Monday, November 2, 2015

MUSIC REVIEW OF THE DAY: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK - ROCK THE KASBAH



The new Bill Murray movie is about a rock star manager (Murray) who takes his client to Afghanistan for some humanitarian work, but gets ditched and stranded there in the process. Then, he discovers an Afghan woman with an extraordinary voice, and stuff happens after that. So right away, it's got to be heavy on the music.


As is so often the case though, what makes for an interesting scene doesn't do a whole lot as a purely listening experience. The amazing voice he discovers belongs to actress Leem Lubany, who covers three Cat Stevens classics on the disc. She has a decent voice, but not spectacular, and these are simply nice versions. Cat himself is used, the old 1970 cut Pop Star, a pretty good fit here, and a good inclusion of one of his lesser-known gems.


Also on board is Zooey Deschanel, who does sing in the duo She & Him, and who does a bang-up job on Bitch, the old Meredith Brooks hit. Bill Murray singing Smoke On The Water is comedy of course, not exactly a cut for your mixtape. There's a couple of more '70's cuts, Dylan doing Knockin' On Heaven's Door and Nilsson's Jump Into The Fire, unarguably excellent. A mixed bag.

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