The early 2000s were home to some of the darkest, grimiest music to ever breach the mainstream – nu metal and industrial were at a peak of success with all their gory guts exposed and hearts worn on their sleeves. Alongside that, many movies followed suit, with classics and duds alike across horror, thriller, action, comedy and more adopting that same attitude. Saw, Queen of the Damned, The Matrix (okay, fine, that was 1999)… It was a fruitful time for people like me.

Yet there is a piece of spiritually nu metal cinema, hailing from the tumultuous year of 2002, which I feel has often gone overlooked or, at least, underexamined. To sweeten the pot, the film also incorporates my second favorite thing: The beautiful New Hampshire winter landscape. That’s right, Eight Crazy Nights, a movie musical starring Adam Sandler in animated form, takes place in none other than my home country of the Granite State.

It’s also my holiday movie of 2025, and I’m taking the soundtrack with me into 2026.

Despite some deeply impressive edits that would suggest otherwise, the music in Eight Crazy Nights is largely standard musical theatre fare. Still, there’s something ugly and dirty under the hood here that I haven’t been able to stop myself from trying to identify.

At the start of the first song, an expository number about main character Davey Stone, a police siren wails over an electronic track that would feel right at home in Sonic Adventure 2. It’s a jarringly… well, cool start to a movie that up to this point has only shown us this animated not-Sandler getting drunk and attempting to copulate with his car.

It doesn’t last long, though, giving way to one of many confusing singing performances from Sandler. Half the time, he sounds like a Disney prince. The other half, he sounds like Adam Sandler, spiritually still wailing away on Saturday Night Live. Still, I appreciate the chorus of “Davey’s Song,” where he finds the perfect meeting point of crude movie comedy with sharper cutting lyrics: “I hate love/I hate you/I hate me.”

The next song of any note whatsoever is the ballad “Long Ago,” which is the first of two instances where country singer Alison Krauss makes an appearance as the singing voice for Davey’s love interest character, Jennifer.

“Long Ago” does pretty much all the heavy lifting in piecing together a justification for Jennifer to fall back in love with Davey, but it still finds time for one of the movie’s out-of-nowhere transphobic cutaways. Truly, the fruit could hang no lower.

Next is by far the most successful execution of a theatrical number, “Technical Foul,” led by Sandler’s squeaky voiced old man character Whitey and his twin sister (also voiced by Sandler), Eleanor.

Whitey’s sunny disposition clashes correctly with Davey’s pessimism, and Eleanor receives an endearing character introduction. “Technical Foul” leaves all three characters feeling more developed and is damn catchy in the meantime. The crowning moment is toward the end when all three sing overlapping parts as they pace circles around each other, letting the viewer glimpse little pieces of the characters’ internal monologues rather than how they present themselves outwardly.

But things are getting too sweet around here. It’s time to skip forward to Davey’s lowest point, where he receives a musical intervention from a collection of talking brand mascots at the town shopping mall.

“Intervention Song” corresponds to the tone of the scene in that it’s probably the dingiest song on the soundtrack. Peter Dante’s performance as the Foot Locker referee with some added electric guitar flair puts us unexpectedly in Butthole Surfers territory.

One of the best (see: most amusing) things about Sandler’s vocal performance on the soundtrack is that his often grating funnyman voice that he always does is not altogether too different from the yarling exhibited by many iconic alternative rock performers, most famously Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. There’s an appeal to hearing him let loose with that on “Intervention Song,” insisting, “You labels and logos are wasting your time!”

Following Davey’s revelation and Scrooge-like transformation, the film gives us the most iconic original song to come out of Eight Crazy Nights: “Bum Biddy.”

The second life this track has received online can easily be explained by the fact that it’s the only song in the movie to actually be funny, mostly through the sheer absurdity and spontaneity of the titular chorus at the end. It’s easily the highlight for me and the song I find myself returning to the most frequently. It doesn’t hurt to hear some more guitars reminiscent of 90s rock and another dose of Krauss in the bridge.

Closing the soundtrack is the credits song, which is also the most culturally important song in the movie and likely the reason for its existence: “The Chanukah Song,” re-recorded from Sandler’s SNL days.

I understand why this song has been so lastingly popular and even how it managed to convince so many people to sign on for a Chanukah movie. I also don’t like the song at all. Sandler at his most average grasps at rhymes at a middling pace and succeeds at boring me.I watched Eight Crazy Nights nearly eight crazy times this past holiday season, making it by far my most rewatched Happy Madison production. I will not be repeating this mistake again, and I don’t suggest you do so either. “Bum Biddy” and a few funny edits thereof are available to you for free on YouTube – and that should suffice this year when it comes time for Chanukah.