Cadillac Records - Music from the Motion Picture torrent

Source: 2008 CD
For some reason it is labelled Disc 1 when it is the only disc.

By Nse
"Cadillac records" is the soundtrack to the new movie about Leonard Chess who co-founded Chess Records, the pre-eminent blues label of the Fifties and Sixties. As such, the soundtrack is dominated by the Blues, with a few Jazz tunes.

The movie stars Beyoncé as Etta James and she gets to perform a few Etta James songs; a nice restrained reading of "At last", "Trust in me", "All I could do is cry", the retro doo wop-sounding "Once in a lifetime" (an original song and rather nice), and "I'd rather go blind" (the latter oversung in my opinion, sounding rather like an American Idol wannabe's attempt to impress Simon Cowell). Much has been made by a number of critics about her subpar vocals on these songs, but I feel she actually does quite well (except for that lone clunker I mentioned), much better than she does on her latest disc, but I digress.

Mos Def plays Chuck Berry and he sings "No particular place to go", "Nadine", "Maybellene", "Promised land" and "Come on". Jeffrey Wright sounds very convincing as Muddy Waters, all gruff and soulful singing "I'm a man", "I'm your hoochie coochie man", "I can't be satisfied" as well as "Country blues" with Bill Simms Jr. Columbus Short plays Little Walter and sings the swinging "My babe" which appears again done by The King, Elvis Presley.

A few other standouts are actually new songs; the rolicking Gospel "The sound" by MaryMary, "6 O'Clock blues" by Solange and the swinging Little Stevie Wonder-channelling "Let's take a walk" by Raphael Saadiq, each originally featured on each acts latest CDs.

There are a pair of Blues/Hip Hop cuts; "Evolution of a man" by Q-Tip featuring Al Kapone which samples "I'm a man", and "Bridging the gap" by Nas (and his father Olu Dara), also previously released.

The problem with albums like these is that people will tend to compare the performances to the originals and find them coming up short. I think it is great that the Blues is being introduced to a new generation of music lovers. Looking forward to seeing the movie.