A Lot Like Love  (Audio CD) 
by Alex Wurman

This romantic fantasy plays like an MTV-inspired daydream-come-true as 20-something's Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet spend the better part of a decade having flirtatious encounters and one night stands until they chance upon a perfectly obvious Hollywood ending. Anchored by the Rock of the '90s nostalgia of Third Eye Blind's buoyant "Semi-Charmed Life", Smash Mouth (the resilient, '60s psych-pop throwback "Walkin' On the Sun"), Eagle-Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight" and the unlikely jubilance of The Cure's "Mint Car," it’s a soundtrack whose disposition is by turns sunny and bittersweet. Ray LaMontagne's soulful "Trouble," the spare R&B shadings of Groove Armada's "Hands of Time," and Jet's moping alt.pop give the collection some needed dynamics and resonance, but they aren't much more than passing clouds ready to be split wide by the infectious power pop of Travis' "Know Nothing," Aqualung's savory "Brighter Than Sunshine" and Butch Walker's urgent "Maybe It's Just Me." --Jerry McCulley