The Million Dollar Hotel
Original Soundtrack
Interscope
Recording the soundtrack for the motion picture Million Dollar Hotel seems to be a creative alternative for Bono and the rest of U2, who haven’t found it necessary to release a full length of their own. Bono has his mitts in every song, be it providing vocals or playing piano and guitar, while producers Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Hal Wilner set the tempo. Million Dollar Hotel is set up into two mindsets: the grandiose pop balladry U2 is famous for and the hazy lounge numbers provided by the star-studded MDH band. “The Ground Beneath Her Feet,” taken from the Salman Rushdie book of the same name, is a U2 paint-by-numbers beauty. The rest of the U2 originals and Bono-fronted MDH band songs all satisfy U2 cravings. The Bono-less MDH selections are void of any voice, but still full of plenty character. “Tom Tom’s Dream,” “Bathtub,” “Funnyface,” and “Amsterdam Blue” recall a time when a scotch on the rocks was pressed to your lips and a smoldering cigarette lay perched between your fingers. Of course, they are always exceptions to the whole. Milla Jovovich does a sassy number with Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love” and Tito Larriva sneers the latino snot out of “Anarchy in the U.S.A.” If you were looking for Bono, then this is not such a bad consolation prize. Million Dollar Hotel still proves that U2, especially Bono, can still squeeze out a sweet smelling fart!
Interscope Records, P.O. Box 1621, Burbank, CA 91507
