CD Details
- Number of Discs: 2
- Released: September 11, 2007
- Label: Geffen Records
Entertainment Reviews:
Stereophile (2/93, p.109) - "...its rendition of Soul is deep, solid, and driving...16-year-old lead singer Andrew Strong, who knows the music, has terrific phrasing, great pitch, and an impossibly cool, raspy voice that sounds like a young Joe Cocker..."
Tracks on Disc 1:
- 1.Mustang Sally - The Commitments
- 2.Take Me to the River - The Commitments
- 3.Chain of Fools - The Commitments
- 4.Dark End of the Street, The - The Commitments
- 5.Destination Anywhere - The Commitments
- 6.I Can't Stand the Rain - The Commitments
- 7.Try a Little Tenderness - The Commitments
- 8.Treat Her Right - The Commitments
- 9.Do Right Woman Do Right Man - The Commitments
- 10.Mr. Pitiful - The Commitments
- 11.I Never Loved a Man - The Commitments
- 12.In the Midnight Hour - The Commitments
- 13.Bye Bye Baby - The Commitments
- 14.Slip Away - The Commitments
Tracks on Disc 2:
- 1.Hard to Handle - The Commitments
- 2.Grits Ain't Groceries - The Commitments
- 3.I Thank You - The Commitments
- 4.That's the Way Love Is - The Commitments
- 5.Show Me - The Commitments
- 6.Saved - The Commitments
- 7.Too Many Fish in the Sea - The Commitments
- 8.Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song) - The Commitments
- 9.Land of a Thousand Dances - The Commitments
- 10.Nowhere to Run - The Commitments
- 11.Bring It on Home to Me - The Commitments
- 12.Are You Lonely For Me - The Commitments
- 13.(She's) Some Kind of Wonderful - The Commitments
- 14.Too Many Cooks (Spoil the Soup) - The Commitments
- 15.Same Old Me - The Commitments
- 16.Ain't Nothing You Can Do - The Commitments (Long Version)
Product Description:
Producers: P. Bushnell, Kevin Killen, Alan Parker.
Commitments: Andrew Strong, Maria Doyle, Robert Arkins, Angeline Ball, Dave Finnegan, Bronagh Gallgher, Kenneth McCluskey, Johnny Murphy, Felim Gormley, Michael Aherne, Dick Massey, Glen Hansard.
Additional personnel: Carl Geraghty (tenor, baritone saxophone); Conor Brady, Dean Parks (guitar); Felim Gormley (alto saxophone); Ronan Dooney (trumpet); Eamonn Flynn, Mitchell Froom (keyboards); Paul Bushnell (bass guitar); Fran Breehan (drums); Alex Acu¤a (percussion).
Alan Parker's adaptation of Roddy Doyle's crackerjack novel The Commitments kept its focus on the music -- the classic American R&B and soul the titular workingman band cranked out in pubs across Ireland. As a book and film, The Commitments was all about love of music, so it didn't matter if the soundtrack offered workmanlike versions of oldies the band and audience knew by heart: as long as it was done with some, well, soul, the film would work, and the soundtrack would too. In that sense, the Commitments were a cousin to the Blues Brothers, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's tribute to the very same music but where Jake and Elwood managed to hire Stax's house band (such are the perks of stardom) , the group Parker assembled were working Irish musicians. This would seem to lend The Commitments some degree of authenticity and it does to a certain extent, as these guys can crank out familiar favorites without missing a step, but the description of working musicians suggests that there is some grit here, which there's not. After all, this is music for a movie, so it is cleanly produced: the horns have a punch, the guitars are crisp, the drums tight and neat, all the better to showcase the bar band growl of Andrew Strong -- his Otis worship comes out like Rod Stewart crossed with Mick Hucknall -- and Maria Doyle's salute to Aretha Franklin. All of this sounds fine, if a bit generic: these are great songs performed ably and if they're not distinctive, they at least suit the spirit of the film's open-hearted hero worship. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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