Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa [The Original Movie Soundtrack]

Alan Partridge making his way to the silver screen is a very big deal indeed, so it's little wonder that the soundtrack to Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa is an overblown, extravagant affair -- a blockbuster spanning 41 tracks. That most of these tracks are devoted to jingles and snatches of dialogue from the movie hardly detracts from the epic scale of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, as it gives the soundtrack a cinematic sweep. And the soundtrack is indeed best understood as a work on its own terms: yes, it has familiar hits but many of those sound different in the context of Steve Coogan's perennially out of fashion failed television presenter. Partridge lives in another time, a time that's stuck somewhere in the late '70s or early '80s -- Roachford's 1990 synth-soul hit "Cuddly Toy" is the newest thing here -- and having hits by Chicago, Carly Simon, Andrew Gold, the Climax Blues Band, and the Police sit side by side feels very Alan, particularly when they're separated by Partridge interjections. Perhaps this a soundtrack that will only play for the converted, but those fans will surely be amused. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine