The Truth About Charlie  (Audio CD) 
by Various Artists

Jonathan Demme's eclectic song choices paradoxically strengthen and weaken the soundtrack to his film The Truth About Charlie. On the one hand, the rich diversity of styles is a treat to behold: fiery tribal world music with a French twist (Rachid Taha) and barnstorming melodic rock (the Soft Boys) merge with stirring soul jazz (Angélique Kidjo) and hyped-up techno dub (Asian Dub Foundation). Moreover, the dark atmosphere permeating the album--exemplified best by the sweltering exotic dance of De Phazz, Transglobal Underground's smoldering trip-hop, and droning, lo-fi post-punk from the Feelies--captures the ominous, suspense-thriller mood of the movie perfectly. However, Charlie also feels unfocused, mostly because too many styles and directions are crammed together and fighting for attention. Consequently, although each individual musician blends genres with pizzazz (as on Manu Chao's Latin-dub-reggae fusion), the textured variety ultimately becomes tiresome. --Annie Zaleski