Track Listing

1. Meet Me In The Meadow - Paul Westerberg
2. Love You In The Fall - Paul Westerberg
3. I Belong - Paul Westerberg
4. I Wanna Lose Control - Deathray
5. Better Than This - Paul Westerberg
6. Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
7. Right To Arm Bears - Paul Westerberg
8. Good Day - Paul Westerberg
9. All About Me - Paul Westerberg
10. Wild As I Wanna Be - Deathray
11. Whisper Me Luck - Paul Westerberg
12. I Belong - Pete Yorn

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41690 in Music
• Released on: 2006-09-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
Though major stardom remained elusive for the Replacements, the band still has those who love them in the way others love the Beatles or the Stones. Paul Westerberg, Bob and Tommy Stinson, Chris Mars, and Slip Dunlap were distinct individuals--characters--larger than life, and a bit cartoonish. It's fitting, then, that Westerberg now finds himself behind the soundtrack of a major animated feature. Open Season features nine new songs, two of which team him up with Tommy Stinson (another one, "I Belong," appears a second time, performed by Pete Yorn). Lyrically, Westerberg manages to serve the needs of a family movie yet still sound like himself (granted, meadows and bears are new to his lexicon). Standouts include the upbeat-with-an-underbelly-of-melancholy "Any Better than This" and the stomping singalong "Right to Arm Bears." --David Greenberger

Associated Press
...trademark catchy hooks, and the playful sing-along lyrics will certainly entertain a family audience without betraying his overall style.

About the Artist
Paul Westerberg's legendary status in rock 'n' roll history is more than secure. As leader of Minneapolis post-punk/pre-grunge icons the Replacements, Westerberg was the creative force behind one of the -- if not the -- most influential rock bands of the 1980s, creating a template that would later be adapted by such diverse rockers as Nirvana and Ryan Adams, among numerous others. And since 1991, he's maintained a solo career that would make most of his peers green with envy, if critically-acclaimed albums and fan respect still have anything to do with the equation. Open Season; Featuring The Songs Of Paul Westerberg marks a new direction and career path for this brilliant singer-songwriter, spotlighting his music from the soundtrack of Sony Pictures Animation's first feature-length animated film. The Columbia Pictures release features the voices of such stars as Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Debra Messing and Gary Sinise, among others -- and tells the tale of a domesticated grizzly bear who befriends a deer, helping him and other wild animals escape a hunter in the forest just as hunting season begins. Of course, knowing all this detail may better help your understanding and enjoyment of these songs. But the amazing thing about Open Season: Featuring The Songs Of Paul Westerberg is that it works just as well as a terrific new Paul Westerberg album as it does a wonderful soundtrack. The songs are full of his trademark hooks and melodies as well as his ever-clever wordplay. When discussing how the project came to be, Westerberg is his regular irreverent, self-deprecating self. "After my last arrest, I had to do two-and-a-half years of community service," he laughs. "No. It was by accident. Once again. As fate would have it. My music was being pitched to various studios at the time. The very last one we went to was Sony. I played a few of my songs and was told: 'We've got this bear movie coming up. Do you wanna do a bear movie?' And I said, 'Sure, I can do that.'" He flew back to Minneapolis the next day, immediately composed the song "Right to Arm Bears," recorded it in his home studio, and sent it back to Sony's music supervisor in less than 24 hours. "And so before I knew it, I was writing songs for an animated film!" Westerberg also ended up scoring the movie with film score veteran, Ramin Djawadi. The process and the tunes came even faster after he was able to view a cut of the film, sans music. "Some of the songs, I wrote specifically for the characters, molding them and remolding them," he explains. "And then some things I just had sorta lying around and I changed the lyrics to fit what we were doing. In addition to the songs he rewrote to fit the animated animals, Westerberg also revived "Good Day," a beautiful track from his 1996 solo LP, Eventually, for the film's soundtrack. "That song really helped get the ball rolling after they heard 'Right to Arm Bears' and realized that this guy has a sense of humor -- and he works fast and cheap," he chuckles. "The music supervisor put it on a tape of my stuff for the various executives to hear and everyone thought that particular song was great. So I thought, 'Why not?’ Open Season is also unique in that it features two Westerberg originals covered by other modern rock artists -- "Wild As I Wanna Be" by San Franciscan Cake offshoot, Deathray (who also contribute their own "I Wanna Lose Control" to the album) and Pete Yorn's recording of the haunting "I Belong (reprise)." All the tracks were started and demoed in Westerberg's basement home studio, but the two-and-a-half year adventure would eventually take the composer to New Hampshire, to Los Angeles and then finally back to Minneapolis.

"So you get a little bit of everything on this one -- the old band feel but we've also got the new buddy feel. And the best part is it all sounds like it came out of the same garage."

Customer Reviews

Classic Paul!
Heart wrenching, fun, clever, beautiful! A must own for a Westerberg fans. My only gripe is the three non-paul songs; you can't have it all but pretty darn close!

A Great Paul EP....
I was a little afraid when i heard about this release. I never really wanted Paul to come out of the basement. But, I was pleasantly surprised upon hearing this stuff. Track by Track.

1. Meet me in the Meadow - A great leadoff track. Worthless yet fun and energetic.

2. Love you in the Fall - Perhaps the catchiest song on the album. A great pop song. Cheesy? Sure. But undeniably infectious. Tommy Stinson plays Bass on this one and sings backups.

3. I Belong - A tear jerking naked ballad that only Paul can deliver.

4. I wanna Lose Control - Deathray - A dancy throwaway. It's fine, but it's just an irritant when i want to hear Paul.

5. Better than This - This song sound like it could've been on Eventually. Really poppy and snappy. Great Bass Sound.

6. Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads - Meh!

7. Right to Arm Bears - Paul and Tommy on a straight ahead rocker. It sounds like the two new 'Mats tracks on the Best of.

8. Good Day - It's a great song, but i've heard it for years.

9. All About Me - Sounds like a "Folker" outtake. Filler, but good filler.

10. Wild as I Wanna Be- Deathray - These guys take on this song that Paul wrote and make it boring.

11. Whisper Me Luck - Another Ballad. Shaky and Solemn. Great song.

12. I Belong (reprise) - Pete Yorn - Pete's take on Paul's song. He does a decent job and switches it up a bit.


Overall, it's a bummer to skip tracks, but Paul's songs are great and worth the price of admission.

Sloppy fun
This cd has a kind of loose feel, in keeping with Paul's recent solo work and work under the Grandpaboy alias. I heard the first three songs and thought they could have been a little tighter, both in terms of production and composition, but then the cd really picked up steam. Paul's originals stack up nicely next to the Talking Heads' Wild Wild Life, and that's saying a lot because Wild Wild Life is a great song.