(2/3 Images are owned by Marvel Entertainment and I do not accept ownership of either it’s poster, logo nor characters contained within. The Image of the soundtrack, I own and took myself.)
Pretty much, like the rest of Planet Earth, I thoroughly enjoyed Marvel Entertainment’s “Guardians of the Galaxy”! The adventure sees (for those living under a rock throughout 2014) the title character Peter Quill; played by the now significantly buffed out Chris Pratt, abducted by aliens as a child and having grown up into a swashbuckling adult, forms an alliance with some less than scrupulous characters, to stop the evil Ronan the Destroyer from conquering the galaxy.
Nominated for 2 Oscars, grossing more than $300,000,000 and earning a respectable 8.2/10 stars on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), just what exactly made this movie so endearing to all? It has action for the kids, a star studded cast for the movie goers, kick-ass female leads for the female audience but what’s for the slightly more mature adult audience? Why, a soundtrack that has music spanning two decades in the mid 20th century of course?
I believe a major contributing factor to the films overall success was the soundtrack, appropriately entitled “Awesome Mix Volume 1” after StarLord/Peter Quill’s own cassette mix tape in the movie. Now, I am a big Marvel fan, always have been and like many, yes I am partial to a little bit of Batman of the DC variety, but Marvel over the past decade and a half have been generating consistently strong movies based on their comic book characters. Awesome Mix Volume 1 has a variety of songs from 1967-1979 and myself, being born in 1995, am familiar with many of the tunes. It is nice to see that Marvel Entertainment, after deciding to use this music throughout their motion picture, did so without taking the “not so recognisable to make it different” route and stuck to the classics: “I’m Not In Love” by 10CC, “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” by Robert Holmes and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Tammi Terrell to name a few.
Admittedly, having seen the film and listened to the soundtrack, I can’t listen to “Come and Get Your Love” by Cherry Bomb without imagining a red leather bound Chris Pratt miming into a pink furred alien rat nor “I Want You Back” by Jackson 5 without going into a fangirl frenzy, craving a dancing baby tree-man in a pot. Oh, God; baby Groot though.
However the visuals now associated with these songs and the fact that they have brought a freshness to the music, is all part of the charm that this soundtrack conveys. If you have seen “Guardians of the Galaxy” I would recommend purchasing this album; if not? Then I’m not so sure. I can’t help but feel that it would lose a certain branch of its charm. Is it awesome? Er… Yar?
I would very much recommend this album and all it’s awesome-geektacular-nature and hope that for those who have listened and to listen, that you agree!
Read on and Prosper!
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