Don't be deceived by the cheery movie title; Sunshine State's soundtrack is often tinged with patches of gloomier clouds. Kitty Wells's heartbreaking country weeper and Lucinda Williams's dusty-road rocker address the realization that love is gone or never meant to be, and Lynyrd Skynyrd's gritty, bluesy rock hybrid illuminates matter-of-fact sentiments about loneliness. Composer Mason Daring's country-, R&B-, and Southern-rock-flecked score is similarly sculpted with sadness. The wind chime-mysticism of "Buccaneer Daze," unearthly arias and dirgelike tempo of "Sirens of Weeki Wachee," and swatches of sustained, lonely guitar in "Earl" are brief but affecting. Yet for all this melancholy, Sunshine State is nowhere near a downer, thanks to lighter tracks like the funk-infested jam "Buster's Place" and classic Cajun blues of "Skeeter Pie." Moreover, because its mix of the instrumental and vocal, the upbeat and the downtempo, is seamless and tightly sequenced, the album doesn't dwell on its depression as much as acknowledge it and use it for hard-hitting, emotional catharsis. --Annie Zaleski