An unusual venture for Petty and company, this album consists of music from a 1996 movie which was little more than an attempt to launch Jennifer Aniston of Friends fame onto the big screen. But, perhaps a little like the soundtrack from 1980’s Xanadu, this is a case where the soundtrack was the only notable thing about the movie.
I got this CD largely because I liked the single from it, “Walls” (which features a very unique background vocal assist from Lindsey Buckingham, the first trace of him I’ve heard since his 1992 Out Of The Cradle solo album). I was also curious as to why Walls didn’t appear on Petty’s 1998 greatest hits album, but the most likely explanation for that is the same as why ELO’s hits from the aforementioned Xanadu rarely, if ever, appear on their compilations – the soundtrack was released by a different label. Even after listening to the entire CD, “Walls” remains my favorite track, mainly because Buckingham’s presence and his signature stereo vocals (he’s singing something different in each of the left and right channels) give it a different feel from most other Petty songs.
Tracks 2 through 5 offer the standard southern rock that we’ve come to expect from the Heartbreakers, with “Zero From Outer Space” delving into very Dylanesque territory with Petty’s half-spoken, half-sung vocals. Things become more interesting with “Hope You Never”, which sounds more like some of the material from Full Moon Fever, Petty’s 1989 collaboration with producer Jeff Lynne. The following number, “Asshole” (which, from the title, one would most likely suspect to be another fast-paced country fried rock tune), has almost Beatlesque lyrics and instrumentation, with some excellent harmonies. Another 
standout track, a short instrumental version of “Walls” listed as “Hope On Board”, precedes a second, more acoustic (and Buckingham-less) mix of “Walls”.
Overall, a good effort from Petty and friends to liven up a movie conceived and bred in corporate Hollywood. The music would probably be better remembered if its bad-idea-from-the-start film namesake hadn’t bombed.
- Walls – Circus version (4:25)
- Grew Up Fast (5:10)
- Zero From Outer Space (3:08)
- Climb That Hill (3:58)
- Change The Locks (4:57)
- Angel Dream – no. 4 version (2:27)
- Hope You Never (3:03)
- Asshole (3:12)
- Supernatural Radio (5:22)
- California (2:40)
- Hope On Board (1:18)
- Walls – no. 3 version (3:04)
- Angel Dream – no. 2 version (2:27)
- Hung Up and Overdue (5:49)
- Airport (0:58)
Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 1996
Total running time: 51:58
