and voice of Naturi Naughton, in theory; in practice, it’s so overproduced you can hardly make out if she has any significant talent; ‘On my own’ proves she has a good voice, although Nikka Costa did a better job at the age of nine. There are a few pleasant background tracks, mainly ballads where the production didn’t interfere too much. Asher Brook gives a good performance in ‘Someone to watch over me,’ ‘Try’ and John Lennon’s cover ‘Ordinary people’; ‘This is my life’ (Hopsin’, Ak’sent, Tynisha Keli & Donte “Burger” Winston) has a good rhythm to it that can work well on a hip hop dancing number. ‘I put a spell on you’ (Raney Shockne feat. Eddie Wakes) is a good soul piece, still slightly overproduced unfortunately but pleasant enough. The highlight is probably ‘You took advantage of me’ from Megan Mullally, which you might remember as Karen Walker in Will and Grace, but actually started her career on Broadway where she returned in the end, while leading her own band Megan Mullally and Supreme Music Program. She is a terrific female vocalist, worth alone half the price of this cd (the other half has probably been written off by now and you can find it in the clearance bin at your local record store).

The final interpretation of ‘Hold your dream’ by Naturi Naughton, Asher Brook and Kay Panabaker is so pointless and boring it makes me want to turn this shit off and use the CD as a frisbee in the name of recycling. “Fame” was all about sweating, dancing, desire to succeed and a superior will to live life to its fullest. In this soundtrack, the best tracks are the ballads which is just plain wrong. The whole spirit has been killed, there’s nothing genuine or passionate about it, just once again modern laziness and lack of creativity resorting in ripping off another classic and trying to milk someone else’s cow.

Shame on you.

If you liked the original “Fame,” be it the movie or the series, and you need more but you’ve seen both enough times, my advice is to try and catch the musical and buy that soundtrack on the way out. Because as far as this one goes Ikea has cheaper and prettier coasters. Learning how to fly? The only place this is flying to is out of my window.