This soundtrack is from the movie by the same name which was released a while ago. Although I haven't seen the movie, I have an idea what it's about , life on Earth in 1999. The director, Wim Wenders, personally sent notes to several alternative-rock artists, requesting new songs for his film.

There are 19 different selections, four of which are instrumentals written by Graeme Revell and performed on cello by David Darling. The other fifteen songs are all new, updated, and/or dubbed songs by many of the world's best alternative-rock music giants.

The week the soundtrack came out in the music stores (and the radio stations started playing it), three different selections were featured on the Top Twenty most-requested songs in the Boston area: "Sax and Violins" by the Talking Heads, "What's Good" by Lou Reed, and "Until the End of the World" by U2.

Elvis Costello sings a charming and gentle rendition of the Kings' "Days." R.E.M. sings a new song, "Fretless" and partners Jane Siberry and k.d. lang sing a haunting duet, "Calling All Angels."

Wenders was so successful in his venture of getting performers, that he re-united the Talking Heads and Can. Even Depeche Mode sing another new song called "Death's Door." Patti and Fred Smith share the spotlight in the song "It Takes Time."

Two particular songs I like are sung by groups I've never heard before. Crime & The City Solution perform "The Adversary" and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds sing the love song "(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World." Another unknown to me, T-Bone Burnett, whose name sounds like a rapper, sings in a deep voice "Humans From Earth," about a human invasion on an alien world.

Julee Cruise sings in a beautiful voice "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears," and the film even features U2 co-producer, Daniel Lanois, who sings his own song, entitled "Sleeping in the Devil's Bed."

Listening to the 60+ minutes worth of music in one sitting has a very pleasing and peaceful effect. The four instrumental pieces are interspersed between the vocal songs, and one is "brought into" the flow of the music.

Now that I have the soundtrack, I think I may want to see the movie. Can't wait! n