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Album Review: Various Artists, The Next Best Thing soundtrack

(Maverick Records)

3 out of 5 stars

Madonna, starring in this weeks's movie release "The Next Best Thing," has created a largely sucessful remake of Don Mclean's "American Pie" for the film's soundtrack.

The song, with its techno instrumentation, could easily have become a light-hearted, misguided defilment of a truly great song, but Madonna's artistic maturity keeps it restrained.

She simultaneously captures the melancholic, nostalgic essence of the original song while infusing it with a carefree vivacity. While the orchestration works to undermine the more somber elements of the song, reducing it to pop status, Madonna's vocals bring it back into the fold.

Her other song on the soundtrack, "Time Stood Still," is a spacey techno ballad that sounds like a combination of her previous songs "Take a Bow" and "Frozen."

Unlike the radio friendly "American Pie," it barely registers compared to contributions by soundtrack-regulars Moby and Beth Orton.

Also featured is a Christina Aguilera song, "Don't Make Me Love You ('Til I'm Ready)," which sounds like it should be standard teen-pop. Alas, it does not even reach this status as it is neither catchy nor tolerable.

The remainder of the songs, including an orchestral piece by gifted composer Gabriel Yared, holds firm to the serious-music-with-techno-undercurrents theme of the album.

Much like the marketing for the movie, the album focuses more on the ligh-hearted aspects of the film while only hinting at its darker qualities.

The soundtrack, unlike the commercials for the film, however, has deftly combined both extremes, choosing songs that are both light and more spirited but in a more ethereal, englightened manner. These songs suggest that there is something beyond the techno-happy surface of this album to be discovered.

- Graig Uhlin