Next Stop Wonderland: Music From The Miramax Motion Picture

The fear of loneliness, a hope for romance, the occasional pang of moody nostalgia--it's all found in the light romance of Next Stop Wonderland. But few of Wonderland's plot devices work quite as convincingly at portraying these themes as the movie's soundtrack. Filled with the classic sounds of bossa nova and samba, these songs ooze with the melancholy found in the movie. There's a lot of great stuff here: classic Astrud Gilberto, Coleman Hawkins, Marcus Valle, new interpretations of Jobim. But the unexpected highlight is the original score: Claudio Ragazzi backed by the smooth-as-flan vocals of avant-jazz-guitarist-gone-Jobim-freak Arto Lindsay. Their trio of bossa-nova inspired collaborations sounds as sweet and timeless as the classic originals here. In all, it's one of the best soundtrack collections of 1998, and one you'll be listening to long after you've forgotten its sorta-like-Sleepless in Seattle film counterpart. --Jason Verlinde