For many, the death of ""Muppets"" creator Jim Henson in 1990 passed the decades-old franchise into the realm of nostalgia, an indelible cultural songbook shielded from the ravages of modern tastes. Yet while the Muppets: The Green Album's conceit of mixing classic Muppet anthems with the likes of Weezer or The Fray might ring as exploitative, the result is an uneven but pleasantly sunny romp that showcases more the strength in the original songwriting than the vanity of its multi-platinum stars.
Though The Green Album offers a wide selection from the series' television and film history, its highlights are more in the faithful renditions of vintage tunes than the raucous, more experimental tracks that dominate the latter half of the collection. Excluding OK Go's lively, if decidedly atonal, funk mix of the ""Muppets Show"" theme, the album opens strong with several staples from 1979's ""The Muppet Movie."" Weezer's uncharacteristically subdued ""Rainbow Connection"" channels Kermit the Frog's most memorable solo through angelic harps, and Alkaline Trio's ""Movin' Right Along"" captures the original's roadhouse aesthetic with a snappy duet and rousing electric guitar.
On a more orthodox spectrum, My Morning Jacket's ""Our World"" transforms Alice Otter's operatic melody into some manner of folk hymn, replete with hypnotic banjo. While the Fray's amusing choice of ""Mahna Mahna"" is quite competent in its rendition of the musical joke, given the band's pedigree, it's easy to postulate what they could have done with more substantial material. Sondre Lerche's ""Mr. Bassman"" is a playful homage to the simpler side of Muppetry, and brings the song its closest ever to a genuine country ditty.
Yet, The Green Album's diversity is arguably its greatest pitfall, as its need to retrofit its source material for modern genres results in several unrecognizable tracks. Brandon Saller and Billy Martin's ""Night Life"" is a cacophony of cheap guitar thrashing and buttrock-Nickelback vocals and ""Halfway Down The Stairs"", once contemplative, is injected with laughable New-Age trappings in the hands of Amy Lee. The Airborne Toxic Event embellishes ""Wishing Song"" with a muddy, reverb-ridden chorus—a shame, given its quality voicework.
Outside the balance of outright mimicry and utter bastardization lies perhaps the collection's strongest point—subtlety. As with ""Rainbow Connection,"" Andrew Bird pays his own tribute to Kermit in ""Bein' Green,"" a perfect fit for his soothing style that mimics the character's own conversational singing. Likewise, Rachel Yamagata's breathy vocals in ""I'm Going To Go Back There Someday"" add a touch of excitement to one of the most stirring moments in ""The Muppet Movie""—even without Rowlf the Dog's signature musicianship. These songs require no acquaintance with the Muppets themselves to display their quality, and are testament to the series' uncanny ability to connect to children and adults alike.
In many ways, the professional talent involved with the album only reminds us how much more genuine these songs felt from the over-enunciated voices and larger-than-life personalities of the Muppets themselves. With the prospect of an upcoming live-action film, there's hope for such musical reprisals by the Muppets themselves. Until then, Muppets: The Green Album is a blissful dose of nostalgia, and evidence Henson's entertainment legacy is truly evergreen.
