Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

NEXT was an action/adventure/sci-fi movie dealing with a guy who knew what was about to happen, and what he does with his gift, or curse, depending on how you look at it. The great thing about the soundtrack for the movie is if you put the CD of it into your player you, too, will be able to predict the future --- or at least the next hour or so --- just by listening to the first 30 seconds of this disc. The future: it all sounds the same.

Mark Isham composed the soundtrack for NEXT. He plays trumpet and synthesizer, making extensive use of the latter on NEXT. Isham did not invent the new age music genre, but he was an integral part of its conception, making a number of albums for Windham Hill in the early 1980s. And you know what? Power to him. It’s not my thing, never really was, but not many folks can claim to have guided a genre to fruition. He was also a member of a San Francisco band called the Sons of Champlain and has even done session work with Van Morrison and Ziggy Marley, among others. Isham is no lightweight, and in fact probably doesn’t get the respect he properly reserves. And maybe that’s why he has to phone in these soundtrack scores, so that he has the money to do what he really wants to do. That doesn’t mean that you have to buy it or listen to it, however. Isham was born on almost the same day I was but somehow looks 15 years younger than I do, but I’ve been following the guy’s work right along, so I can tell you: pick up on his work, just not on the soundtrack to NEXT.

Soundtracks like this one are a bit of an anachronism, anyway. No one is gonna buy this, play “Looking For A License Plate,” and think of the corresponding scene in the movie. They might play it and think, “Gee, this sounds just like everything else on here” or “Why am I still awake?,” or, if they’re at their girlfriend’s house, wonder “Does she want me to leave, or to squeeze her…” Anyway, I have a feeling that Rob Zombie’s soundtrack for “Halloween,” or even the new James Blunt album is better. Try those instead.