This came out in 2004 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
The movie — a romantic Greek myth contemporized, turned into a musical and staged on a massive indoor duplicate of the Las Vegas strip — was an audacious, spectacular flop that reportedly nearly ruined director Francis Ford Coppola.
Its soundtrack, however, is just spectacular. Composed and performed by the inimitable Tom Waits, 1982’s One From the Heart finds the rumpled singer-songwriter at the height of his hipster balladeer powers, delivering a dozen-song slate of lovelorn last-call laments and finger-popping jazz with the help of a crack combo and the occasional orchestra. Best of all, though, are a handful of duets with Crystal Gayle, who seductively wraps her honeyed tones around Waits’ croaking rumble on gems like Picking Up After You, staging a musical dialogue that parallels the arc of the love story onscreen. Living up to its title, this set has long been essential for Waits fans — and is even more so now, thanks to the inclusion of two previously unissued bonus tracks.
