VA - Serendipity (Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2001)

As peopled by John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, director Peter Chelsom's romantic fable mines a familiar vein: What if a pair of attractive protagonists engaged to others suddenly found themselves madly in love? If the premise is as vintage Hollywood as popcorn and sticky theater floors, its soundtrack is smartly contemporary, a collection of new songs (by Evan & Jaron, Shawn Colvin, Wood, Heather Nova, John Mayer, and Chantal Kreviazuk) and well-selected album cuts (by Annie Lennox, Nick Drake, Bap Kennedy, David Gray) filled out with a loopy slice of vintage Louis Armstrong ("Cool Yule") and jazzy solo piano score excerpt by film composer Alan Silvestri. The tone shifts warmly amid jangly alterna-pop, folk-tinged, and quieter, more jazz/blues flavored cuts. It's tasteful, sensual stuff--and largely devoid of the cloying bathos of similar Hollywood romantic fare. -Jerry McCulley