Review: 'Eastbound and Down' soundtrack

Kenny Powers has killer taste in music.

According to the liner notes of the "Eastbound and Down" soundtrack, set for release Tuesday (April 24) on Fat Possum Records, each track on the genre-smashing two-disc set was hand-picked by Powers, the show's protagonist played by series star Danny McBride.

Written by Powers' sidekick Stevie Janowski, the liner notes inform us that "This is the music that Kenny Powers rocks out to when he's getting ready in the morning. This is the music Kenny Powers listens to in the late hours, when the night terrors come and we are all children again."

As fans of the HBO comedy would surely agree, "Eastbound and Down" has some of the best song selections on television, with many of the highlights on display here: Powers, McBride and the series were into the Black Keys long before the band's members were Rolling Stone cover boys, and their "Your Touch" acts as a perfect bridge between the deep, old blues of Freddie King and R.L. Burnside and classic FM radio rock by the likes of the Animals and Ram Jam.

There's plenty of room for proto-punk (the Stooges and MC5), a bit of hip-hop courtesy Too $hort and Lil Whyte and some pop country by Kenny Rogers and Lee Hazlewood. The mélange of genres may seem a bit all over the place, but in the context of the series and the album, it works. Powers is a complex and deeply conflicted character, and the album's unpredictable nature fits the needs of the protagonist and the show perfectly.

While this is the rare soundtrack album that is good enough to appeal to listeners unfamiliar with the original series, non-viewers should be warned: the two discs are peppered with dialogue clips from the show, some of which contain potential spoilers.

My only complaint as a longtime fan of the series: there's been so much great music used over the show's three seasons, it's a shame some of it, such as the Felice Brothers' folk anthem "Frankie's Gun," didn't make it onto this set. Hopefully a volume two isn't too far off.