CD REVIEW - MY SISTER'S KEEPER


My Sister's Keeper
Music by Various Artists
Decca 271 0651 (EU)
12 Tracks 45:48 mins

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt be more interested in the film's score, by Aaron Zigman, which thankfully is to be released by Varese Sarabande. In the meantime, Decca Records are releasing a song album, on Monday, featuring mostly pretty unremarkable numbers by a whole bunch of artists, most of whom I confess I have never heard of. I am sure however they will be well placed and perfectly suited to this much hyped drama, starring Cameron Diaz in her first on-screen mother character.
My Sister's Keeper is based on the best seller by Jodi Picoult about a family who have a genetically engineered child purposely to use for spare parts, if you will, in order to keep her elder sister, a leukaemia sufferer, alive.
I must confess that I am greatly looking forward to shedding a few tears over this film (big softy that I am!) and am particularly looking forward to the performances of Sofia Vassilieva (always charming and watchable in the hit TV show Medium) and Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin, as the two sisters.
I haven't heard the score yet, but I see that composer Zigman had a hand in a couple of the songs on this release, co-writing "With You" with the number's performer Jonah Johnson and Robert Hart; and also arranging the old hit "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" for E.G. Daily.
There are a couple more songs I am familiar with, namely "Feels Like Home" by Edwina Hayes (though where I've heard it before, I couldn't say) and a rather subdued rendition of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" by Greg Laswell.
Other artists on the CD include Pete Yorn, Regina Spektor, Vega 4, James Blunt, Jeff Buckley, Priscilla Ahn and Jimmy Scott, with the final track given over to Pipe Major Jim Drury and Julia McGuirk's performance of "Amazing Grace" - a poignant way to finish.