New movie soundtracks

After three years and not for want of trying, the hit charts still has to produce something that sells in the magnitude of Titanic but motion picture soundtracks are still alive and doing very well. Here are some you might not want to miss out on:

Glitter Mariah Carey: Word about the movie from the US of A has not been good. But while it looks like Mariah Carey‘s bid for screen stardom is a flop, the pop diva’s talent for producing a good album remains intact. Glitter is a take-off from the classic Star is Born, which was earlier filmed with Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand in the lead role. Mariah’s remake sets the story of a struggling singer in the ’80s and what sounds like R&B music from that period is what the soundtrack has plenty of.

Forget the lackluster first single Loverboy. Jump instead into the lovely ballad Lead the Way, which was composed by Mariah and Walter Afanasieff and Didn’t Mean To Turn You On, which must have been made for disco dancing. Check out too her version of the old dance favorite by Robert Palmer Last Night a DJ Saved My Life and the rap cut If We with Nate Dogg and Ja Rule providing hip hop counterpoint to Mariah.

Legally Blonde Various Artists: Blondes have brains too is what this romantic comedy starring Reese Witherspoon is saying. This is the story of Elle who drives a Porsche and who’s into fashion and is just too blonde and too pretty to be taken seriously. So she goes off to Harvard to prove herself and wins. For music to go along with this, the producers have selected a mix of trendy tunes from some of today’s hippest acts. The opener, Perfect Day by Hawaiian pop princess Hoku, is a winner. It is just the right sort of song to greet wonderful mornings with an optimistic frame of mind. Better yet get inside a convertible and let the world go by.

Other cuts are Love is a Beautiful Thing by Krystal Harris, We Could Still Belong Together by Lisa Loeb, Don’t Need You to (Tell Me I’m Pretty) by Samantha Mumba, One Girl Revolution by Su-perchic[k], A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton, Magic by Black Eyed Peas featuring Terry Dexter, Watch Me Shine by Joanna Pacitti, Ooh La La by Valeria, Can’t Get Me Down by Lo-Ball and Sex Machine by Mya.

American Pie 2 Various Artists: Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Shannon Elizabeth and all those other boys and girls who came of age, sexually and otherwise in the first American Pie movie are back and they once more have the soundtrack to go with their wacky shenanigans. Here are odes to frivolity that only the truly carefree can appreciate. It is also one excellent example of youth pop after another. At times even melodic, the songs here get all the jucies going in assorted and to some of us, alien ways.

Best of the line-up is Uncle Kracker’s lively and very danceable declaration (I’m Gonna) Split This Room in Half. Also in great form is 3 Doors Down with the American Pie edit of Be Like That. The other cuts include in the soundtrack are Every Time I Look for You by Blink-182, Scumbag by Green Day, Bring You Down by Left Front Tire, Vertigo by American Hi-Fi, Good (For a Woman) by Alien Ant Farm, Always Getting Over You, a sweet ballad by Angela Ammons which has a sweet pop hook, Cheating by Jettingham, Smokescreen by Flying Blind, Phoebe Cates by Fenix-TX, Susan by The Exit, Fat Lip by Sum 41, I Will by Lucia and Halo by Oleander.

The Princess Diaries Various Artists: Julie Andrews could have sang in this one. She stars in it as Queen Clarisse. Whitney Houston could have sing too in this soundtrack. She is the film’s producer. But songs by these singing stars are not included in The Princess Diaries. What we have instead is a frothy mix of teeny-bopper tunes, several of them by big name pop artists, that does the Disney label proud.

A San Francisco teenager gets the surprise of her life when she find out she is a real-live princess, with a kingdom to boot. So what you find in the soundtrack are songs that are required listening for every teen princess. Among these are What Makes You Different (Makes You Beautiful) by the Backstreet Boys, a remake of Stupid Cupid by Mandy Moore, Wake Up by Hanson, Happy Go Lucky by Steps and Little Bitty Pretty One by Aron Carter and Supergirl by Krystal Harris, who also appears in the Legally Blonde soundtrack.