As a huge fan of all things Disney, Tim Burton, not to mention the original books, I was thrilled last year when I heard that there would be a new Alice in Wonderland film. Like most films there are CDs released along with the movie.  I have heard one track from the score by Danny Elfman which was fantastic, but I don’t like hearing scores before watching the film. I ended up purchasing the Almost Alice CD on bestbuy.com. It came in the mail on monday and I have now had a few days to digest it. This CD includes almost all original songs written by a variety of artists based on their inspiration from the Lewis Carroll classics.

Here I am going to rate each track one to five stars according to how much I liked them, then I will discuss details a bit.

Tracks Included:

• Alice – Avril Lavigne * * *
• The Poison – The All-American-Rejects * * * *
• Her Name is Alice – Shinedown * * * * *
• Painting Flowers – All Time Low * * * * *
• Where’s My Angle – Metro Station * * *
• Strange – Tokio Hotel and Kerli * * *
• Follow Me Down – 30h!3 and Neon Hitch * * * *
• Very Good Advice – Robert Smith * * * * *
• In Transit – Mark Hoppus and Pete Wentz * * * *
• Welcome to Mystery – Plain White T’s * * * * *
• Tea Party – Kerli *
• The Lobster Quadrille – Frans Ferdinand * * * *
• Always Running Out of Time – Motion City Soundtrack  * * * *
• Fell Down a Hole – Wolfmother  * * * *
• White Rabbit – Grace Potter and The Nocturnals * * *

Things I loved about this album: The variety of artists is great. It is an eclectic mix of genres and styles that matches the unique and diverse story from which the album finds inspiration. I love almost every track on the CD because they compliment each other well, it is almost like listening to an itunes playlist on shuffle, except all the songs are about Alice in Wonderland. Some tracks that stood out to me were: Very Good Advice by Robert Smith of the Cure because the song is adapted from the song in the 50’s animated version of the film which gives it familiarity, yet Smith’s unique style and voice changes it into a beautiful and new experience. Painting Flowers by All Time Low impressed me because I had heard of the band but never heard their music before. The song is written well and dynamically, the band seems to be great as a whole musicians and singer and lyrics all impressed me. Well, I would end up writing about every track if I had the time, they were all impressive.

Things I didn’t like : The song Tea Party by Kerli was sort of odd. It started out promising, but turned into a mediocre addition to the album, A bad generic dance type song. Which surprised me because on Strange she performed well, so I was expecting her other song to be enjoyable. Other than that though I loved all of the tracks. I wasn’t as impressed with the Mark Hoppus and Pete Wentz collaboration as I thought I would be. I love both Blink 182 and Fall Out Boy, so I was expecting great things from the track. Don’t get me wrong it was a well written song, but just not as good as it could have been. Patrick Stump would have been a better choice from the Fall Out Boy side of things. Although at the moment I heard that Fall Out Boy is taking a break as a band.

Overall it is a enjoyable CD for anyone who has a wide variety of pop and rock taste in music. If unsure take a listen to the sample tracks on itunes.

Tonight I will be watching the midnight premiere of Alice In Wonderland, and I will be writing a review either once I get home or the next day.