Sisterhood soundtrack is a cheery, lighthearted hit

09/12/08 - In what I'm sure fulfills every teenage girl's dream, Warner Brothers just released the second installment of a story about a pair of jeans that magically fit all four best friends (that would be "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"), and a soundtrack to match. With cheery, heart-tugging tracks from artists like Missy Higgins and Eric Hutchinson, and other upbeat tracks from Craig David and 80's pop singer Cyndi Lauper, it's easy to get into a "Gossip Girl"-esque film like this - a little less sexual scandal, a little more after-school special.

Based on Ann Brashares' best-selling series, in the film we catch up with Tibby (Amber Tamblyn), Carmen (America Ferrera), Bridget (Blake Lively) and Lena (Alexis Bledel), during the summer after their freshman year of college. Each of the girls continue on their journey towards adulthood and struggle to keep the sisterhood together as their summer plans threaten to split the clan up.

What really sells this album are the songs by Higgins, Hutchinson and David (the songs also appear on these artists' recently released albums)- and who could forget ("I'll Put a Spell on You") the anchor track.

Hutchinson starts off the magical experience with his second single "Rock & Roll," a song about hooking up after getting crunk at the bar- it's about the good times, and the lyrics give you the metaphorical thumbs up and the suggestive sock-on-the-door knob mental picture.

Higgins slows the party down with her ballad, "Warm Whispers." This Aussie really knows how to kill the buzz, but in a good, beautiful and graceful way. Her vocals percussion and piano composition are calming yet hopeful, which shows a mature progression from previous albums. Incidentally, Higgins will tour with Ben Folds later this month; how sick is that?

The party vibe rekindles with David's groovy track, "Friday Night," which takes a different twist from Hutchinson's crunk hook-up theme as David gets stiffed on plans for a, you guessed it, Friday night! This song is about the need to get David "somethin' tonight" and how he's about to take what's his- sexing it up after the club, perhaps?

Later, the song gets deep and meaningful on the last stanza before the repeated chorus fade-out. David sings about "the same old same old every night" homebody status and complains that he's regretting what he could've done with his life which really hits home, because when plans don't work out, all is lost. It's cool though, because the rhythm of the music keeps the song catchy.

Although "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" isn't about the clubbing scene or bar hopping, each of the songs is fun and adds some pep to the threads' unity. Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" is what brings us back to "The Sisterhood's" real focus, which is: best friends forever, no matter what! Nothing like a keyboard and high-strung vocals duo, with echoing young girls singing "they just wanna, they just wanna have fun!" to really scream femininity. Yay!

And, for all you past "O.C." groupies, Aqualung's song "Strange & Beautiful" makes another sex-scene appearance with Tibby and her boyfriend. Ah, bringing back the good ol' days of Marissa and Ryan's tragic and dramatic couple time... this album's got skills.

So aside from the sarcasm, kudos to the "Sisterhood" for a great second film and a cohesive soundtrack that makes everyone involved look good. "Opa!