Track Listing

1. Nature Boy - David Bowie
2. Lady Marmalade - Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, Pink
3. Because We Can - Fatboy Slim
4. Sparkling Diamonds - Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, Lara Mulcahy, Caroline O'Connor, Natalie Mendoza
5. Rhythm Of The Night - Valeria
6. Your Song - Ewan McGregor, Alessandro Safina
7. Children Of The Revolution - Bono, Gavin Friday, Maurice Seezer
8. One Day I'll Fly Away - Nicole Kidman
9. Diamond Dogs - Beck
10. Elephant Love Medley - Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jamie Allen
11. Come What May - Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Cecilia Weston, London Session Orchestra
12. El Tango De Roxanne - José Feliciano, Ewan McGregor, Jacek Koman
13. Complainte De La Butte - Rufus Wainwright
14. Hindi Sad Diamonds - John Leguizamo, Nicole Kidman, Alka Yagnik
15. Nature Boy - David Bowie, Massive Attack
16. Lady Marmalade - Lil' Kim, Mya, Christina Aguilera, Pink

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1075 in Music
• Released on: 2003-05-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Running time: 61 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Nicole Kidman playing a singing prostitute? Ewan McGregor channelling the Police? If the soundtrack to director Baz Luhrmann's freakish musical Moulin Rouge has its way, we'll all be wearing corsets and swinging from the ceiling while the former Mrs Tom Cruise becomes our favourite new pop sensation. As daring as Luhrmann himself, the compositions test Kidman--who could have easily used a league of backup singers and studio knob-twiddlers to hide her inexperience--and she actually passes. She's no Olivia Newton-John, but she capably mixes Madonna's "Material Girl" with "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (which is as breathy as Marilyn would've wanted it to be) and goes full throttle on any medley thrown her way. Her cover of "One Day I'll Fly Away" is especially poignant given her much-publicised personal tragedies. McGregor, though, is a real star; his giggly schoolboy brogue morphs into a fun cradle for Paul McCartney's Wings as well as U2's Bono on "Elephant Love Medley." Beck's cover of David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" is a hit waiting to happen, while Pattie LaBelle's 1970s staple "Lady Marmalade" (remade by an all-star cast of divas, Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera among them) already is. A delicious, racy soundtrack that is equal parts cabaret, glam rock and trip-hop, Moulin Rouge doesn't disappoint. --Kristy Martin

Customer Reviews

Wonderful
A brave move to set a period film against the backdrop of a very modern soundtrack, but in this case, it works, and very well too.
Fans of the movie will love this soundtrack, but it's also just a great CD, one that should be a staple of any collection. The clever reworkings of so many old hits, El Tango de Roxanne in particular, give a new flavour to the tracks and help to up the kitsch value of the movie. Although it was a huge worldwide hit, it was certainly quirkier than most of your five-star movies, and the soundtrack is exactly the same.
The Elephant Love Medley is a sparkling blend of too many songs to count, but you'll have fun trying to name them all, if you're not too caught up in just how wonderful Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman are. Their voices sound beautiful together and apart, and with the infectious and familliar tunes, you won't be able to help singing along, or at least humming!
Come What May is, in my opinion, the best song on the album. It's a proper passion-filled duet with an amazing crescendo that just begs you to get all choked up with emotion. The centre-piece of the movie, this sounds just as good on CD as it did in the cinema.
Every track on here is worth a mention, and I'm no expert, so I'll leave it at that. Buy the CD, analyse it yourself.

Tra la lal la!
Yes i saw the film.

Yes i thought it was exceptional.

Yes i thought the direction was amazing!

Ok, all that aside. This soundtrack is appalling. The musical score that sounded so good on screen sounds dreadful on CD. The album comes over as an awful soundtrack for a west end musical, you know what i mean. Actors with tone poor vocals but lusty diaphrams all singing loudly. Weak tone punched out by drama trained diagphrams does not make good singing. When you listen to this you end up wanting toput the same tune on by the original artist, just to hear it done properly.

Soundtrack to Cats anyone?

