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Soundtrack Review


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Like They Do in the Movies

 

Artist: Michael Longoria:
Label: Broadway Records
broadwayrecords.com
RRP: £13.99
Release Date: 11 October 2019


Michael Longoria releases his latest album, Like They Do in the Movies, via Broadway Records. We're off to the cinema with a collection of Longoria's favourite songs from the silver screen...

Michael Longoria has already proven, thanks to his previous album releases (Merry Christmas Darling, Broadway Brick by Brick), that he's a versatile and talented vocalist.

Like They Do it in the Movies starts off incredibly promising. The opening 'Kiss Me (Like They Do in the Movies)', the only original song on this collection, shows Longoria's vocals off perfectly. Likewise the next few tracks are well produced and Longoria does them justice - in some cases giving a fresh and more modern approach (as in 'In Your Eyes') and in other instances delivering a fairly faithful delivery to the original ('Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)'). I really loved his take on ''Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)' which both remains faithful to the original, whilst bringing it up to date for a modern audience... but there's no way he can manage to keep up this sort of quality for the duration, surely. Especially when there are quite a few tracks that were originally performed by a female vocalist. How could Longoria possibly do justice to these without it sounding out of place. Amazingly, his vocal range is so diverse and his delivery so fluid that you quickly forget the original recording in most cases.

I think the biggest hurdle that Longoria has to overcome with an undertaking like this is that the majority of these songs are so ingrained in our past, conjuring up nostalgic memories, that anything other than the original will just sound wrong on a first listen.

The first potential casualty was ''Wind Beneath My Wings', but thankfully Longoria manages to eventually turn this into something much better than the original. 'Don’t You (Forget About Me)' has doo wop backing singers, for some unfathomable reason, but Longoria just about manages to save it from descending into farce. He has a powerful enough delivery to make it his own. Likewise, ''I Will Always Love You' is synonymous with Whitney Houston but Longoria manages to rework this wonderfully.

Without a doubt... the one guaranteed stumbling block was bound to be his cover of 'My Heart Will Go On'... or so you'd think. This song has been played to death and yet the delivery here is incredibly spot on. Again, the only slight let down is the musical arrangement. It's not a complaint, rather an observation. I can't help thinking that an orchestra would have made this sound so much better... in fact the majority of the album would have been elevated with an orchestral arrangement, but then that's probably an expense that just couldn't be justified.

While, on first glance, some of the song choices might raise an eyebrow, rest assured Longoria takes each and every track and knocks it out of the park.

Track listing:

01 - 'Kiss Me (Like They Do in the Movies)' - Michael Longoria
02 - ' In Your Eyes' from Say Anything... (1989) - Peter Gabriel
03 - 'Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)' from Arthur (1981) - Christopher Cross / Burt Bacharach / Carole Bayer Sager / Peter Allen
04 - 'Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)' from A Star is Born (1976) - Barbra Streisand / Paul Williams
05 - 'Wind Beneath My Wings' from Beaches (1988) - Jeff Silbar / Larry Henley
06 - 'Don’t You (Forget About Me)' from The Breakfast Club (1985) - Keith Forsey / Steve Schiff
07 - 'Hopelessly Devoted To You' from Grease (1978) - John Farrar
08 - 'That Thing You Do' from That Thing You Do! (1996) - Adam Schlesinger
09 - 'It Must Have Been Love' from Pretty Woman (1990) -Per Gessle
10 - 'I Will Always Love You' from The Bodyguard (1992) - Dolly Parton
11 - 'Take My Breath Away' from Top Gun (1986) - Giorgio Moroder / Tom Whitlock
12 - 'Rainbow Connection' from The Muppet Movie (1979) - Paul Williams / Kenneth Ascher
13 - 'Unchained Melody' from Ghost (1990) - Alex North / Hy Zaret
14 - 'My Heart Will Go On' from Titanic (1997) - James Horner / Will Jennings
15 - 'The Rose' from The Rose (1979) - Amanda McBroom
16 - 'Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now' from Mannequin (1987) - Albert Hammond / Diane Warren / Richard Hulle

9

Darren Rea

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