Thanks to V, I've been listening to Bombay Dreams, with music by A.R. Rahman and lyrics by Don Black. I didn't like it on first listen, because it was basically lifting all of Rahman's filmi music and setting English words to them. The only one I remotely liked was "Chaiyya Chaiyya," was remained exactly as is but with a different female lead singer -- one with a more pleasant voice than the original singer who sang it on "Dil Se." I've been trying to place each song but so far I've only picked out "Taal se Taal" (from "Taal") and one song from "Rangeela." The rest are a complete mystery to me -- so there are obviously Rahman soundtracks out there that I do not have. I'm pretty surprised "Roja" is not on there as that's the soundtrack that put Rahman on the map.

In addition, "The Journey Home," which Sarah Brightman covers on Harem is from "Bombay Dreams," but the original musical version is so different. It's slower, almost depressing, and is missing the lovely bit from "Taal". It's rare that a cover is better than the original, but in this case, that's very much so. Still, the overall CD does have an infectious beat and is quite fun to clean/bop to.