'Soul Men: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,' Various Artists

When it comes to Soul music, this soundtrack has a little bit of everything: old Soul, new Soul, new Soul masquerading as old Soul, old Soul redone and made new - you name it. It's hard to tell the brand-new Soul songs from the remakes on the Soul Men movie soundtrack, and in this case, that's a good thing. Because all the music - old and new alike - is supposed to evoke the feel of classic, early '60s Soul. And the various artists here, including Anthony Hamilton, Leela James, Ryan Shaw and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, do a solid job of using the recording booth as a time machine to take us back to the past.

With all the incredible talent that was assembled for this project - including Isaac Hayes, Meshell Ndegeocello and John Legend - you'd think that this would be an automatic five-star album. But unfortunately, there's several flaws that although not fatal, do reduce the album's enjoyability. Chiefly among them: the tracks on which some of the film's actors sing. And not just sing harmonies or background, but sing lead and co-lead vocals. Having actors play singers is one thing, but actually having them sing is quite another. Samuel L. Jackson and Sharon Leal are fine actors, as was the late Bernie Mac, but when it comes to singing, they're definitely out of their league. So having their voices prominently displayed on a third of the album's dozen tracks was a miscalculation, to put it mildly. Although their mediocrity as vocalists brings down the quality of the album, the true singers on display here - specifically Meshell Ndegeocello, Sharon Jones and the late Isaac Hayes (who also has a small role in the film) - all do a solid job with the material they're given.

For example, Meshell was thrown out of her element on a cover of Steve Cropper's '70s rockabilly track "Water," but she does an excellent job remaking the song as a luscious country-Soul anthem. Likewise, Chris Pierce & Leela James do a cover of the '60s pop hit "Private Number," that sounds so vintage you'll swear it was recorded in 1968, not 2008. The same can be said for Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings' version of "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)," which was originally recorded in the '60s and has been remade by Jerry Lee Lewis, Kenny Rogers and Willie Nelson, among others. The album's crown jewel, however, may be "Soul Music," a brand-new Anthony Hamilton song that sounds exactly like something Otis Redding would have recorded back in the day.