Call us politically correct, but when our daughter was born almost five years ago, my wife and I made some choices about how we would raise her. We did not want to be the parents who dressed their girl in the frilliest of frillies, bald head topped with a sweet headband bow, given choices of only Barbies and ponies as toys, only to have her complain years later that we never gave her the choice of what sort of girl she wanted to become. 

So we carefully chose the most gender neutral of toys and clothing as we waited for her to express her own tastes and personalities. And wouldn't you know it? The second she was able to express strong interest in toys, that interest was in dolls, and play-kitchens, and, gasp, Barbie. Her clothing tastes gravitated toward the pinkest, most flowery, frilliest clothing. Yes, she had chosen to be a girlie-girl. And we were OK with that.

Only, we were still afraid that she would get caught in that girlie-girl trap and be unable to get out, and then came The Powerpuff Girls: Three ultra-violent kindergarten super-heroes "saving the world before bedtime."  It opened her eyes. She learned that there is no reason to wait Lois Lane-like for some man to save the day. From this show, she learned that a sweet nice little girl could be tough, and yes, just as violent as a little boy. And we were OK with that, too.

It wasn't just my daughter captivated by this message. The Powerpuffs caught the attention of four-year-olds and college students alike, exactly the demographics necessary to create a hit in the cable TV market, and merchandise proliferated. The craze reaches it's zenith with this outstanding album of music inspired by the show, appealing to the four-year-olds in its subject matter and the college students in its choice of artists to do the job. 

The album follows the standard formula of every episode, each track representing a bit of plot development:

1. The Powerpuff Girls (Main Theme): Imagine a big beat remix of The Superfriends theme.

2. Go Monkey Go — Devo: Mark Mothersbaugh, whom too many people only know anymore for his musical contributions to Rugrats, and Robert Casale, revert to their Devo roots for this twitchy, tortured, yet hilarious Mojo Jojo theme. The song sets Mojo out to destroy and rule Townsville.

3. Pray for the Girls — Frank Black and the Catholics drop the lo-fi brilliance that they've brought on the last two LPs for a track that would have sounded perfectly at home on Teenager of the Year. The song speaks for the terrified "chickens", the people of Townsville, praying for salvation from their tormentor. While it's easily the strongest song on the album, it's also the one that my daughter and I disagree about most heartily. She plain doesn't like it and doesn't understand it. Very frustrating — so I, her father, that is the male parent who brought her into the world, her paternal unit, her daddy, destroyed her.

4. Signal in the Sky (Let's Go) — The Apples in Stereo sounding amazingly and appropriately like a Kasenetz-Katz Bubble-gum act (1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express, Music Explosion) sound the rallying cry as the Girls get the call from the mayor to say the City of Townsville.

5. Walk and Chew Gum — Optiganally Yours create the voice of the dingy mayor in the soundtrack with an all out swing paean to the city and people of Townsville, complete with admission of incompetence and some really crazy indie-pop take on scat singing. Easily the weirdest track and very easily my four-year-old's favorite, sending her into near disturbing waves of giggle every time she hears it.

6. Buttercup (I'm a Super Girl) — Shonen Knife: What more perfect choice for Buttercup's theme, than Japan's best known purveyors of girl power (my daughter has called them simply "The Silly Girls" since she was two). Like every Knife song ever equal parts power-punk and cotton-candy. Perfect.

7. B.L.O.S.S.O.M. — Komeda: Here's the thing, Blossom is the leader, right. But Komeda's theme while interesting as a piece of electro doesn't catch the spirit of the girl. It's silly. Blossom's rarely silly. I mean it.

8. Bubbles — Dressy Bessy: Here's what I thought at first: Dressy Bessy already had this song about bubbles and revised for the soundtrack by changing one verse so the song appeared to be about "Bubbles". No sense of the character here, shame. As it turns out, the song is originally by 60s popsters, The Free Design, with lyrics revised by original songwriter Christopher Dedrick. That's right E6heads, get out there and pillage the bins. (Thanks to DB's Rob Greene for the help --ed.)

9. Fight the Power — Bis: The twenty something UK icky-redux of B-52's (also responsible for the show's weekly End Theme) plot Mojo's revenge against the girls in a fashion best described as Super-Twee-Black Sabbath — Weird and not even irritating.

10. Don't Look Down (Professor's Song) — The Sugarplastic: Brainy XTC influenced nerd-poppers, MIA since their promising second album Bang, the Earth is Round (1996) are the perfect choice for the Professor's theme, who in the midst of worry over the girls' fates at the hand of the villain, still has the presence to namecheck Newton, Faraday, Heisenberg, and Planck.

11. The Fight — Cornelius: Japan's greatest natural resource presents the endgame between Mojo and the girls in this samplelooperific instrumental. Ingenious as usual.

12. Friends Win — The Bill Doss: "The who?" you say. He's a guy from The Olivia Tremor Control providing a nice summary following another last minute victory from the girls. Imagine Paul McCartney on helium recording using instruments only available at Willy Wonka's house.

13. The Powerpuff Girls (End Theme) — Bis: You know this one already — the best theme on TV today and the only thing that anyone will remember about Bis in 10 years.

And when it's all said and done, The Powerpuff Girls have saved the day, and believe it or not, the Cartoon Network of all entities puts together one of the best compilations of original music in years, a perfect soundtrack for anyone's inner-little-indie-girl.