Elizabethtown - Volume 2

Director Cameron Crowe is the kind of guy who you just know makes killer custom compilations for his friends. Lucky for us, this is basically what this album is. While it¹s nominally linked to Crowe's movie of the same name, it feels like a leisurely stroll down his record shelves. The tone here is a lot more varied than on the first CD, which was mostly rootsy Americana. Sure, there are return artists like Tom Petty ("Learning to Fly," from 1991's Into the Great Wide Open), Ryan Adams ("Words"), and Lindsey Buckingham ("Big Love"), but the newcomers are more intriguing. Two of the best and least expected ones are paired in the middle of the album. The lovely, dreamy "...Passing By" was culled from the 2001 debut by German electronica master Ulrich Schnauss; following it are Sweden's Concretes and their buoyant, '60s-infused "You Can't Hurry Love" (not the Supremes tune). Meanwhile, Rachael Yamagata's "Jesus Was a Crossmaker" is a cover, and it preserves the wonderful mix of folk and pop of the 1971 original by cult icon Judee Sill. This is the rare sequel that feels richer than the album it follows. --Elisabeth Vincentelli