I feel very remiss as I approach this review as both of these albums have been out for a while and I’ve listened to them a lot without telling you lovely folks about them. Well, aside from including a track in our Classic Covers feature a while back.
To repeat a bit of basic info about the band: At The Movies definitely classes as a supergroup, made up of a bunch of well-known musicians from other groups as well as a bevy of occasional appearances from others. The main gang are namely Björn “Speed” Strid (Soilwork, The Night Flight Orchestra), Linnéa Vikström (Ronnie Atkins, Therion), Morten Sandager (ex-Pretty Maids), Pontus Egberg (King Diamond, Wolf) and Pontus Norgren (Hammerfall). OK? OK. Now for the albums.
The two volumes are evenly split between 80s (Vol. 1) and 90s (Vol. 2) movie releases and the songs that featured in them. As a result, this is a double-whammy of hugely recognisable anthems from the days when cinema was absolutely mental. Blockbusters left, right and centre, and barely a brightly-costumed comic book license to be seen. There’s music from Beverley Hills Cop (ah, when Eddie Murphy was actually funny), The Neverending Story, Back To The Future, Three Men and a Little Lady, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion… and a ton more. Twenty three songs, from a similar number of films.
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Every single one has been revamped, rocked up, re-recorded and re…something-else’d to a wonderful degree. None have been done tongue in cheek, this is obviously a labour of love by a bunch of music and film nuts. Production is superb, musicianship high end, and the vocal performances couldn’t be better.
I confess, being a child of the early 70s makes the 80s and 90s (cinema-wise) a wealth of good memories for me. This pair of albums bring so many flooding back. The songs are just begging to be sung along to, at full volume, in the car, to the complete embarrassment of my offspring. Who knows, maybe they’ll start ing in eventually. Or not. I don’t care. I’m having too much fun tormenting them with covers of John Parr, Duran Duran and Cutting Crew’s finest moments.
Look, if you’re my age (or hell, any age) and like your big films from that era, then you’re going to enjoy this collection. Every track is tweaked enough to not be a straight copy, but not so much that you’re wondering “why did they do that?”. Grab them both before the inevitable final part of the trilogy comes out. Or, worse, they try to reboot them…
Order both albums combined as a limited box set (incl. cassette tapes, walkman, sunglasses and keychain) or separately in the format of your choice (CD/DVD-digipak (DVD’s incl. videos for all tracks), black and colored vinyl, digital) and stream them via the links below!
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Header image by Christel Mentges
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At The Movies: official | facebook | instagram | spotify | youtube
