Mamma Mia!
The Movie Soundtrack (Decca)
There's something about musicals that always sees them and the fans who love them relegated to the bruised and battered side of the dodgeball court. I wanna see Feist at the Academy of Music and all my in-the-know friends ask if they can bum an extra ticket. I wanna see Mamma Mia! and those same friends ask if I've lost my mind.
There's never been anything too cutting-edge cool about Mamma Mia!--neither the stage show based on the ABBA music nor the star-studded big-screen adaptation based on the stage show based on the ABBA music.
ABBA dominated the disco charts with their international superhits ("Dancing Queen," "Mamma Mia," "S.O.S.," "Money, Money, Money" and "Honey, Honey," all of which make the Mamma Mia! soundtrack cut). But they were schmaltz even in the age of the leisure suit, and there's nothing less hip than trying too hard.
That's exactly what ABBA do. They try super-hard to get people smiling and dancing, and you know what? They succeed, hipness be damned.
But this isn't about ABBA. Heck, this isn't even about Mamma Mia! the long-running Broadway musical about a girl who invites her three potential fathers to her wedding on a Greek isle. It's about Mamma Mia! the soundtrack.
The album's a comprehensive affair featuring the vocal talents of the big-name cast, including Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and newish-comer Amanda Seyfried in a role Mean Girls star and triple-threat-wannabe Lindsay Lohan would most likely kill for. Seyfriend--along with supporting players Julie Walters and Christine Baranski--do a lovely job with the staple songs, particularly the title track, which is all sorts of uplifting and giddy thanks to a combination of solid performances and production (the soundtrack is mixed, mastered and produced by ABBA's Benny Andersson and Bj�rn Ulvaeus).
And hey, Meryl Streep can actually sing. Is there anything this woman doesn't do phenomenally?
Probably dodgeball.
Article:
Pop’s Top
Article:
New Time
Article:
Matisyahu
Article:
Record Reviews: New Regina Spektor
Article:
Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound
Article:
Adam Arcuragi
Article:
Super Kuts
Article:
The Contrarian
1. media boy said... on Aug 14, 2008 at 02:52AM
“I was coerced into seeing Mamma Mia (the play), which ended up being great... as for the movie version, sounds fun, though it's awkward to think of ol' Pierce trying to sing, yeeesh”