Dead Man Walking [Soundtrack]

The project has produced deeply emotional music, the tracks linked by their common themes and yet as diverse as the musical talents of the contributors.

Springsteen is at his best, setting the scene in the opening track in his typically dark, confessional mood. Storytelling Cash and gravel-voiced Waits draw on their vast their experience to enhance the personal feeling of the record, and Steve Earle's number explores the pain which the film confronts.

But the highlight is the powerful collaboration between Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam) and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, which haunts the CD with meditative harmonies and ecstatic vocal solos strung together with the rhythmic percussion and the guitar of Ry Cooder. Their stunning, melodic version of The Long Road, a little-known track by Pearl Jam, is unsurpassed and deservedly brings the album to its close.

This compilation is almost unique in its thematic approach to the subject matter, and is nothing short of a work of art capable of providing hours of provocative listening. No serious record collection should be without it.

Suzanne Vega returns to the sonic climes of 92 Degrees- for the last time as she is no longer with co-producer/then husband Mitchell Froom- if you liked that album (my favourite of hers), then you should love this track. The timeless Johnny Cash, a man whose work has touched on many of the themes prevalent to DMW (murder, god, redemption, love, evil), offers In Your Mind- a self-composed track produced by Ry Cooder (Paris Texas, Buena Vista Social Club, Safe as Milk, Sticky Fingers), which is as great as any of the other late recordings he made & should hopefully get an outing on the proposed Cash-boxset.Still down in the ring of fire then...

Bruce Springsteen, who with Nebraska continued the same themes Cash had started, returns to those stark climes- like The Ghost of Tom Joad (also 1995), Springsteen had returned to a minimal template developed from Nebraska, though more produced than that album. It's interesting to compare tracks like Nebraska & Streets of Philadelphia (another soundtrack offering) with this track- a highlight of his Tom Joad tour (when will a live album be released of that tour) & if you've heard the stripped take of Born in the USA, you should adore this. Another great post-Cash singer-songwriter Steve Earle offers up Ellis Unit One, which is as great as anything by Springsteen or Ryan Adams or whoever- it leads towards the climes of Jerusalem (2001) & Earler's work with prisoners on death row. Patti Smith's track is also great, another stark piece featuring Television's Tom Verlaine and not far from the feel of her appearance on REM's E Bow the Letter or more recent solo albums.

The final joys come in pairs- two songs from Tom Waits, the charming ballad The Fall of Troy and the jazzy Walk Away- the latter standing as one of his greatest songs in my opinion! The other two are both unions between Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and the late legend Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The Face of Love was written by Khan with David & Tim Robbins and ties in with the theme of the film & the person whom Sarandon depicted on-screen. Ry Cooder offers a brilliant production, while Vedder is more subtlely used than he was on many early Pearl Jam records. Finally there is The Long Road, composed by Eddie Vedder (it was also released in an alternate version on PJ's Merkinball ep & performed on the tribute show to 9/11 with Neil Young), it is again produced by Ry Cooder and features Khan and colleagues in a percussive role- musically it's as interesting as elements of Screaming Trees Dust & like that transcends the grunge tag.

Dead Man Walking is a brilliant soundtrack, well worth owning at this budget price & one that ranks alongside such soundtracks as Natural Born Killers, Lost Highway, Paris Texas, I Shot Andy Warhol & Magnolia. Well worth investigating, even if you disliked the film, or thought it was good, flawed & worthy (as I do) The contributing singers have something to say- the kinds of voices that are being drowned out by vomit like Daryl Whorely- a reminder that the US has great liberals, great Americans- which counters Jack Straw's misguided belief that those who loathe Bush are fashionable anti-Americans...