On reflection, it's no wonder that so many artists were available for Total Lee: The Songs of Lee Hazlewood. Hazlewood occupies a position in posterity similar to that of the Velvet Underground–ignored by the world at large, but disproportionately adored by fellow musicians. Hazlewood's only glimpse of popular appeal occurred when Nancy Sinatra had a worldwide hit with his "These Boots Are Made For Walking"–a karaoke standard ignored by the 16 artists who appear on this tribute album. What is startling about this fine collection is that a lot of the artists here seem endearingly unable to separate their admiration for Hazlewood's songs from Hazlewood's myth: for most young men who've ever picked up a guitar, Hazlewood's life of meandering from town to town, girl to girl, bottle to bottle, has a certain aspirational quality, and may be the reason why every male artist on this album finds himself, consciously or not, adopting Hazlewood's signature consumptive drawl: The Webb Brothers, Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley, Calexico and Erlend Oye are more impersonation than interpretation, but nonetheless engaging.

Film director Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian science fiction thriller Children of Men is about a near future in which human fertility has nearly ceased, and to represent a setting that is familiar yet disturbing, the compilers of this various-artists soundtrack (there is also an album of the score) have chosen some rock and pop songs by well-known artists dating back to the '60s, some of them, however, presented in versions not so well known. Everybody knows the heavy metal band Deep Purple, but the band's initial American hit, a cover of Joe South's "Hush," doesn't sound much like its more successful "Smoke on the Water" phase. The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" and the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" are iconic '60s songs, but they are here performed by Junior Parker and heavily accented Italian singer Franco Battiato, respectively.