Life

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

Movie sound tracks are often a jumble of machine-generated Top 40 hits or tracks that weren't good enough to make other albums. The sound track for the movie Life is refreshing because it reflects a singular vision. Although the album features artists ranging from R. and B./hip-hop diva Mya to country singer Trisha Yearwood, virtually all the songs were written by one performer, R. Kelly. Life lacks the inventive brilliance of, say, Prince's 1989 Batman sound track, but it is a consistently pleasant album. And it's worth listening to if only for the title song, on which new-school R. and B. vocalists K-Ci and Jo-Jo make Kelly's music come alive with old-school panache.

--By Christopher John Farley