Manufacturer: SonyBMG
Even those allergic to musicals may be won over by Once, a tender-hearted Irish romance with songs by Czech Republic-born Markéta Irglová and Frames frontman Glen Hansard (the film's director, John Carney, actually used to play bass in the group). The trick here is that Irglová and Hansard also play the leads; because their characters are shown busking, writing music, or rehearsing, the ...
Manufacturer: Columbia
Disney has struck platinum with High School Musical, a made-for-cable movie that was mega-popular on the Disney Channel before spawning a mega-popular soundtrack. Echoing Grease, the plot involves two students (Zac Efron and Vanessa Anne Hutchinson) who fall for eath other while on vacation, only to realize they go to the same high school — though they belong to different ...
Manufacturer: Walt Disney
Joel and Ethan Coen have long established themselves as film stylists without peer: from Blood Simple to Fargo, their movies have never been less than fascinating, and there has never been any question that their films could not have been made by anyone else. In T-Bone Burnett, the producer of the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they have finally met their match: ...
Manufacturer: Mercury Records Ltd (London)
Manufacturer: Sonybmg
Manufacturer: Atlantic
Fans of High School Musical can breathe easy: Based on this soundtrack, the sequel is just as good, and perhaps even better. Though its trailer asked "Are you ready for the start of something new?" HSM2 isn't turning the franchise into The Wire, and really is more of the same--which is, of course, totally fine by us. One of the most energetic tracks is Chad and Ryan's ...
Lionel Bart's wonderful musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic was the first London stage musical to be transplanted to Broadway with the same kind of sensation it received in Britain-- something that is now common in these post-Cats/Les Miserables times. Although no one from this British cast ever became enormously famous (future Monkee Davy Jones was in the second ...
Manufacturer: RCA
Ry Cooder's name has helped bring attention to this session, but it's the veteran Cuban son musicians who make this album really special. Reminiscent of Ellington in its scope and sense of hushed romanticism, Buena Vista Social Club is that rare meld of quietude and intensity; while the players sound laid-back, they're putting forth very alive music, a reminder that aging doesn't mean ...
Manufacturer: World Circuit
New York singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson may be familiar to many, seeing as her existing infamy is based on being one half of acerbic so-called 'anti-folk' duo The Moldy Peaches who made ripples around the turn of the century with taboo-provoking pared-down romps against this, that and the other. It might be a surprise to find her ramshackle and largely solo performances heading up a film ...
Manufacturer: Warner
