Editorial Reviews

Capitalizing on the release of Mandy Moore's Coverage album, the soundtrack to A Walk to Remember, the movie in which she had her first starring role, returns with a spate of extra tracks. Compared to the autonomy she shows on Coverage, Moore sounds a little unformed on songs like the single "Cry" and the Jonathan Foreman duet "Someday We'll Know," as well as on "Only Hope" and "It's Gonna Be Love," but nevertheless, her delivery on these songs has the sensitivity and intelligence that has placed her above her teen pop contemporaries as they exit their teen years. Switchfoot's earnest performances on "Dare You to Move," "You," and the group's version of "Only Hope" are pleasant enough, but also reflect the fact that most of the characters in A Walk to Remember seem to be afraid of rock music. Indeed, Cold's brooding "No One" and West, Gould & Fitzgerald's punk-pop by numbers "So What Does It All Mean?," the album's most rock-oriented tracks, are among the album's weakest selections. Rachael Lampa's "If You Believe" is both overworked and forgettable; perhaps it was included to make Moore's songs look better by comparison. However, Toploader's effervescent cover of King Harvest's "Dancin' in the Moonlight" and the New Radicals' "Mother, We Just Can't Get Enough" are charming in their own right and two of the best non-Moore tracks on the album. The bonus tracks continue the mixed-bag quality of the soundtrack, with the Breeders' alt-rock classic "Cannonball" upping the ante as Fuel's turgid "Empty Spaces" and Noogie's blandly pleasant cover of the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind" lower it. The expanded version of A Walk to Remember also includes Moore's video for "Cry"; while this is also included on the DVD of the movie, that, along with the bonus tracks, may be enough for some Moore fans to check out this soundtrack again. Heather Phares, All Music Guide

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