A Good Year  (Audio CD) 
by Various Artists

In a distinct break from their muscular triumph Gladiator, Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott teamed up again to bring Peter Mayle's sunny Provençal romance to the screen, a change of milieu that's spawned an equally warm, often sentimentally tinged soundtrack and score. Using a trio of pop songs by the great Harry Nilsson (including the joyous demo of Nilsson Schmilsson's "Gotta Get Up") as an axis that's as effusive as it is unlikely, this is a collection that romps through Franco-pop nuggets variously contemporary (Makali's elegant "Il Faut du Temps..."), vintage (Charles Trenet's "Je Chante," Jean Sablon's "J'Attendrai," Tino Rossi's "Le Chant du Guardian"), and downright loopy (Richard Anthony's French redux of "Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini"), making room for Patti Page, Josephine Baker, and Delaney & Bonnie along its merry way. Also included are three cues from newcomer Marc Streitenfeld's underscore, a nimble exercise in instrumental post-modernism whose electronica/folk/neoclassical mélange is as eclectic as the song choices, yet characterized by subtlety and grace. --Jerry McCulley