There is much to admire in the songs of Team America: World Police, assuming you have a tolerance for such raunchy and offensive cultural ridicule. The retro piano-ripping jazz and blues piece "Everyone Has AIDS" establishes the level of insanity in these songs' lyrics, which usually start somewhat normally and then become increasingly wacko as they progress. The county-western element makes conservative America sound insanely dumb with the slide guitars and twangy patriotic farce of "Freedom Isn't Free." The most memorable song is "America, Fuck Yeah," a fast, 1980's hard rock anthem with "fuck yeah" performed after a variety of phrases and words associated with American lifestyle. (That is until someone mentions books, at which point the "fuck yeahs" just stop.) The "Bummer Remix" of this song reduces this it down to a hysterical but short romantic ballad. Back in the country-western genre, "Only a Woman" is a guy's lamentation about how he needs a female orifice fairly badly, his sexist lyrics not aimed to please the ladies. Making fun of both Asians and those with mental handicaps is "I'm So Ronery," a nostalgic Fred Rogers expression of sadness switching every "l" with an "r" for racist purposes. Squarely aiming at Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" is the structure and instrumentation of "The End of an Act," the lofty complaint about the quality of movies and acting from an industry insider's perspective. Taking inspiration from electronic dance is "Montage," its synthesizers, piano, and guitar joining hand-clapping effects for extra silliness. Parker's performances in these songs are adequate in each circumstance, and if not for the idiocy of their lyrics and intent, some of them might actually be listenable for people not paying attention. Shaiman works in two of his own themes into the song portion of the soundtrack, the first being "Derka Derk (Terrorist Theme)," a clear parody of the "Cantina Band" music from Star Wars: A New Hope that suggests that Arabs are true aliens. Expect an abruptly rude end to that cue. And then there's "North Korean Melody," which is perhaps the single most racist piece of film music to ever exist. With its intentionally nonsense lyrics and blend of Asian instrumental and structural stereotypes, it doesn't get any more outrageously offensive than this.

After completing the dastardly song entries for Team America: World Police, Shaiman recorded most of the associated score, and that's where the production hit a major snag. The filmmakers didn't believe that the composer's score was muscular enough to enhance the militaristic bravado sought for especially the action scenes, Shaiman playing the film with lighter shades than Parker had wanted. With almost no time remaining in a production already running late due to the issues with puppets and censors, the filmmakers turned to Harry Gregson-Williams to make fun of exactly the Hans Zimmer and Media Ventures sound that he had helped make overly ubiquitous during the late 1990's. (It's no small irony that Shaiman himself has been vocally critical of the Media Ventures/Remote Control Production influence on film music.) Gregson-Williams brought with him a number of regular and upcoming Media Ventures ghostwriters to help flesh out this short but not insignificant assignment, and Shaiman reportedly stayed aboard in some capacity. While Gregson-Williams wrote the most memorable aspects of the replacement score, he was aided in certain specific parts by James McKee Smith, Steve Jablonsky, Toby Chu, Stephen Barton, and Heitor Pereira. It's not surprising that the resulting score has a decent pair of themes for the overall concept and the lead love affair while the rest is fragmented stylistically. The Media Ventures parodies are there but not as powerfully compelling as they could have been. In fact, only a small minority of the score for Team America: World Police sounds worthy of a Zimmer or other 1990's score from that genre, much of it providing the same tones of romance or silly action that Shaiman could have produced just as well. The main theme by Gregson-Williams is the occasionally obnoxious, upbeat march that guides the dumb heroes into battle, but even here the brooding brass and bass choir effect for their antics is limited to just a few explosions of grandeur. With rambling timpani and snare, "The Team America March" offers its brassy demeanor with a dynamically wide spread from the full ensemble. Secondary ideas on trumpets are downright silly, augmented by trilling flutes. A touch of the overblown choral significance of the closing moments of Chicken Run occupies the end of that suite of main theme material.

The less obvious highlight of the score for Team America: World Police is its love theme for the Gary and Lisa characters, its performances stretching on the margins to hit the Trevor Rabin Armageddon sound but most of it resorting to conservative string meandering of nicely melodic concepts. The love theme is actually a really pretty device, occupying woodwinds and violins in non-Media Ventures style for extended times. The acoustic and electric guitar performances of its tenderness do stray back towards the Zimmer mould but not obviously. Outside of these two thematic sets, the score is fairly haphazard in its coordination, but it suffices with decent but not spectacular action. An extended cue like "Mount, Rush, More" is about as anonymous an action espionage moment as possible. The Jablonsky contributions to "F.A.G." are all over the map stylistically but do provide a glimpse of forthcoming Transformers material. Those seeking harder electric guitar influences on the action will appreciate "Putting a Jihad on You." Slight ethnic accents lace "Kim Jong Il" but don't make much of an impact. Shaiman's song melodies don't carry over to Gregson-Williams' score, an unfortunate byproduct of the original score rejected. While the film's original songs are represented fully on the album release, the score was not. That product from Atlantic was famous for not including either Shaiman or Gregson-Williams' names anywhere on the packaging, supplying instead a note that final attributions were not available at the time of the release. The 28 minutes of Gregson-Williams score included on that product is assembled from a totally jumbled ordering of cues to form six longer tracks of like-minded music. While this approach might have been advisable if the overall running time of the score portion was under 15 minutes, the presentation doesn't really work for nearly twice that length. On the upside, the love theme is mostly consolidated to its one lengthy track for those who want to pluck that single side of the score from the rest. Some notable music is missing, particularly the straight heroic victory of the "Puke" cue. Ultimately, the album for Team America: World Police is an adequate souvenir from the film, and the songs will satisfy most casual listeners. But there remains an opportunity for the full Gregson-Williams score to be paired with the recorded Shaiman alternative for an ideal chronological presentation of both approaches. Until then, approach this music with a sense of humor or be prepared for offense.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download