Notes & Personnel Info |  | Composer: Alex Wurman. |  | Reflecting the romantic dramedy A Lot Like Love's span of several years, its soundtrack plays like a time capsule filled with hits from the mid-to-late '90s and early 2000s. Songs like Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life" and Smash Mouth's "Walkin' on the Sun" still get plenty of airplay in shopping malls and on the radio, so it's difficult to have nostalgia for them (even if they've held up better than some other singles from that era). However, the Cure's "Mint Car" and Hooverphonic's "Mad About You" are slightly more left-field choices that evoke the era without sounding so predictable. Chicago's "If You Leave Me Now" was probably included for its cheese factor, but it still sounds more distinctive than most of the other music here, particularly the singles from the 2000s; Jet's atypical ballad "Look What You've Done" is the best of a bland bunch. A Lot Like Love is a pleasant-enough soundtrack, but its way of making the recent past sound more interesting than the present is more than a little worrying. ~ Heather Phares |  | The soundtrack to the 2005 romantic comedy, A LOT LIKE LOVE piles on loads of smart, heady pop that focuses on the intricacies of love and relationships. This winning collection of songs features Third Eye Blind's jangly 1997 hit "Semi-Charmed Life," Ray LaMontagne's Van Morrison-like ode "Trouble," Butch Walker's Paul Westerberg-meets-Lifehouse slice of self-doubt "Maybe It's Just Me," and Hooverphonic's lush, trip-hoppy "Mad About You." And while Chicago's soft-rock standard "If You Leave Me Now" packs in desperation amidst lush strings and Peter Cetera's croon, the Jet ballad "Look What You've Done" exudes frustration over a melancholy piano backdrop. Of the younger artists on the soundtrack, Aqualung particularly impresses with the orchestral "Brighter Than Sunshine," and Anna Nalick contributes "Breathe (2 AM)," which recalls both Fiona Apple and Alanis Morissette. | Producer: Christopher Thorn; Robert Smith; Dave Sardy; Eagle-Eye Cherry; Eric Rosse; Eric Valentine; Ethan Johns; Adam Kviman; Groove Armada; Jacknife Lee; James William Guercio; Jim Ebert; Roland Herrington; Stephan Jenkins; Steve Lyon; Steve Orchard; Matt Hales; |
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