Not So Lucky, “Lucky You”
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One of the few times you will ever hear Bruce Springsteen and Liza Minnelli listed within four tracks of each other, let alone recorded on the same CD, is in the soundtrack for the 2007 motion picture Lucky You”. From country and jazz to rock and roll, this soundtrack’s broad range of songs suggests that it has a song for everyone, yet all it does is disappoint.
With the exception of a few, most tracks from Lucky You” are painful to listen to, one of the most dreadful being “Dance Me to the End of Love” by Madeleine Peyroux. Mysterious and smoky, Peyroux’s voice sounds like that of a washed-up lounge singer who just managed to score a spot on Royal Caribbean’s nightly entertainment line up. The song’s attempt at a jazz-like introduction sounds very Pink Panther-esque, and the singer’s lyrics are either extremely repetitive or just down-right weird. Peyroux manages to say “Dance me to the end of love” a mind-numbing eleven times, and uses strange phrases like “Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove”.
The soundtrack manages to hit another sour note with its inclusion of George Jones’s “Choices” and “I Always Get Lucky with You”. The melody of “Choices” is okay, it’s just the sound of Jones’s voice that is painful to listen to. Jones gives rejected “American Idol “contestants a run for their money with his Southern drawl and often slurred speech. “I Always Get Lucky with You” is equally terrible, its piano sequences reminiscent of Peter Allen’s “Everything Old is New Again”.
.The most intriguing song on the Lucky You” album is “The Cold Hard Truth”, which is actually sung by actress Drew Barrymore. In “Lucky You”, Ms. Barrymore plays the role of a young singer as well as the love interest of the main character. With a previous role in “Music and Lyrics”, Barrymore is no stranger to the music scene, yet “The Cold Hard Truth” does not do her pipes justice. She seems to hit the same notes in every verse, and her understated, breathy voice gives an overall weak performance.
One of the album’s few high points is its opening song, Bruce Springsteen’s “Lucky Town”. With an upbeat rhythm that includes guitar, drum, and Springsteen’s gruff voice, “Lucky Town” proves to be the best song on the CD.
Bob Dylan also makes an appearance on the Lucky You album with songs “Like a Rolling Stone” and his newly recorded “Huck’s Tune”, which was recorded particularly for the motion picture’s soundtrack. “Like a Rolling Stone” is one of the better songs on the album due to its upbeat melody, complete with guitar, harmonica, and tambourine, but Dylan’s voice adds nothing to the performance. This is demonstrated even more so in “Huck’s Tune”, which is easily the worst song on the album. With Dylan’s voice as the focal point of the song, “Huck’s Tune” has a soft melody that is nothing special. The only thing worse than Dylan’s voice is his lyrics, one example being, “All the merry little elves/ can go hang themselves/ my faith is as cold as can be”. It is certainly memorable, but not in a good way.
Overall, the soundtrack to Lucky You is not worth the $12 it will set you back. Buy a few of the songs on iTunes, but the rest of the album is not worth your money or your time.
