Sex and the City (2000)

Bootleg Betty, Mister D

Great rendition of the old Teddy Pendergrass soul song, Love TKO. I have to admit I thought this one would have been an across the board hit. If you had taken Bette's name off of it and put some newcomers name on it....oila!!! Sometimes life just ain't fair...

Short spins by Sean Tsui Short, 8 Days OnLine

Our divine Ms M has always had a knack for picking out solid material to record. From John Prine's 'Hello In There' (in the '70s) to Marshall Crenshaw's 'Favorite Waste Of Time' (in the '80s) to rewarding remakes of 'Wind Beneath My Wings' and 'From A Distance', she has proven her great taste time and again.

This mighty fine single from the new Bette album is an old Womack and Womack tune first made an R 'n' B hit by Teddy Pendergrass in the early 80s. Produced by Don Was (Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan), 'Love TKO' fondly adheres to the supper-club soul sound of said era. It may not be the 'in' sound of new retro today, but Midler's stately interpretive skill and Was' easy-listening, tribute-verite' sound make 'Love TKO' a gorgeous slice of quaint adult-contemporary pop with replayable pleasure.

You could say it's nostalgia with a point and poignancy

Karen Bennett, Unknown Source

On the box, Sex and the City is brash, sassy and often brutally honest. The combination of funny, forthright examination of its characters' sexual escapades and the even more frank expose of their emotions makes it a winner. The CD of music from the series seeks to reflect that delicate balance. It starts out with a fairly obvious choice, Tom Jones' version of "SexBomb"; but that's counterpointed by the next track, Amber's "Taste the Tears", an R&B cut with a soulful vibe. Some of the selections seem a little strange - Bette Midler for example. For many she may be the Divine Miss M, but she hardly fits the Sex and the City mould. Yet her smooth "Love TKO" is oddly appropriate for this disc; and the same can be said for country princess Trisha Yearwood's jazz-flecked "For Only You". >>> But there are plenty of cuts from artists who neatly fit the Sex and the City mood, including Moloko's dance floor hit "The Time is Now"; Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott's "Hot Boyz" and the Dust Brothers' "More, More, More". The least successful tracks are those which step outside the CD's core soul feel - Joan Osborne's "Righteous Love" for instance is bombastic and heavy-handed compared to the rest of the album; while the reggae-infused "Dreams Come True" by Elan Atias is simply out of place on this disc. Aimee Mann provides a highlight with her paean to breaking up "Calling it Quits"; while Groove Armada give the theme from the show a remixed and far funkier groove from that which greets viewers every week. Something of a mixed bag, Sex and the City: Music from the Series is nonetheless an album heavy with songs of love and loss. It suffers from a fault common with compilations in that the producers have tried to give it an appeal to as broad an audience cross-section as possible and in the process have compromised the CD's cohesiveness. Still, for fans of the show, or those into soulful music, this is a worthwhile purchase. 7 out of 10