I think the best thing about a movie soundtrack is the incredible mix of artists you get to listen to all in one shot. The "Playing By Heart" soundtrack does this better than any I've heard in a while. When I first glanced at the track list I saw a rather eclectic mix, including Bonnie Raitt, Cracker, Ben Lee and PJ Harvey - not the musicians you'd expect to see on the same bill. But somehow, just like the movie, the strange mix works. Having John Barry on the same CD as Edward Kowalczyk (the lead singer of "Live") may seem odd, but it all fits together like a complex puzzle.

The movie "Playing By Heart" is a film that follows the lives of four very different couples who seem to have absolutely nothing in common except for one thing - they all have a lot to learn about love. Like the movie, the soundtrack does the same thing. It gathers some very different musicians together who really only have one thing in common - the movie.

Bram Van 3000's "Drinking In LA" sets the mood with its catchy, funky beat. You can almost see the opening credits of the movie slowing fading in and out to the rhythm of this first song. It rolls right into Bonnie Raitt's beautiful version of "Lover's Will," originally penned by John Hiatt. The lyrics are about a lover's will and what lovers will do. It's a suggestive, sensual song that Raitt handles with her usual style and passion.

There is a late-night feel to the music, and the noirish mood is set with the first song, then changes, sometimes drastically, with each track. Moby's techno meshes well with industrial newcomers Fluke. The group Morcheeba sounds like a mix of Bob Marley and Erykah Badu. With a funky regea beat, and amazing female vocals, her rich voice is follwed by the smooth sound of a saxaphone. Then comes the scratchy voice of Cracker. Strange, but it still manages to flow.

Other highlights of this complex and always surprising soundtrack are Ben Lee's "Cigarette's Will Kill You" and "Angelene" by PJ Harvey. This is the kind of CD that your parents might actually buy, and you would actually borrow, and vice versa. If you like diversity, with an underlying cohesiveness in your movie soundtrack, you can't go wrong with "Playing By Heart." You don't need to see the movie to enjoy this offbeat compilation of music.