Various - Music from Broken Flowers

The soundtrack has enjoyed a new renaissance ever since Creation’s "Making Time” kicked off the opening scenes of Rushmore. Each successive movie by director Wes Anderson – The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou — similarly had soundtracks that someone may actually want to own, and not just for one song, but for the entire album itself. This time it is Jim Jarmusch taking his turn as executive album producer for his latest, Broken Flowers, a film that stars Bill Murray as aging lothario, Don Johnston. Broken Flowers centers around a mysterious letter that our “over the hill Don Juan” receives regarding a son that he may or may not have fathered by what could have been quite a large number of women from his past. In the film itself, Don’s Ethiopian neighbor and friend, Winston, who fancies himself an amateur detective creates a mixed tape (yes, mixed tape not mix tape) featuring Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke that provides just the right kind of jazzy vibe for intrigue. Neo-sixties rockers Brian Jonestown Massacre and actual sixties musicians the Greenhornes (updated by Holly Golightly’s vocals on the opening track, “There is an End”) supply the proper notes for reflection, which is also a major theme of this film. Other highlights include Marvin Gaye’s heartbreaking but still very groovy, “I Want You” and a great early ska number “Ride Your Donkey” by the Tennors. A soundtrack such as this does not flow so much as an album but rather as a compilation of great musical gems and introduces great musicians that will help add breadth to record collections. [www.universalclassics.com]