Apart from Danny Elfman's score, music doesn't play a big part on Marc Cherry's runaway television hit Desperate Housewives, but any show that's this popular gets a soundtrack anyway -- hence, the fall 2005 release of Music from and Inspired by Desperate Housewives, just in time for the DVD release of the first season and the debut of the second. Since there's not much music in the show, that means that the 13 songs here are all "inspired" by the series -- which, in turn, means that they're all songs about marriage or girl power, all performed by female artists. Instead of relying on previously released material, the producers have commissioned new recordings, which helps give this a fresh feel even if there are no less than six covers of well-known oldies about marriage and motherhood. At first, the artist lineup looks rather diverse, since it contains everything from Shania Twain and Martina McBride to Liz Phair, Joss Stone, Gloria Estefan, Indigo Girls, and Macy Gray, but it doesn't take long to realize that everything here is firmly within the confines of adult pop, fitting both adult contemporary and adult alternative formats quite nicely. This is classy and clever, well-produced music that is not without a few missteps (chief among them Liz Phair's flat-footed "Mother's Little Helper" and Macy Gray's jazzy "Boom Boom"), but is heavier on the highlights: Anna Nalick belts out "Band of Gold," Shania Twain's "Shoes" is sublimely silly, Joss Stone's "Treat Me Right (I'm Yours for Life)" has a nicely mellow groove, and Sara Evans' treatment of "One's on the Way" may be faithful but it's still a lot of fun. These are of such a similar mind set that the snippets of dialogue from the show are not only not needed to tie this together, but they get to be a little irritating (and Mary Alice's voice-over narration has never sounded so smug and cloying as it does here, separated from the visuals). All the same, Desperate Housewives is a surprisingly entertaining soundtrack, especially for a show that doesn't really feature pop music in the first place.

On his first album since disbanding Creed in 2004 -- and his first collection of new material since the band's last album, Weathered, in 2001 -- singer/songwriter Scott Stapp strips his music back to its barest essence. Gone are the indulgent arty flourishes, such as a cameo from the Tallahassee Boys Choir, that weighed down Weathered, and all that's left on The Great Divide are layers and layers of heavy, heavy guitars, which support Stapp's guttural declarations of angst and faith. It makes for the hardest, most immediate music he's made since Creed's debut, My Own Prison, but not necessarily the best. Certainly those looking for another "With Arms Wide Open" will be a little disappointed -- there are power ballads here, but with the notable exception of "Surround Me," not only do they lack the dramatic anthemic quality that made that a huge hit, they're given somber, heavy arrangements that appeal only to the portion of his audience that prefers the Scott Stapp who channels Jim Morrison and favors loud, distorted guitars. Since the prog inflections of Weathered didn't suit Stapp's music well -- his lyrics are so earnest he needs music lacking in affectation -- this back-to-basics approach serves him relatively well, even if it inevitably feels like a bit of retreat, as if he were consciously playing to the core of his base in order to guarantee an audience for his solo work. Nevertheless, this plays well on the surface, providing Creed fans with the basic sound that the band drifted away from at the tail end of its career, even if it does leave the lingering feeling that Stapp is trying to sound like Creed on his solo debut instead of embracing the freedom of being a solo artist.