Much Sorrow, Little Spark in ‘Back to Titanic’ Collection

** 1/2

VARIOUS ARTISTS

“Back to Titanic”

Sony Classical / Sony Music Soundtrax

This hodgepodge of audio flotsam coming in the wake of the runaway success of both the “Titanic” film and soundtrack album contains some effectively sentimental passages but overall merely treads water. The vast majority of the collection’s nearly 80 minutes is relentlessly melancholy and sorrowful. Only the rousing Celtic dance medley performed by the group Gaelic Storm (taken straight from the movie, Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio dialogue and party sounds included) and the mannered yet spirited “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (played by the group I Salonisti in the role of the ship’s band) evoke the joy of the young lovers’ romance.

Nonetheless, a new “Titanic Suite,” cobbled by composer James Horner from his main themes and highlighting the Celtic airs that inspired him, is a nicely turned pastiche that’s likely to be a standard of pops orchestras for years to come. (The suite will be performed by Horner and an orchestra Oct. 9-10 at the Hollywood Bowl.) New recordings featuring former “Riverdance” fiddler Eileen Ivers (Celtic tunes and a solo “Nearer My God to Thee”) and Irish vocalist Maire Brennan (“Come Josephine in My Flying Machine”) mix with more musical movie clips to create a decent souvenir. And while the dialogue-enhanced version of “My Heart Will Go On,” sung by Celine Dion and previously released only to radio, will be the jewel for romance-besotted devotees, it’s just too emotionally waterlogged for anyone else.

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