The Classic Chillout Album [1 Disc]

Performer: Various Artists
Producer: Mario De Arce (Compilation)
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Not just another downbeat collection, The Classic Chillout Album is afforded a special status for a simple reason: standing behind it is the licensing weight of the Sony Corporation. The collection balances a spate of restful electronica hits (Moby's "Porcelain," Massive Attack's "Teardrop," Dido's "Here With Me," Delerium's "Silence") with various crossovers -- Charlotte Church, Eva Cassidy, Andreas Vollenweider, James Horner, Jill Scott -- from classical to R&B, all pulled from associated labels. The Classic Chillout Album is refreshingly wide ranging, with great choices from Tangerine Dream ("Love on a Real Train" from Risky Business), William Orbit's Strange Cargo ("She Calls Your Name," with an early appearance from Beth Orton), Maxwell ("Ascension [Don't Ever Wonder]"), and Sade ("No Ordinary Love"). Still, there's little to disguise the fact that merely invoking the name of a hip style is enough to lend a certain coolness to what is essentially an updated form of adult contemporary. Anyone under 40 would call "chillout" a post-millennium code word for easy listening, but the good outweighs the bland over the course of 18 tracks. ~ John Bush Consider THE CLASSIC CHILLOUT ALBUM part of the mainstreaming of UK rave culture. Originating out of late-night sessions of dancers relaxing to ambient beats as an antidote to an evening's worth of hard-hitting techno and hallucinogens, the chillout movement hit the mainstream in the guise of mood music for the stressed. Building on the lead of Sony Music UK, whose two volumes of this series have been enthusiastically received, Epic Records delivered this collection of famous names to an American public sorely in need of soothing. At the crossroads of this mellow movement you'll find members of the electronica community (Moby, Massive Attack), New Age icons (Tangerine Dream, Andreas Vollenweider), alt-rock chanteuses (Sarah McLachlan, Dido) and nouveau-soul stalwarts (Maxwell, Sade, Jill Scott). The familiarity curve increases with the inclusion of songs best known from their appearance in ads for Ford Motors (Charlotte Church's "Just Wave Hello [Ford Global Anthem]") and Volkswagen (Master Cylinder's "Jung At Heart"). Lush and hypnotic in most places, there are enough interesting grooves and rhythms on THE CLASSIC CHILLOUT ALBUM to keep it from becoming just another collection of drippy elevator music.

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