:: Various Artists - Moonlight Recordings 2004/2005

Various Artists

These collections of songs from the Moonlight Cinema season are of a mix more eclectic than a CD reviewer‘s musical taste. The compilation opens with Bill Withers’ timeless ‘Use Me’ from American Beauty, and then segues seamlessly into French pop group Phoenix‘s quietly poignant track, 'Too Young’ from Lost in Translation. The mix of older and new songs works well for the most part. Buffalo Springfield and James Brown sit quite comfortably with The Beta Band, Eels and Portishead. Although, Al Green‘s 'Let's Stay Together’ and Dean Martin‘s track from the film Swingers sound passé, and Yello's 'Oh Yeah’ is still as annoying and gimmicky now as it was when Ferris Bueller first took his day off. The CD ends on a contemplative, lo-fi note with two beautiful tunes from more recent films; Zero 7‘s 'Waiting in Line’ from Garden State and Decoder Ring's title theme from last years quixotic Australian film Somersault. Given it is essentially an advertisement album, this edition of Moonlight Recordings is, a rather impressive collection of both mainstream and more obscure songs.