Equal parts sultry, sassy, sweet, and silly, the soundtrack for Magic Mike, a Steven Soderbergh-directed comedy about a veteran male stripper (Channing Tatum) and his protégé (Alex Pettyfer), offers up a slick, radio-ready mix of R&B (
Joe Tex,
Alice Russell), classic rock (
Foreigner), electro-pop (
Win Win), and indie rock (
Ringside,
Black Daniel), most of which is well-suited to the smoky, strobe-light pulse of the club. Elsewhere, Australian folk-pop outfit
Cloud Control provide a nice break from all of the gyrating with the sweet and melancholy "Just for Now," and Matthew McConaughey, who plays a former stripper turned club owner, lends his laconic drawl to the languid, country-folk nugget (it's only a minute-and-a-half long) "Ladies of Tampa," which he co-wrote with producers Martin Blasick and Frankie Pine. ~ James Christopher Monger