Ali [Original Soundtrack]

1	The World's Greatest / R. Kelly 4:35
2	Fight / Alicia Keys 4:13
3	Hold On / R. Kelly 4:20
4	A Change Is Gonna Come / Al Green 5:27
5	Ain't No Way / Aretha Franklin 4:12
6	Sometimes / Bilal 7:11
7	20 Dollars / Angie Stone 4:42
8	For Your Precious Love / Truth Hurts 5:26
9	Bring It on Home to Me / David Elliott 2:28
10	The Greatest / Everlast 5:24
11	Mistreated / Shawn Kane 3:57
12	Tomorrow / Salif Keita 5:11
13	All Along the Watchtower / The Watchtower Four 4:24
14	Odessa / Martin Tillman 3:42
15	See the Sun / Lisa Gerrard 3:27

Barnes & Noble

Classic R&B heroes unite with the new saviors of soul on this outstanding soundtrack. Two epic gospel grooves from R. Kelly, including the soaring single “The World’s Greatest,” share the spotlight with “Fight,” a Shaft-style, funked-up new track from pop prodigy Alicia Keys. The old guard weighs in with amen-inducing tracks by Al Green with Booker T and the MG’s (an ecstatic live rendition of the Sam Cooke classic “A Change Is Gonna Come”) and Aretha Franklin (the grande dame’s passionate “Ain’t No Way”). Bilal’s Prince-ly, sparse, syncopated “Sometimes” and Angie Stone’s pursed-lipped “20 Dollars” toss off tales of everyday life with an effortless old-school vibe. The disc also includes haunting, ambient pieces by cellist Martin Tillman (the trippy “Odessa”) and Gladiator soundtrack chanteuse Lisa Gerrard with Pieter Bourke (the celestial, atmospheric “See the Sun”). Interestingly enough, there are no musical contributions by the film’s star, Will Smith, nor are there any tracks from Ali's I Am the Greatest, a mostly spoken-word disc he made in 1963. Fortunately, there is enough talent on this rousing soundtrack to make Ali the greatest in more ways than one. Ganda Suthivarakom

All Music Guide

Michael Mann's film biography Ali had one of the most hyperactive soundtracks in memory. Music underscores nearly every minute of the film, which seems at times to move less from scene to scene than song to song. Ever since Mann's Miami Vice days, his stylistically diverse, richly textured, and often dark musical selections have done as much to set the tone for his projects as the fast-paced editing and invariably "stone-washed" look of the cinematography. Mann and his composers, Pieter Bourke and Lisa Gerrard, masterfully set the emotional tone of each scene without resorting to emotionally manipulative clichès. But the sheer volume of the music in Ali sometimes overwhelms the substance of the story. The ice-cool style and the constant barrage of music keep the audience gliding on the surface without ever truly revealing the emotional core of the film's fascinating subject. And yet, despite all that music, the producers of this soundtrack album (the first of two released by Interscope) somehow felt the need to add songs that were never used in the movie. Unfortunately, they favored a pair of schmaltzy R&B-pop ballads by R. Kelly ("The World's Greatest" and "Hold On") over the fine Bourke/Gerrard score, which is represented here only by the trancey ambient song "See the Sun." But there are several strong tracks here that were used in the film, including Truth Hurts' soulful Motown ballad "For Your Precious Love," Everlast's moody half-rap "'The Greatest," and especially Selif Keita's powerful African anthem "Tomorrow," which was used powerfully in two of the film's more important moments. Evan Cater