Various Artists - Muppets: The Green Album

Tribute records for classic bands and albums are a dime-a-dozen, but surely no-one would ever mess with that most sacred of songbooks…The Muppets’? Well, it seems like they have. An all-star roster reinterpreting the tunes of Kermit and co., for your listening pleasure… Mostly.

Just to get them out of the way, the likes of Sondre Lerche (Mraz-lite, which is saying a lot), Rachael Yagamata (Cat Power to the twee degree) and Brandon Saller (Atreyu member making Atreyu-like rubbish), Weezer (not being very Weezer-like, and with gartuitous Hayley Williams) register about as much as one of Fozzie Bear’s jokes.

The high end of the spectrum features the like of OK Go’s falsetto do-over of the classic theme song, and Alkaline Trio’s rollicking version of ‘Movin’ Right Along’, (which, much like the rest of the band’s output, is way more fun and melodic than their name and appearance suggests). They may even pass a Statler and Waldorf listening.

It’s almost too fish-in-a-barrel to quip that The Fray doing ‘Mahna Mahna’ is the best thing they’ve ever done - musically, lyrically, emotionally, etc. - but it’s true, so there.

Probably the weirdest part of the album is Amy Lee - her off of Evanescence - and her weirdly sincere take on ‘Halfway Down The Stairs’, a frankly disturbing Tori Amos rip-off. About a sad frog.

Where Lee fails, Andrew Bird succeeds, managing to tread the fine line between tongue-in-cheek and heart-on-sleeve (the line she fell off like a drunk pulled over by the police), performing the song brilliantly whilst also remembering that it was originally performed by a puppet.

So, in conclusion: despite having grade-A material, we’re left with the usual mixed bag of a covers album. Albeit a furry, cute mixed bag with googly eyes on.