If you don't already know Gomez, you could be forgiven for being unsure of what to think of this album. First of all, let's put the matter to rest. Gomez are good. They are very good. Their debut album Bring It On won one of England's most prestigious music awards, the Mercury Music Prize. Their 1999 American tour brought much critical acclaim and the approval of countless audiences. But the best thing about Gomez is that they don't seem to take themselves too seriously. Having said that, there not much apart from the inherent joy of the music that unites Gomez's sound. Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline is a motley collection of B-sides, reworkings of previous material and a few new songs, with such wide variations in texture and style that it's almost impossible to pin the group down. Machismo, the accompanying EP, provides perhaps a better picture of Gomez in a nutshell, with its dance-like title track, the darker ballad "Do's and Don't's" and "Touchin' Up," a track almost Caribbean in its coolness. But while there are some absolutely amazing songs on Hotline-such as "Wharf Me" and the first single, a cover of the Beatles' "Getting Better,"-the album as a whole is more for already established Gomez fans. A better starting point would be their second LP Liquid Skin. B+ -Daniel D. Raper

Soundtrack

Bounce (Arista)

When I went to see Bounce, the audience was mostly women, with a few men who probably have a rather sensitive nature. And it is clear that the soundtrack is geared toward the same audience. The first seven artists are women, and from Dido's fabulous "Here With Me" to "Need to Be Next to You" by Leigh Nash from Sixpence None the Richer, the music is mostly suitable for the pop section of Lilith Fair. The only track that deviates far enough from the norm is BT's "Never Gonna Come Back Down," which was also featured on the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack. This fast-paced Crystal Method-esque track stands in stark contrast to the languorous vocals of the other songs. Nevertheless, a few stand out: the aforementioned Dido, Beth Orton's "Central Reservation" and Morcheeba's "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day" demonstrate that from such a bland soundtrack, a few well-constructed songs do stand out. However, most of the rest, even the offers from Sarah McLachlan ("Silence") and Tara McLean ("Divided") remain best left to the background of a genuine "chick flick." B- -Jimmy Zha

Enya