Spider-Man

The soundtrack from the much-awaited film Spider-Man starts off with the theme from the 1960s-vintage TV cartoon, which lends a retro feel. As Batman might say, “Holy batshit, Robin—I smell sequels!” What follows, typical with many current soundtracks, are a lot of bands that sound like leftover Creed. But there are standout tracks, too, like Sum 41’s “What We’re All About,” a high-energy punk/rap-rock raveup, or Black Lab’s “Learn to Crawl,” which exudes the darkness of ’80s rock band the Cult. Best of the bunch is the Hives’ “Hate to Say I Told You So,” which is angry, pissed-off punk at its best, and Pete Yorn’s “Undercover,” which sounds like beautiful ’60s dream pop. After a couple of de rigueur Danny Elfman numbers, the disc ends with Aerosmith’s version of the film’s theme, which rocks like ’70s-era Aerosmith used to rock.