***1/2 BOOGIE NIGHTS

(Capitol)

*** A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

(London)

A few weeks ago in an on-line chatroom, a woman who had just seen Boogie Nights posted the notice that she went to high school in the '70s and couldn't remember anybody listening to disco. When I thought about it, neither could I. Boy, were we dumb. With two exceptions (Night Ranger's "Sister Christian" and the Melanie atrocity "Brand New Key"), and two bits of incidental music, the Boogie Nights soundtrack rolls out one killer number after another. You can't call all of it disco (though War's "Spill the Wine" probably qualifies as proto-disco), but from the percussive horn blasts of the Emotions' "Best of My Love" to the balm of the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," nearly everything leaps out at you with a shiny bright vitality that even Hanson would be hard-pressed to match for sheer devastating pleasurability. The best rediscoveries are Chakachas's "Jungle Fever" (a heavy-breathing classic that can take its place alongside "Love To Love You Baby" and "Je t'aime"); the Buck-Rogers-meets-Superfly strut of the Commodores' "Machine Gun"; and, shockingly, ELO's "Livin' Thing." A penis joke in the movie, it's here the sunniest, friendliest pretentious pop song you've ever heard.

The skip button on your CD player gets more of a workout with the A Life Less Ordinary soundtrack, though that one does lead off with its secret weapon, Beck's "Deadweight," a road song for people who'd never dream of hitting the highway without a fully stocked cocktail lounge in their Winnebago. There's also the title track from Ash, the latest maneuver in their honorable mission to make power pop once again safe for the world; Luscious Jackson's "Love Is Here," which manages to be laid back and breathless at the same time; "Oh" by Underworld, perhaps the best of all electronica bands; and Elvis's wonderful version of "Always on My Mind." On the whole, though, the album works better to summon up the romance of Danny Boyle's underrated and unpredictable fairy tale. It's great to have Bobby Darin's "Beyond the Sea," though if you've seen the movie, you may long for the off-key karaoke version done by Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz -- and for McGregor's bellowing a cappella reading of Oasis's B-side "Round Are Way," sung in a faux-Mancunian accent that rings truer than anything on Be Here Now.

-- Charles Taylor