A cuddly crowd pleaser, the film Forrest Gump envelops late-20th-century tragedy in a fuzzy glow. Vietnam? Riots? Sure. But hey, Gump happens. Crammed with 32 golden oldies by boomer staples (Aretha, Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, the Four Tops, the Byrds and so on), the soundtrack engineers equally blithe nostalgia. The feel-good context buffs the edges of anything once remotely dangerous: The Doors' "Break On Through" and Creedence's "Fortunate Son" get gumped together with pablum like Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco" and B.J. Thomas' "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head." Basically the playlist of any ultrasafe classic-rock station, this compilation presents the '60s and '70s sanitized – it's a triumph of fortysomething marketing. (RS 691)

PAUL EVANS