Spongebob Squarepants - The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (Original Soundtrack) [Yellow]

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack proves a cartoon about a sponge who flips patties could somehow assemble one of the more unexpectedly credible tracklists of the mid-2000s, now on yellow vinyl.

Rather than lean on novelty songs alone, the filmmakers built a soundtrack that mixed genuine indie and alt-rock names in with the Bikini Bottom silliness, a combination that shouldn't have worked nearly as well as it did. The Flaming Lips scoring an actual scene, Avril Lavigne taking on the theme song, Ween contributing a track that became bigger than the movie itself, all sitting comfortably next to songs written specifically for the film's own universe.

Ocean Man, Ween's contribution, ended up outliving the soundtrack entirely, resurfacing as a meme and streaming staple decades after most people forgot which movie it came from. Goofy Goober Rock delivers the film's own in-world anthem at full, ridiculous volume, exactly as committed to the bit as SpongeBob himself always is. SpongeBob & Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy gives the Flaming Lips a genuinely strange showcase inside a kids' movie soundtrack, and Avril Lavigne's take on the theme song bridges the cartoon and the pop charts without embarrassing either side.

An oddly stacked soundtrack for a movie about underwater fast food. Ocean Man alone justifies the vinyl.