Music
Store

An intimate, Vegas-style lounge feel courses through the vocal performances on the album, mirroring the classy sophistication and style of the film. Diana Krall renders a steamy rendition of the jazz standard 'I'll String Along With You,' while Bobby Caldwell channels the spirit of Frank Sinatra on the casino classic 'Luck Be A! Lady.' And no story of the Vegas nightclub and casino scene would be complete without 'My Funny Valentine,' delivered with smoldering cool by jazz siren Tierney Sutton.

A completely unexpected thrill was an unknown (to me) singer named Rebecca Kyler Downs, singing a song that I thought I knew - "Candy" - but it turned out to be this great original tune that she wrote. Not only is it a great song, styled as a classic tune, the lyrics are very, very hip, very cool, very sexy. And her performance is fabulous. Very hot, very languid, filled with angst, but also a touch of humor. I googled her and it turns out she has her own CD out and the song is on it and it is called "Love Me Like Candy" - I don't know why the title was changed for this CD, because "Love Me Like Candy" is a great title - and a great song. So I am her new fan. I listened to some of the other tracks (on her CD) and she is a great singer and a great songwriter, so kudos to Mark Isham for putting her on the CD.

And for including Joey Fatone who was surprisingly good - really great in fact. I didn't like the wimpy Sinatra wanna be Nick D'Elgidio, or whatever his name is, nor do I understand why they bothered to stick Paul Sorvino's track on the CD , but Mark Isham's scor more than made up for these momentary lapses in judgement.

Overall the CD is great - and great to play if you're trying to set a mood


Essential   January 12, 2004
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

Wayne Kramer's film, "The Cooler" is in my opinion the best film about Las Vegas since "Casino" so it is only fitting that it have an equally as good soundtrack. Matk Isham's score captures the soul of Vegas like nothing else I have ever heard. The main title alone is worth the price of the disc. The score is mostly jazz based and brings back some of the sounds of classic film noir. It definately sets a great mood for late nights. The songs almost knock this one down a star and if the average listener has not yet viewed the film I imagine they would have a hard time making it through Paul Sorvino's rendition of 'Your Getting to Be a Habit With Me". Yet these songs could not have been used better than in the context they are in. I would have prefered they seperated the score and the songs on the disc but the music is just unforgettable to not give a five star review. "The Cooler" is not only one of the year's best movies but spawned one of the year's best soundtracks. Highly recomended.


totally great   February 3, 2004
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I am so in love with the first tune on this CD, it sets everything up. I like the Vegas vibe, its really dark, its really moody. Diana Krall and Tierny Sutton are such jazz babies, really fabulous. My favorite song is Candy - its really, really sexy. Rebecca Downs is SO good - never heard of her, don't care, she is the BEST and she wrote the song which is very cool. Bobby Caldwell is HOT, Joey Fatone is GREAT - I hate the Paul Sorvino track though - I don't know what they were thinking - This is the first good soundtrack in forever


A Rippling, Outstanding Stand-Alone Release, Yet True to the Film   May 1, 2006
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I reviewed the Ocean's Eleven soundtrack a year or so ago, and didn't like it. From another albeit differently-themed Vegas film, they started with a great mix of the old and the new, original music and well-chosen standards, which went great together in the film. But Hollywood cheek got the best of them, and they mixed in a gratuitous amount of film dialog, and released a junk CD. On this outstanding CD the film and soundtrack producers got it right. You can tell they're music lovers, as they left the music alone, and their soundtrack CD swells, pulses and croons just right, evoking clear memories of the film as well as personal visions and scenes from the music alone. I congratulate and thank them for this wonderful release, one that stands on its own, and one you'll enjoy whether you've seen the film or not.

Like the film, which I liked very much, there is a lot going on here. On the front and back ends, and almost alternating through the CD is the outstanding Mark Isham original score, highly evocative of the film, but also serving as some fascinating aural counterpoints to the well-chosen covers. You've got boss, big-band horns blowing a fat, deep Vegas A-lounger sound, as well as subtle harp flourishes hinting at the hidden and magical movements taking place out of sight and sense.

