Album: Mick Jagger & Dave Stewart

Music from the motion picture 'Alfie', EMI

It probably seemed a good idea at the time, pairing the old warhorse of British rock'n'roll with the omni-talented Eurythmic journeyman on this soundtrack to the remake of Alfie, but somewhere along the line it rather loses momentum, ending up thinner and more anaemic than one might have hoped. It's not that Dave Stewart isn't utterly au fait with the requisite raunch-rock strategies nor that Mick Jagger is any less effective here than on the past half-dozen or so Stones albums. The point is that this is not exactly setting the bar particularly high any more: be honest, who really wants an album that sounds like the also-ran tracks from Bridges to Babylon and Voodoo Lounge? And in what respect does this type of antique sub-Stones stuff match what is apparently an updated, 21st-century reading of the Alfie plotline? Surely a more contemporary mood might have been struck by the more modern efforts of a Damon Albarn or a David Holmes? Hence, one presumes, the presence o

It probably seemed a good idea at the time, pairing the old warhorse of British rock'n'roll with the omni-talented Eurythmic journeyman on this soundtrack to the remake of Alfie, but somewhere along the line it rather loses momentum, ending up thinner and more anaemic than one might have hoped. It's not that Dave Stewart isn't utterly au fait with the requisite raunch-rock strategies nor that Mick Jagger is any less effective here than on the past half-dozen or so Stones albums. The point is that this is not exactly setting the bar particularly high any more: be honest, who really wants an album that sounds like the also-ran tracks from Bridges to Babylon and Voodoo Lounge? And in what respect does this type of antique sub-Stones stuff match what is apparently an updated, 21st-century reading of the Alfie plotline? Surely a more contemporary mood might have been struck by the more modern efforts of a Damon Albarn or a David Holmes? Hence, one presumes, the presence of Joss Stone on a graceless version of Bacharach & David's classic "Alfie", and a blustery rock-ballad duet with Jagger, "Lonely Without You (This Christmas)", which will surely be trundled out as a single in a few weeks' time.