Lending some buzz to the Muppets brand a few months ahead of Jason Segel’s big-screen reboot, The Green Album features such alt-culture types as OK Go and Sondre Lerche tackling the furry friends’ songbook. My Morning Jacket sound right at home on “Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas,” while Rivers Cuomo and Hayley Williams conjure some bizarro odd-couple energy in “The Rainbow Connection.” Most impressively, though, Andrew Bird sidesteps the precious self-pity you’d expect from “Bein’ Green”: His Kermit gets the clever-to-cuddly ratio just right.
