Luckily for Madonna there’s always the soundtrack. While her latest film The Next Best Thing has not set the box office on fire, Madonna proves her talent as a producer: finding the latest cool sounds and spotting the trend in techno and multiculti acts before others catch on. The Next Best Thing in music is moving fluidly between world music and techno.
The CD starts off with the sultry,worldbeat “Boom Boob Ba” by Metisse, a song reminiscent of Sade and Zap Mama. French singer Manu Chao follows with “Bongo Bong”, not his best song, but a laid back track. His critically acclaimed release last year, Clandestino, has obvioulsy garnered some heavy weight notice.
Christina Aguilera is also featured. Before you groan, though, know that “Don’t Make Me love You (Til I’m Ready) sounds as bad as its title. Therefore, you should skip this title. It sucks, quite unfortunate as she is the only one of the current crop of teens who has a voice.
There has been some buzz about Madonna’s version of “American Pie”, which incidentally is only available on this soundtrack. For some reason this version reminds me of Bananarama or the Bangles. It’s not bad per se, but “Beautiful Stranger” from Austin Powers captured her love of the psychedelic 60’s more accurately, and her version of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” had more fire than this lifeless track. Ruperet Everett joins her on back up vocals-let’s just say there is a difference between a sing-a-long with Madonna or Julia on film and a CD where you focus only on the song. Her other contribution is the awesome “Time Stood Still” with soundsmith William Orbit giving it a dreamy sheen.
Other highlights include the celestial “Swayambhu” by the Solar Twins and “Stars All Seem To Weep” by Beth Orton. Moby comes in with the moody “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?”.
New faces and techno sounds are perfect for springtime.
