Ah, lounge music. The Ultimate Craze of 1996. Yeah, you remember the parties -- hanging out at a pal's swinger's pad, drinking martinis, chatting about the weather, Dean Martin on the hi-fi. It was fun for like a minute, but in retrospect, you just feel stupid.

Enter Lounge-A-Palooza, a lounge compilation of another kind. Your favorite grungers and indie rockers performing the lounge tunes of their choice -- and they aren't all originally lounge tunes. Sound kitschy? Tounge-in-cheek overdrive, baby. You'll listen through (or maybe you won't) 14 hep tracks from today's hottest artists like Ben Folds Five (covering the Flaming Lips' "She Don't Use Jelly"), Pizzicato Five ("The Girl From Ipanema"), and Jimmy Scott and Flea ("Love Will Keep Us Together"), among others.

Hey, think what you want. This comp is either for you or it's not. Mostly, I like it 'cause it's an interesting listen. You're not really sure how Polly Jean Harvey and Eric Drew Feldman will sound covering Was (Not Was)' cult fave "Zaz Turned Blue" or how Edwyn Collins is going to pull off "Witchcraft," the old standard made famous by Frank Sinatra, but most of these songs come out rather listenable. Sure, you're gonna wanna avoid a few of these tracks. Steve and Eydie do Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" with a 32-piece orchestra, while Poe perform an original piece called "A Rose Is A Rose," and they're both pretty abyssmal.

Lounge-A-Palooza is a good listen once or twice and there's some decent mix tape fodder here, but overall, it's far from classic.

-Ryan Schreiber