You don't have to be a Moulin Rouge fan to enjoy this music
The first Moulin Rouge soundtrack cannot really be considered or described out of context with the later second volume that was released. The deficiencies of this album are addressed for the most part in Volume 2, and thus this album cannot be judged as harshly as it was upon its initial release for the songs and numbers that are not included. The earliest reviews of this soundtrack are justifiably critical, for many of the tracks featured here are not the actual versions from the film. In essence, this CD is music that inspired and was inspired by the movie rather than an actual soundtrack. This becomes obvious from the very start, when one hears David Bowie delivering the melancholy masterpiece Nature Boy. David Bowie does a great job but it's not the movie version, and that is important because fans obsessed with this movie (including yours truly) are absolutely captivated if not in love with the actual movie versions. If Bowie singing Nature Boy feels strange, just wait until you hear Beck singing Bowie's Diamond Dogs later on.

Thus, one has to put aside one's concerns about this album's vast differences from the actual movie's music, knowing that some (but, sadly, not all) of those original film versions can be found on the Moulin Rouge Volume 2 soundtrack. Since I love the movie and music, so much, I'll say a word about every track on this CD. After Nature Boy, one gets the familiar pop hit version of Lady Marmalade performed by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Pink. The one great weakness of both soundtracks is the fact that this is basically the only piece of music you get from the unforgettable sequence in which Ewan McGregor first enters the Moulin Rouge. Fatboy Slim gives us his driving version of Because We Can, a furiously upbeat track. The version of Sparkling Diamonds included here is good, but it differs significantly from the film version; still, it features Nicole Kidman, Jim Broadbent, and their cohorts from the film and is quite enjoyable in this form. Next is Valeria's version of Rhythm of the Night, a relatively minor song in terms of the movie, featuring special Moulin Rouge-specific lines. While I prefer the movie version, something can be said about the version of Your Song included here; alongside Ewan McGregor's impassioned singing, the added vocal stylings of Alessandro Safina are emphasized, adding almost as much as it takes away from the film version. Bono, Gavin Friday, and Maurice Seezer perform Children of the Revolution, a minor song which I would much rather hear the Violent Femmes perform any day.

Nicole Kidman blew me away in this movie, especially with her hauntingly beautiful rendition of One Day I'll Fly Away. Once again, this version is not the original film version, and thus, although it is beyond beautiful, it cries out for the overlayering of Ewan McGregor's lyrical strains of Your Song, for this truly makes the song a force capable of fully subsuming one's heart. As I've mentioned, the version of Diamond Dogs included here is sung by Beck, and while he's good, he's no David Bowie. The next three songs are absolutely amazing. First up is Elephant Love Melody, a daringly unique medley that worked its way straight to the bottom of my heart; I am happy to say that this version is basically the same as the original movie version, minus the exhortations of Satine for Christian to get down before falling off the Giant Elephant. This medley never fails to give me chills, and the same can most certainly be said of the passionate Come What May. This is the most achingly beautiful love song I've ever heard, but this version is one intended for pop music radio consumption, featuring a rich musical background tinged with strange little electronic noises; if you've watched the video of this song included on the Moulin Rouge DVD, you will already be familiar with this version. At this point, one must stop and pause in homage to one of the most unexpected yet perfect and fervent performances of all time; I speak of course of El Tango de Roxanne. This unique interpretation of The Police's Roxanne is amazing enough as it is, but when Ewan McGregor's piercingly heartfelt vocals enter the equation, all one can do is sit back enraptured at such passionate, moving music. Complainte de la Butte is nothing special, and I still don't remember it being in the movie. Then one comes upon Hindi Sad Diamonds featuring Nicole Kidman, John Leguizamo, and Alka Yagnik, an exotic track that somehow feels a little different from the film version. Finally, the album closes with a second rendition of Nature Boy by David Bowie and Massive Attack; I'm really not sure why this track is included here, but the unremarkable version of the song ends quite memorably with Nicole Kidman whispering the words "I love you."

This soundtrack cannot be said to feature the actual music from the soundtrack, yet I love it nonetheless. In my opinion, you really have to buy both volumes of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, and while the second volume features the original film versions of many songs, only this first volume contains two numbers this Moulin Rouge fan could not possibly live without - Elephant Love Medley and El Tango de Roxanne. This CD cannot possibly take the place of the movie, but I believe any Moulin Rouge fan will overlook its faults and love it dearly.