Love & Basketball: Music From The Motion Picture

The coming-of-age angle in the sports romance movie Love & Basketball is played up by this sharp soundtrack album. The music ranges from Al Green's eternal "Love and Happiness" to galvanizing late-'80s rap classics (Rob Base's "It Takes Two," MC Lyte's "Lyte as a Rock") to some of the best new-school R&B. Angie Stone takes Simply Red's calling card "Holding Back the Years" to church and then back to her softly lit pad, while alt hip-hoppers Black Eyed Peas team with Les Nubians for the atmospheric "Complete Beloved." The disc also boasts the welcome return of ex-Tony! Toni! Tone! frontman Raphael Saadiq with his new partners Dawn Robinson (formerly of En Vogue) and one-time Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad in the band Lucy Pearl. Their "Dance Tonight" is a spirited jam that no doubt plays well in the movie--and definitely does out of it. --Rickey Wright