Various Artists

Soundtrack to 'The Next Best Thing'

This soundtrack serves as another platform to promote the forthcoming new film starring Madonna and Rupert Everett. I shall reserve comments on the film but instead concentrate on the selection of recordings chosen to represent the film.

Surprisingly, there are only 2 contributions from Madge, the former No. 1 cover of 'American Pie and the elegant 'Time Stood Still'. The latter of these offerings is very reminiscent of 'Oh Father' and confirms a maturity in her voice so immaculately captured in the 'Ray of Light' album. This is probably due to the contribution of William Orbit who yet again brings out the best in an otherwise limited vocal range.

And what about the other tracks? Well there are some excellent offerings by Moby ('Why Does My Feel So Bad?') and Beth Orton ('Stars All Seem To Weep'). Orton's voice is haunting yet beautiful, very much like Tracy Thorn's. This is in sharp contrast to the Christina Aguilera track 'Don't Make Me Love You ('Til I'm Ready)' which does not sit well at all with the chilled out vibes which dominate this soundtrack.

Other notable tracks include 'This Life' by Mandalay and 'Boom Boom Ba' by Metisse which is very quirky but it grows on you whilst providing the soundtrack with some "edge", if that's not a contradiction in terms when reviewing a soundtrack album.

One that stands out from many other bland soundtracks which are currently out on the shelves.

Suneet Joseph