Joyful Noise (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

iTunes Review

The soundtrack to the 2012 feel-good film about “the little gospel choir that could” channels the experience of watching Joyful Noise in a theater with a decent sound system. Protagonists Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton deliver an alluring duet with the uplifting opener “Not Enough” before Keke Palmer follows with a few covers. She turns Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” into something so playfully soulful that at times it sounds like a young Michael is singing it with The Jackson 5 in the early '70s. She and her costar Jeremy Jordan deliver a smooth, slow-jam reworking of Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed.” The spiritual ballad “Fix Me Jesus” sounds tailor-made for Latifah’s elastic vocal range, while Angela Grovey invokes some early-'80s, Soul Train–era R&B with “I’m Yours.” Other notable performances include Karen Peck’s hard-grooving gospel rocker “Mighty High” and Ivan Kelley Jr.’s endearing hymn “That’s the Way God Planned It.” Country fans are in for a treat with “From Here to the Moon and Back,” sung by Parton and Kris Kristofferson.