One From the Heart
Music composed by Tom Waites
Available on Columbia/Legacy/Sony Records (COL 515130 2)
Running Time: 50:14
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Just as Martin Scorsese had made his musical New York, New York (1977) after his great success with Taxi Driver (1976), so Francis Ford Coppola harboured a similar ambition to create a musical extravaganza that ultimately became the oddball, hugely unsuccessful production One From the Heart (1982). Now we have this release of the music by Tom Waites featuring vocal performances by Waites and Crystal Gayle.
Apparently, though I find it baffling, Waites was Oscar nominated for his work, but personally I found it all to be predictable and unmemorable and in fact the entire CD is one long snooze unless you are either fans of the artists or this kind of low-key, sentimental blues. Songs like 'Picking Up After You' and 'This One's From the Heart' sound as if they should be played in smoke-filled bars and frankly are as unattractive as that environment; most of the other cues are much the same. Even the Crystal Gayle brief solo number 'Take Me Home' is a run-of-the-mill ballad and I have to say that everything on offer here has a heard it all before, tired quality.
If you know what you are getting into, if you are a fan of the film or Waites himself then snap this up. If however you are not then I doubt that anyone without that specialised interest will get much out of this. It's enough to say that it did nothing for me at all.
Mark Hockley
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