Review: Paul Westerberg

Review: Paul Westerberg

Paul Westerberg 'Open Season Soundtrack': Aidin Vaziri | Paul Westerberg used to be the lead singer of the Replacements, a band that was by no exaggeration the drunkest and loudest of the entire 1980s. Most recently, he's been maintaining a solo career out of his basement, recording scratchy blues-punk albums like a destitute Bob Dylan. So who better to provide the soundtrack for an animated family film about bears, rabbits and squirrels, featuring the voice talent of Ashton Kutcher? Predictably, the "Open Season" disc is awful. But that description fits just about everything Westerberg has released in the past 15 years. The difference here is that if you can look past diarrhea like "Right to Arm Bears," you can hear some of that old mournful magic flickering on tracks like "I Belong" and "Whisper Me Luck," allaying fears that he has become as completely useless as Phil Collins and Elton John.