As rock and roll movie musicals go, Across the Universe is neither as awful or misguided as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band nor as glorious and inspired as Hair. Falling somewhere in the middle, Julie Taymor's Mama Mia -ing of the Beatles is a pleasant if rambling cinematic experience that even includes a token lesbian (which begs the question, Why not a token gay man?). The soundtrack (Interscope) contains half of the songs featured in the film, including Joe Cocker's rendition of "Come Together," Evan Rachel Wood's readings of "It Won't Be Long" and "Blackbird," the full-tilt gospel version of "Let It Be" (with vocals by Carol Woods and Timothy T. Mitchum) and Bono's closing-credits interpretation of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
For his first officially sanctioned solo project, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder wrote nine and performs all 11 of the songs on Music from the Motion Picture Into the Wild (J). The film, based on Jon Krakauer's book and adapted for the screen and directed by Sean Penn, tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, who set out on a personal quest in Alaska that ended tragically. Pearl Jam fans expecting the crack and crunch of Vedder's band might be a little disappointed. To his credit, Vedder remains faithful to the spirit and mood of the movie, and has crafted a set of songs that do the story justice.
The soundtrack Dan in Real Life (Virgin) is also primarily the work of one performer, in this case Sondre Lerche. In the liner notes to the disc, Lerche wrote that he wanted to create "something akin to what Cat Stevens did for Harold and Maude, and Simon & Garfunkel did for The Graduate." For all intents and purposes, he has succeeded. The incidental music is pleasant and cinematic, and the songs easily stand on their own.
It's not surprising that the quirkiness of Wes Anderson's movies spills over onto the accompanying soundtracks. The Darjeeling Limited (Abkco/Fox Music) is no exception. Brothers Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Anderson) are on a quest, following the funeral of their father, to find their itinerant mother Patricia (Anderson regular Angelica Houston), who has become a nun in India. In addition to the usual array of British rock from the 1960s and 70s that Anderson favors in his films, a number of the songs on the soundtrack are taken from the soundtracks of Satyajit Ray and Merchant-Ivory films, allowing them to serve double cinematic duty.
And now to a pair of movie soundtrack reissues. The Buddha of Suburbia (Virgin), David Bowie's soundtrack to the 1993 miniseries of the same name (based on the novel by queer writer Hanif Kureishi), was composed at a time when Bowie was once again in the midst of an image change. Since this is not a traditional Bowie disc and the material is more external than his more personal projects, it allows him to be a bit more daring. The title theme finds Bowie being briefly self-referential.
Based on Roddy Doyle's 1987 debut novel of the same name, The Commitments told the tale of a ragtag musical group formed in a Dublin slum, driven by their love of classic soul and R&B. The soundtrack, released in 1991 at around the same time as the movie, became a bestseller, prompting a second volume to be released less than year later. The Commitments: Deluxe Edition (Geffen/Chronicles) is a double-disc set that collects both soundtracks under one cover.
Drawn from the documentary of the same name, You're Gonna Miss Me (Palm) features the music of Roky Erickson (aka Roger Kynard Erickson). Eastern Promises (Sony Classical) is Howard Shore and David Cronenberg's latest teaming. The Heartbreak Kid (Plan R), the soundtrack to the unnecessary remake by the Farrelly brothers, boasts a pair of new tracks by The Flaming Lips composed specifically for the project.
It's almost embarrassing to think that it takes a mediocre medical drama on a second-rate network to introduce people to the music of Massive Attack, but that's the situation with Fox's House. "Teardrop," a nearly 10-year-old Massive Attack tune, serves as the theme song and leads off House M.D.: Original Television Soundtrack (Nettwerk). The cool tunes don't end there, as selections by Gomez ("See the World"), Michael Penn ("Walter Reed"), Joshs Rouse ("God, Please Let Me Go Back") and Ritter ("Good Man"), Lucinda Williams ("Are You Alright"), and a pair of attention-grabbing covers by Elvis Costello ("Beautiful") and Sarah McLachlan ("Dear God") elevate this soundtrack above the ordinary.