ALBUM REVIEWS
Pretty good, when all is said and done
Posted on Fri, Jul. 11, 2008
• SOUNDTRACK
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Mamma Mia! -- The Movie Soundtrack
Decca
***
ABBA's music is so infectious that it can make a musical plot in which beautiful people live on an even more beautiful Greek isle and just break out into ABBA songs instead of normal conversation like ''Pass the tanning oil, please'' seem perfectly natural.
For the soundtrack of the movie Mamma Mia! which opens July 18, actors Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski and others do the singing and, in most cases, pass muster. Streep's best, but even this Oscar-winning master can't pull off ABBA's most challenging song, The Winner Takes It All.
Fans might also gripe that this single disc omits several ABBA staples (like Knowing Me, Knowing You) that are featured in the musical. However, When All Is Said and Done (sung by Streep and Brosnan) wasn't featured in the Broadway show album.
Backing tracks were recorded by several musicians who played on the original ABBA recordings. The rhythms are punchier and fatter than the Broadway cast recording and, arguably, even more addictive. This version doesn't replace ABBA's Gold, but it can stand on its own as a pop album. Just try not doing your own ABBA karaoke as it plays all summer.
Pod Picks:Lay All Your Love on Me, Voulez-Vous, Money, Money, Money.
-- HOWARD COHEN
• POPVANESSA HUDGENS
Identified
Hollywood
*
Singing ability was probably low on the list of requirements for the fresh-scrubbed teens cast in Disney's lucrative High School Musical franchise. This is especially telling on the generic solo albums that have come from castmates Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens and Corbin Bleu. Not a one has shown signs of any personality or vocal flair. Star Zac Efron has wisely refrained from venturing into the recording studio, and that's not surprising given that he only lip-synced to another vocalist's tracks for the first TV movie's soundtrack. Pity his girlfriend didn't follow his cue. Identified is Hudgens' second attempt to graduate from High School and it's a remedial pop-urban effort.
Hudgens' voice is tweaked in the studio with Pro-Tools and other artificial enhancements and remains wholly anonymous on dancey tracks like the single, Sneakernight, and tuneless hip-hop inspired cuts like Hook It Up that are designed to move her audience from 'tweens to teens but already sound hopelessly dated.
Pod Pick:Last Night.
-- HOWARD COHEN
• DANCE/ ELECTRONICSTEVE LAWLER
Viva Toronto
Ultra Records
***
British DJ Steve Lawler's CD compilations have always had a theme: Dark Drums explored heavy tribal beats, the dirty house of Lights Out captured the gritty feel of a nightclub at its energetic peak, the three-CD project Viva was more experimental, and its follow-up Viva London tapped Digweed-esque minimalist tech-house.
The double-CD Viva Toronto -- divided into ''Inside'' the club and ''Outside'' on the terrace -- continues Lawler's evolution away from big beats and into more cerebral territory. ''Inside'' mixes mysterious tribal chanting with futuristic techno (Robytek's Luna Africana), blends disparate sonic textures into an intricate, coherent rhythmic stew (Calculus' Loosey Goosey)and marries a Peter Gunn Theme bassline with swelling synth notes that never quite reach a crescendo (Christian Smith and John Selway's Total Departure).
''Outside'' is both more low-key and more compelling. Highlights include the lazy Drifting On by Miss Fitz, whose spacey keys and echoing pops and blips give Nina Simone's sampled vocals an eerie touch; Diskotecktonik by Fetisch & Me, whose magnificent, sweeping vocal harmonies anchor jaunty Kraftwerk-style keyboard riffs; and Sublimes by Sie, whose sexy French whispering morphs into a delightfully hallucinogenic dance-floor stomper.
Diehard fans of mainstream progressive house, such as the epic anthems and lush vocals of Deep Dish, Paul Oakenfold and Oscar G, might be left cold by Viva Toronto.But those who are looking for a new sound will find much to love here.
Pod Picks: Loosey Goosey, Diskotecktonik, Sublimes.
-- MICHAEL HAMERSLY
mhamersly@MiamiHerald.com
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