Soundtrack: Me, Myself & Irene

For some bands, success comes in waves. The question of why, comeback-wise, this year belongs to Steely Dan—which spent the '70s chronicling a nation overrun with burnouts, washouts, wannabes, misfits, and other casualties of the '60s—could prompt hours of conversation without arriving at an answer. For reasons beyond the group's decent comeback album Two Against Nature, however, it just feels right. Despite its decades-spanning resonance, Steely Dan's music has remained relatively untouched by other artists. Perhaps that's because Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's intricate melodies demand the kind of musicianship that ultimately led them to rely on a rotating cast of skilled studio musicians, or perhaps it's because their elliptical lyrics could leave Edward Lear scratching his head. (Just who is Snake Mary, and how did she end up in Detroit with all that money anyway) For the soundtrack to the Farrelly Brothers' Me, Myself & Irene—which features no fewer than eight acts willing to give it a try—even There's Something About Mary collaborator Jonathan Richman took a pass. The participating artists prove more than up to the task, however, thanks to the canny pairing of the right acts to the right songs. Though it ditches the electric sitar, Smash Mouth barely has to alter "Do It Again" to tailor it to its California-style pop sensibility. Elsewhere, Wilco's gentle version of "Any Major Dude Will Tell You" could have been culled from Summerteeth, Ben Folds Five's melancholy impulses match perfectly to "Barrytown," and Brian Setzer Orchestra's jazz chops serve it well on the impossibly complex "Bodhisattva." Lesser-known acts also do right by the Dan, including Ivy's electro-pop version of "Only A Fool Would Say That" and Marvelous 3's conversion of "Reelin' In The Years" into a feast of crunching guitars. In addition to a track by promising newcomer Pete Yorn (who also scored the film) and pleasant offerings from Ellis Paul and Tom Wolfe, typical soundtrack fodder from Third Eye Blind, The Offspring, and Hootie & The Blowfish rounds out the collection, turning in songs that sound especially perfunctory alongside the surprisingly adaptable and of-the-moment Steely Dan classics.