Sex and the City 2 Soundtrack Review.

I'm yet to see the film, but rest assured, when it hits UK cinema screens this Friday, I shall be one of the first ones in the queue to see it. Sex and the City is far and away my favourite television programme of all time; I love it so much that I was able to delude myself into thinking that the first film was good. The second film, I'm sure, will be just as pants, if not more so, but such is my love for the franchise and those four New York ladies, that I won't even give a damn. As such, it's a given that I'd grab hold of the soundtrack as soon as it was out.

I wasn't sure about it when I glanced over the tracks, what with its seeming mishmash of gospel choir, power ballads, and smooth jazz, but I soon found that every single song on the soundtrack had something to recommend. My highlight is easily Alicia Keys' Empire State of Mind Part II, which takes the theme from the original, but instead of collaborating with Jay-Z, her piano features prominently here. "Some will sleep tonight with a hunger for more than an empty fridge" is a particularly beguiling song lyric from it. And it is Alicia Keys, who, like Fergie in the first SATC movie, sings to the well-known SATC theme, in a song called Rapture. It's catchy and sassy, not unlike the four protagonists. the Sex and the City men's choir feature with renditions of three songs; If Ever I would Leave You (so-so), and two stronger ones, Sunrise Sunset (the usage of the violin and the call-and-answer is beautiful) as well as 'Till There Was You, a song originally from the 1957 musical The Music Man. Songs from musicals are clearly a popular motif in this soundtrack, as Shayna Steele, Jordan Ballard and Kamilah Marshall cover Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, the show tune from the 1940 musical Pal Joey, to extraordinary effect. My favourite rendition of this song remains Ella Fitzgerald's version, but the girls' delivery of the line "Lost my heart, but what of it. He is cold I agree." is positively haunting.

Other highlights of the soundtrack include Liza Minelli's fun, if not totally polished cover of Beyonce's Single Ladies (yep, you heard right), the original True Colours by Cyndi Lauper, and a collaboration between Jennifer Hudson (who appeared in the first film) and Leona Lewis on Love is Your Colour. But there really is something for everyone; the film takes place in the middle East, and Euphrates Dream by Michael McGregor sets the tone for this aptly. The funniest part of the soundtrack is without a doubt SJP, Kim Catrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristen Davis' complete karoake rendition of I'm a Woman. I love them all deeply, but really loves, don't quit the day job.