The Best Man

1	What You Want / The Roots Featuring Jaguar 4:16
2	Let's Not Play the Game / Maxwell 4:32
3	After All Is Said and Done / Beyoncé 4:15
4	Poetry Girl / Eric Benet 5:29
5	Liar, Liar / LaTocha Scott 4:41
6	Best Man / Faith Evans 3:26
7	Beautiful Girl / Kenny Lattimore 4:04
8	Hit It Up / Sporty Thievz 3:39
9	Turn Your Lights Down Low / Lauryn Hill 4:02
10	[Untitled Track] / MeShell NdegeOcello 4:08
11	As My Girl / Maxwell 3:11
12	Wherever You Go / Sygnature 5:31
13	When the Shades Go Down / Allure 4:56
14	The Best Man I Can Be / RL 6:29

Barnes & Noble

From “What You Want,” the keyboard-driven opening track by The Roots (featuring Jaguar) to the disc’s last cut -- a touching, male-bonding ballad “The Best Man I Can Be” by crooners Ginuwine, R.L., Tyrese, and Case - THE BEST MAN soundtrack masterfully blends banging rap tunes with simmering ballads and high octane, danceable R&B. Despite it's title, however, THE BEST MAN's most breathtaking moments are provided by women. Lauryn Hill who scores a technological coup adding her distinctive alto to the vocals of the late Bob Marley on “Turn Your Lights Down Low” and an ultra-sultry Me'Shell Ndegéocello eases through “Untitled.” For sweet, slow songs such as Beyoncé Knowles and Marc Nelson offer a charming duet on “After All Is Said And Done”; Eric Benét's whispers through “Poetry Girl,” and Kenny Lattimore's ode to physical perfection on “Beautiful Girl.” Add a couple of scorned-woman testimonials from Faith Evans (the wicked, “Best Man”) and LaTocha Scott (finger-wagging, “Liar, Liar,”) and THE BEST MAN ripples with enough funky soul essentials to make it a winner of a soundtrack, in a leauge with such ‘90s urban classics as LOVE JONES and WAITING TO EXHALE). Paula T. Renfroe

All Music Guide

An African-American romantic comedy provides the forum for this various-artists album, which presents 14 state-of-the-art examples of contemporary mainstream R&B. The complicated rhythm tracks percolate along at slow-to-medium tempos, and the choruses are sung by vocal groups over which the elastic voices of the featured artists wail expressively, telling tales of love's up and downs. Now and then, rap turns up, most notably on Sporty Thievz's "Hit It Up" (one of two tracks not actually featured in the film). But mostly, the love patter rules. The best examples are Maxwell's "Let's Not Play the Game" and the duet "After All Is Said and Done," by Beyoncé and Marc Nelson. William Ruhlmann