“High School Musical 2” Prepares To Take Over

noah | August 13, 2007 10:15 am
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Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today’s entry is the soundtrack to High School Musical 2, which we tackled after its leak last week and will probably sell eight bazillion copies by next Monday:

– “Though it fails to introduce kids to the best side of show music — its drama, its striving toward timelessness, its gams-flashing pizazz — “High School Musical 2″ does have one showstopper. ‘I Don’t Dance’ turns a baseball diamond into the audition stage of ‘A Chorus Line,’ as Corbin Bleu and Lucas Grabeel share a boy duet that rides on a handclap beat, DJ Premier-style sampled horns and a chorus almost worthy of Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. For a split second, ‘High School Musical 2’ works real musical-comedy magic. Then it’s back to the Disney template for another singalong.” [LAT] – “Parents will appreciate the positive messages about staying true to oneself in the couple’s big numbers while secretly relishing Sharpay’s desperate-to-entertain determination. She gets the showiest show tunes, channeling a juvenile Noel Coward in ‘Fabulous’ and visiting a wacked-out enchanted tiki room in ‘Humuhumunukunukua’pua’a’ (a great comic showcase cut from the movie). Puppy love is grand, but for anyone who truly appreciates the let’s-put-on-a-show spirit that HSM embodies, I’m not sure that Sharpay isn’t the real heroine after all.” [EW] – “Just make sure to turn the CD off before the bonus track, a hugely unpleasant Polynesian pastiche that includes the couplet ‘Tiki, tiki, tiki/Wanna speaky, speaky, speaky.’ ” [NYT]