Love & Basketball: Music From The Motion Picture
The coming-of-age angle in the sports romance movieLove & Basketballis played up by this sharp soundtrack album. The music ranges fromAl Green's eternal "Love and Happiness" to galvanizing late-'80s rap classics (Rob Base's "It Takes Two,"MC Lyte's "Lyte as a Rock") to some of the best new-school R&B.;Angie StonetakesSimply Red's calling card "Holding Back the Years" to church and then back to her softly lit pad, while alt hip-hoppersBlack Eyed Peasteam withLes Nubiansfor the atmospheric "Complete Beloved." The disc also boasts the welcome return of ex-Tony! Toni! Tone!frontman Raphael Saadiq with his new partners Dawn Robinson (formerly ofEn Vogue) and one-timeTribe Called Questmember Ali Shaheed Muhammad in the bandLucy Pearl. Their "Dance Tonight" is a spirited jam that no doubt plays well in the movie--and definitely does out of it.--Rickey Wright