VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Home for the Holidays" (Mercury) * * * 1/2
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "How to Make an American Quilt" (MCA Soundtracks) * * * 1/2BRIAN WILSON; "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" (MCA Soundtracks). * * * *
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Smoke" (Miramax Records/Hollywood Records). * * * *
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Devil In a Blue Dress" (Columbia). * * * 1/2
COMBUSTIBLE EDISON; "Four Rooms" (Elektra). * * * 1/2
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Dead Presidents" (Underworld/Capitol). * * * 1/2
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Desperado" (epic soundtrax). * * *
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "Seven" (TVT Records). * * *
VARIOUS ARTISTS; "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" (MCA). * * *
Rusted Root's cover of "Evil Ways," which opens the soundtrack for "Home for the Holidays," is interesting but will never replace Santana's original in my mind. And Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" is perhaps an overplayed "classic" these days. But the other four vocals here - Dinah Washington's evocative "Trouble in Mind," Janis Joplin's timeless "Piece of My Heart" and two cuts by Nat King Cole, the classics "Candy" and "The Very Thought of You" - are excellent choices. The clincher here, however, is Mark Isham's score, with no less than six jazz cuts, each one a winner. His variations on "The Very Thought of You," capped by Cole's rendition at the end of the film (the penultimate cut on the CD), are inspired and quite moving.
Thomas Newman's lovely themes for "How to Make an American Quilt" would be enough to make this album a keeper, but they are delightfully offset by several diverse "pop" tunes - Bing Crosby warbling "Swinging On a Star," Etta James' beautiful "At Last," Benny Goodman's "Riffin' at the Ritz," Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry" and the Inkspots doing "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire." A beautifully conceived album from start to finish.
The documentary film "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" is a candid chronicle of the troubled life and times of famed Beach Boys member Brian Wilson, which was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival in January - helped by Wilson's live, impromptu keyboard concert on Main Street in Park City. (You haven't lived until you've seen a toe-tapping Robert Redford joining the crowd to enjoy Wilson's music.) But the film never played theaters, instead making its debut on the Disney Channel. This soundtrack is an excellent, if brief (just over half-an-hour) compendium of Wilson songs, somewhat "unplugged," if you will - softer, heartfelt variations on such Beach Boys classics as "Caroline No," "Let the Wind Blow," "Do It Again," etc. The less-familiar "Melt Away" and "This Whole World" make for equally compelling listening.
Eclectic, yet perfectly blended, the songs (and Rachel Portman's heartfelt score) that make up the soundtrack for "Smoke" perfectly complement the movie, from Louis Prima's "Brooklyn Boogie" to "Cigarettes and Coffee" by the Jerry Garcia Band to Screamin' Jay Hawkins on "Hong Kong" to a pair of Tom Waits numbers, and more. The collection concludes, quite fittingly, with the Jerry Garcia Band performing "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes." Fabulous.
"Devil In a Blue Dress" is loaded with authentic tunes that effectively evoke the '40s film noir effect of the movie, including Thelonious Monk's always wonderful " 'Round Midnight," Duke Ellington's "Hy-Ah Su," T-Bone Walker's "West Side Baby" and others. The moody theme music from Elmer Bernstein's score fits right in.
Combustible Edison's delightfully offbeat music for "Four Rooms" is described in the liner notes as "modern cocktail lounge/bachelor-pad sounds," and that sums up the originality that pervades this soundtrack album as well as anything. Occasionally there are familiar elements (the theme from TV's "Bewitched," a unique cover of "Sentimental Journey"), but mostly this one is reminiscent in its way of themes used for "Ed Wood" and "Twin Peaks" - yet it manages to achieve a unique level of high-camp weirdness in the 29 cuts here, each uniquely goofy.
"Dead Presidents" offers a highly evocative mix of songs that represent (and occasionally contrast) the film's themes of anger, frustration and hopelessness, from Curtis Mayfield's "If There's a Hell Below" to James Brown's "The Payback" to Al Green's "Tired of Being Alone" to the O'Jays' "Love Train" - to a couple of Burt Bacharach/Hal David songs dramatically covered by Isaac Hayes ("Walk On By" and "The Look of Love," believe it or not). The album concludes with selections from Danny Elfman's sinister score to complete a nicely rounded package.
"Desperado" has, as you might suspect, a Latino theme, and the selections are most enjoyable. Los Lobos provides the best work (the group scored the film), kicking it off with "Cancion Del Mariachi" (with vocal assist by Antonio Banderas, the film's star). Other highlights include Dire Straits' "Six Blade Knife" and cuts by Link Wray and His Ray Men, the Latin Playboys and Carlos Santana, among others. The main drawback is snippets of dialogue, just in case we had forgotten that Quentin Tarantino was involved. Next time, stick to the music, guys.
It's hard to get more disparate than the first two tracks on the soundtrack for "Seven," with the Statler Brothers singing "In the Beginning," followed by "Guilty," by Gravity Kills. But it certainly prepares you for this eclectic mix, which includes Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man," Billie Holiday warbling "I Cover the Waterfront" and jazz classics by Charlie Parker ("Now's the Time") and Thelonious Monk ("Straight, No Chaser"). The eerie but listenable Howard Shore score is represented by the two final tracks.
The songs collected for "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," like the movie, force kitsch upon the audience, but that doesn't lessen the enjoyable selections, which include Patti LaBelle covering "Over the Rainbow," Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," "She's a Lady" by Tom Jones, and others, ranging from Chaka Khan and Salt-N-Pepa to the Commodores and Crystal Waters. Rachel Portman's lovely score, which strikingly contrasts the songs, features four enjoyable excerpts, though "A Day With the Girls" is perhaps overly reminiscent of her "Benny & Joon" theme.
RATINGS: four stars (* * * * ), excellent; three stars (* * * ), good; two stars (* * ), fair; one star (* ), poor, with 1/2 representing a higher, intermediate grade.