(sound Check)

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 19, 1997

Annmaree Bellman

Thirty years ago Doctor Zhivago was probably the sole original soundtrack on a shelf of vinyl. Today, movie music clogs the charts. Forget Alanis and Celine. Romeo + Juliet was the best-selling Christmas CD. But do soundtracks stand up on their own?

ROMEO + JULIET.

Capitol Records.

Baz Luhrmann's film is for the MTV-CNN generation and has an exhilarating soundtrack to match. It's the Bard meets the Butthole Surfers. The original and remixed tracks careen violently from the discordant clashes of gang warfare (Garbage's No#1 Crush and Everclear's Local God) to sweet love themes. Des'ree's eerie Kissing You is an oasis of simplicity in the battle of the bands. The wildly varied package can make for unsettling listening - but who said tragedy was easy on the ear? Listen for Quindon Tarvers' fabulous reminder that Everybody's Free To Feel Good and some playful advice to the doomed lovers with a re-mix of Young Hearts Run Free. What else would you expect from the man who resurrected John Paul Young for Strictly Ballroom. ***

THE PREACHER'S WIFE.

Whitney Houston.

Arista.

This album fulfils Houston's dream to return to her gospel roots. But would her fans follow her dream, the money men worried. They needn't have. After the phenomenal success of The Bodyguard and Waiting To Exhale, she's got the formula down. Even with a surfeit of godliness this album is slickly Whitney. The best track by far is Annie Lennox's Step By Step, while Houston ropes in funky husband Bobby Brown for Somebody Bigger Than You And I. The Georgia Mass Choir lends glorious voice to the gospel tracks, but the songs seem to come more from the studio than the South. **

THE PALLBEARER.

Miramax Hollywood Records.

More and more film-makers are stuffing soundtracks with songs or instrumentals and The Pallbearer nailed it with a mix of songs, smokily cool jazz and two fabulous instrumentals by former Police drummer Stuart Copeland. Al Green sets the upbeat tone and by the time Herbie Hancock's done his horn bit you're ready to order a martini, affect a Sinatra slouch and snap those fingers. Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up and Rick James's Super Freak add a touch of (relative) modernity to a soundtrack that mixes its film cocktail sublimely. ****

LOVE SERENADE.

Mercury Records.

A film about a DJ in a dead-end town means just one thing - drive-time. There's a fair dose of Barry White including, naturally, Love Serenade. Others include Billy Paul's Me And Mrs Jones and Glenn Campbell's Wichita Lineman. It ends with the embodiment of bland, Les Crane's Desiderata. It ought to be awful but this soundtrack, is definitely, if naffly, appealing. ***

HOTEL DE LOVE.

"Let's throw in a lot of old songs," the makers of Hotel De Love may have said. "It worked for Muriel and Priscilla". They picked some good ones - Split Enz, Leo Sayer, even KC & the Sunshine Band - and glued them together with appalling covers. The Hotel De Love Wedding band, complete with PA system overtones, may have been funny on film, but it doesn't work on CD. *

****

CD Heaven

***

Worth a listen

Middle of the road

Waste of money