Probably the second-greatest album of all time entitled Arthur, but where the greatest album called Arthur would make my top 100 rock albums (the one by the Kinks), I plan to abandon this one in the imminent blue bin purge of 2012 (the bin is finally full!). Although I haven't seen the movie, I did see enough previews for the re-make starring Russell Brand to have very low expectations for this particular soundtrack.
I suppose my expectations were exceeded in that the overall quality of the vocal melodies (and string melodies on the all-instrumental second side) is pretty good. Burt Bacharach still had some talent in 1981, and perhaps, in a completely different context, these solid melodies could have resulted in some actual good songs. Alas, someone in the movie business decided that the ideal performers for these songs would be forgettable 80s acts like Christopher Cross and Ambrosia. The result is the arrangements are about as sappy and generic as possible, from the drooping adult contemporary of Stephen Bishop and Cross to the sub-Toto arena rock of Ambrosia. On the second side, some of the same themes are repeated with instrumental versions, which is preferable, but then again, also generic to the extreme, just with Hollywood classical replacing Hollywood pop-rock. Blue bin!
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