I'd say you really have to be half way into the whole Olympics ethos to completely appreciate this album. If I had the money, I'd be there. Any Star Trek fan, hopeful of a better world, also must appreciate the goals, and the strength and the effort it takes to achieve them.

For most of the athletes anyway.

Kerry Strugg, part of the "Magnificent Seven" gymnast team running toward the vault on a fractured ankle, leaping and landing like a wounded animal; Greg Louganis, bumping his head on the diving board on the way down; Carl Lewis rivaling Jesse Owens' feet and feats so many decades ago; Mary Lou Retton, Mark Spitz, the US women's soccer team the 1980 US Olympic hockey team and on and on. And those are just the winners.

This year the Iraq soccer team may be the story of the games.

The Olympics for many, still, is something that goes beyond winning and losing, and this album, in its way, tries to tell the "beyond."

The first clue is the title: UNITY. For the most part there is a theme of peace and teamwork throughout the songs. And the songs, similar to Frank Sinatra's DUETS album, are collaborations from wildly divergent music genres.

In light of all the terrorism worries surrounding Athens 2004, "Knocking On Heaven's Door" was not an inspired choice to lead off. However, the song is a favorite of mine and Avril Lavigne — one of today's female artists who believes her voice is more important than how she looks — does it justice.

American pop culture flags, such as Destiny's Child, Earth, Wind and Fire, Timbaland and Macy Gray are surrounded by others who few will have heard of; names such as Utada, Jamelia, Maria and Kadim Al Sahir. The 16 songs, most recorded for the CD, end with the anthem "Pass The flame, the official torch relay theme by Trevor Horn, Yiannis Kotsira and Tarkan.

A lot of these songs are by artists most people — even those paying attention to the music scene — will have never heard of, from 15 countries. That's similar to the tradition of the games, though not as much now, where unknown names emerge to produce some of the finest moments.

This disc does not have many enduring individual medal-winning achievements. But taken as a whole, it is a stirring soundtrack to the Olympic ideal.

I don't usually like Sting, too "easy listening" for me. But the (east) Indian drums carry his voice, and the voice of Portuguese singer "Mariza" on "A Thousand Years."

I did also like his version of "I Saw Three Ships" from another varied music CD, "A Very Special Christmas 3." Both raised money for charity. The United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF) HIV/AIDS programs are the beneficiary of sales for the UNITY disc.

Most cringe-worthy? Alice Cooper's straining his way through the tired phrase, "If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything" as if it was a brand new idea. It almost ruined the whole CD for me. Cooper is one of those artists, like an athlete, who needs to hang up his microphone and dwell on past glories.