Soul Food: The Best R&B of TV Series

The Showtime cable channel's SOUL FOOD series has spawned an album of songs "inspired by" the show. Regardless of whether you think Montell Jordan, Kelly Price, and the other artists included on this disc have actually spent a great deal of time absorbing the subtleties of the program, the resultant album is an effective compilation of circa-2000 R&B (as indicated by the album's subtitle). From the forceful syncopation of Toni Braxton's "Wasn't Man Enough" to the languid, Stevie Wonder-ish "Where I Wanna Be" (Donell Jones) and Aaliyah's gently funky "I Don't Wanna," SOUL FOOD offers every variant on contemporary R&B a reasonable person could want. The icing on the cake is the inclusion of Al Green's "That's the Way Love Goes" as a bonus cut.