The recording opens with The Cooler theme, highly reminiscent of the ethereal opening bars of John Barry's Body Heat theme. The tune matures rapidly, becoming a bittersweet yet ultimately triumphant love theme, and then the big band struts in with a full, wonderfully arranged sound, telling us the power and the depth of the story to come.

Smartly, the producers have kept Isham's music in more or less film-chronological order, so what comes next is the sad theme of cooler's life and circumstances. There's a shift to a Shaft-like pump, and then cools back down for the bump finale. This is not mere soundtrack fill, but a fully developed song, as are all of the Isham pieces.

Track 3 gives us the first non-Isham piece, a sweetly drippy crooning of "Candy," at once a winking, slinky burlesque shuffle and a mewling come-on from a woman in deep need. It's the over-the-top sensuality and blatant tease of Marilyn Monroe, ratcheted up one notch more, and it's fantastic. Both in music and lyrics, it's a great tune, and by the final chorus I'm physically warmer, yeah.

Paul Sorvino follows with a cover of "You're Getting to be a Habit With Me." It's a great choice for the vocal, someone who knows the song and how to sing it, but doesn't lay down the velvet-smooth you'd expect. It's another good tune that sets the uneasy swing of the entire release.

An absolute given for the film and this CD is "Luck Be a Lady Tonight." A Sinatra or Bennett cover would have been predictable and properly reverent, but the choice to steer clear is the much better one. Like the Sorvino vocal on track 3, the Vegas delivery is spot-on. Best is the boss arrangement of the big band, lots of horns, both smooth in the verses and rocking and punchy in the coda, swinging all the way through. This is a great cover.

This pumping track is followed by the Isham original, "Amateurs." This is a haunting tune, highly evocative. I found it highly reminiscent of the very subtle, brilliant Sneakers theme by Winston Marsalis. And the pendulum swings back again with the following "Can I Steal A Little Love." The horns are a bit too much here, punching up the sugary lyrics a bit too hard. Again, the vocal is soft, understated, not a stereotypical Vegas lounge delivery, but youthful and resilient.

Isham's "Look In My Eyes" follows, another track that I found to be deep, ethereal, and highly evocative. The Cooler theme slides in effortlessly as a counterpoint.

Diana Krall's cover of "I'll String Along With You" here just didn't work for me. If anything, it's the tempo; this song doesn't need to be upbeat, but this cover was just too slow. The Isham piece "Heartbroken" is a perfect follow-up to the Krall cover, also very slow, and sad.

It's a traditional arrangement, but "My Funny Valentine" didn't work for me here either. (Tierney Sutton sure can sure sing, though, I'll give her that.) It's so slow that it comes off like a dirge, and despite Sutton's vocal strength it loses its musical way. It's a soulful ballad, and Sutton does it very well, but the pace is so slow that the lyrics and melody both lose their punch.

Of course, tracks 9, 10, 11, and 12 come at the nadir of the film, the fall and the depths of despair, what appears to be betrayal and loss. Each of these brings this feeling home, and together they form a powerful portion of the soundtrack itself. Then you're immediately brought out of it by the swinging opening bars of "Almost Like Being in Love," and it's clear things are working out, and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The CD concludes with a very deliberately paced "Leaving Las Vegas" with the Cooler theme drifting in to punctuate it. It's the sound of emergence and transcendence, of imagined opportunity and undefined adventure, tinged with just a little bit of uncertainty.

Bottom line: If you enjoyed the film, this CD is for you. If the soundtrack caught your attention in the film, this CD will fulfill all of your expectations, and then some. It is an outstanding collection of the music used in the film. It also works as a stand-alone release of evocative instrumentals mixed with wonderfully unexpected yet full-throated Vegas lounge covers. But, if you're looking for hot Vegas lounge covers a la Dino, Bennett, and Sinatra, this probably isn't the right choice.



Mark Isham Score   December 23, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

AMAZON's soundtrack description doesn't emphasize this fact but the score for THE COOLER was written by trumpeter Mark Isham who has long been one of our favorite composers. This is one of his best scores ever, right up there with TROUBLE IN MIND. Isham's aching trumpet solos ground the film & give it a haunting voice. Bravo!