Vonda Shepard

Songs from Ally McBeal

GREAT SOUNDTRACK THAT'S SURE TO BE A CLASSIC FOR ALLY FANS

Review Score:

(10/10)
David E. Kelley's wildly successful show "Ally Mcbeal" was about a lovelorn Boston lawyer whose search for love and happiness is wrought with conflict but shared in experience by a cast of characters that were easy to love. Ally's life in the show had a soundtrack and Ally herself had a theme song (a suggestion made to her by her therapist played by Tracy Ullman). As funny as this sound, it is actually quite practical in real life. Our world today, unconscious of it, runs on a tune. The world is full of so much emotional and dramatic situations, that songs can be suited to every moment.

In the show, Vonda Shepard, a beautiful, blonde, young and talented soprano, sings the pivotal songs that marked the score to the show and to Ally's life- her ups and downs, her crisis. Vonda Shepard's singing voice is very touching, inspiring and vibrant. Much of it has been judged as "bar lounge" music, since after all, Vonda's character in the show was merely that of a singer/pianist at the trendy bar beneath the law offices of Cage and Fish. However, her voice can rise to any ocassion, be it festive or melancholy.

The cd begins with the show's theme song played during the opening credits "Searching My Soul" an uplifting song about leaving the past behind and beginning life anew. "Just Ask The Lonely" is an incredibly sad song about the lonely existence of the lovelorn and their pain (we remember that much of Ally's life was that of a woman in search of fulfilling true love but it was always an ideal and inaccessible ot her), the same sorrow dominates the mood of "Walk Away Renee" but it's specifically about losing a friendship. "Hooked On A Feeling" is upbeat and does justice to the classic oldie as does the slow, romantic "You Belong To Me".

Unbelievably heartbreaking is "The End Of The World" about the seemingly incurable heartbreak experienced when you lose the partner you loved or you have been jilted. I listened to this particular song over and over when that happened to me and have made it a sort of anthem for heartbreak victims all over the world. "Someone You Use" is spirited, and we can almost feel like we're right at the bar with Ally, John Cage, Richard Fish and the rest. "Tell Him" was Ally's theme song in the show (the lively oldie she sang in her head whenever she was feeling down and needed a boost of confidence) and in this cd its spirit is genuinely inspiring as well as great dancing music. The same goes for "It's In His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song) and "I Only Want To Be With You"- we remember that Ally and her friends did a lot of dancing when they were not busy with their courtroom trials.

The moving "Maryland" is an emotional song about a young woman (we almost assume it's Vonda Shepard herself) "working for a living singing with her friends) she is either a lounge singer or in a band, but she has disappointed her father and mother, who had other dreams for her..but she returns home to Maryland nonetheless and at times meets her love in a "funky funky club in Fairfax avenue" and insists "I will sing".

Finally, "Neighborhood" is a song filled with nostalgia of memories about growing up, memories in photographs and the "old neighborhood" type of sentiments- the first love for "the boy next door" she recalls "loving more than words can say" "dad's old car" and the remaining sentiment "And all those friends ? Where did they go?"- chalk full of wistful nostalgia and sadness.

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