MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - AMERICAN HUSTLE

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, the con man caper has lots of attention, which means certain soundtrack interest as well.  With its late 70's setting we get a pretty good mixtape of vintage hits, most a little before that, but no matter.  It's not the usual overused soundtrack fare;  the biggest here, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Live And Let Die are that played out, and some are nice surprises.  ELO's 10538 Overture is one of the group's best and most Beatle-esque, and sounds great followed by the Wings tune.  Unfortunately, it must have been a package deal, as another, later ELO tune, Long Black Road, is a clunker.  The Jeff Lynne solo instrumental Stream Of Stars is actually pretty nice though. 

Hats off for the inclusion of the Bee Gee's How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, a gem that deserves more attention, as does all the group's early work.  Tom Jones' Delilah is overwrought, like all his hits, but still a hoot.  Blah to America's Neil Young rip, Horse With No Name though.  The rarer, original version of Don't Leave Me This Way, by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes is used over Thelma Houston's #1 hit, again a nice touch.  But scarily, there's also Donna Summer's breakthrough, I Feel Love.  For you younger listeners who want to know what the mid-70's were like, spin that, and you'll realize we didn't hate disco, we were very very afraid of it.  And, we were right.  Anyhoo, 10 of 15 cuts here are pretty cool, if you don't own them already, and it's a good spin from start to almost end.