VARIOUS ARTISTS: Austin Powers - The Spy Who Shagged Me (Maverick)

The Spy Who Shagged Me was one of the summer's top grossing movies, spawning a number of singles. The soundtrack makes for an entertaining listen, to say the least. Starting with Madonna's retro "Beautiful Stranger," the CD is an interesting mix of covers from the 60's & 70's, along with a few new tracks thrown in for good measure. From the other end of the musical spectrum, The Who serves up a previously unreleased version of "My Generation" from their upcoming BBC disc. Variety is definitely not a problem on this CD.

R.E.M. does a respectable job with their sparsely arranged, echo-laden take on "Draggin' the Line," even though it doesn't sound like them at all. Lenny Kravitz updated The Guess Who's classic "American Woman." While it lacks the punch and virility of the original, at least it'll expose today's youth (did I really write that?) to the song. One of the most interesting tracks on the CD is the new rendition of the pop classic, "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" by Burt Bacharach & Elvis Costello--a musical odd couple if there ever was one.

Aside from Melanie G's cover of Cameo's "Word Up" and the Mike Myers cuts (who told this guy he could carry a tune?), The Spy Who Shagged Me is one of the better soundtracks released this year. Watch for Volume 2, coming soon…