Almost great

Because Disney and Buena Vista Records know fans of Tim Burton’s shtick will spend their disposable income on anything at Hot Topic that has Johnny Depp on the cover, they have released two soundtracks for “Alice in Wonderland.”

Danny Elfman’s score fills up one effort, and a slew of Hot Topic-approved artists jam on “Almost Alice,” which is surprisingly not as awful as the film itself looks.

Annoying as she might be, Avril Lavigne’s “Alice” is a swinging pop cut that doesn’t completely suck. However, when other artists like Shinedown, Tokio Hotel, Plain White T’s and Kerli attempt to mesh their sound with the film’s themes, the results definitely do suck.

Others like All Time Low, 3OH!3, The All-American Rejects, Mark Hoppus and Pete Wentz fit the gloomy and kooky vibe better, with All Time Low’s “Painting Flowers” being the album’s highlight — and one of the band’s best songs ever.

Though it’s a clear cash-in, “Almost Alice” is still a marginally entertaining experiment that is better than throwing together a bunch of already-recorded songs and calling it a soundtrack.