Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (Album Review)

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Guardians of the Galaxy, the top grossing movie of the year, was topped by the Awesome Mix Vol. 1, a compilation of different songs from the seventies that were given to Peter Quill, or Starlord, as a child by his mother before she died of cancer. This soundtrack, Awesome Mix Vol. 1, did better on the Billboard charts than the movie did on the grossing charts, which is quite special for a soundtrack to do so. All of these songs play strong parts in the story and are monumental to Peter Quill, as they are the soundtrack to his life.

Within the opening scene, Peter Quill begins this classic comic movie with a classic song; “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone. Starlord (Chris Pratt) struts his stuff around as he searches for the infamous “Orb,” or Infinity Stone. This song has an important mark because as the first song that is played in the movie, it is the song everyone remembers the movie by. It is also genius for this to be the first song because it is so upbeat and starts the movie off on a fun note, and fun to describe this movie is simply an understatement. The movie continues to have songs from the beautiful seventies such as “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede, which is played when Starlord, along with Gamora, Rocket the Raccoon, and Groot and Drax are arrested and sent to prison. One of the prison guards takes Starlord’s beloved tape player, home to his Awesome Mix, and as the guard is listening to this song, Starlord calls him out on playing his tape player by saying, “Hooked on A Feeling, Blue Swede, THAT Song BELONGS TO ME!” It proceeds with Starlord getting tasered. Another famous seventies song, which is featured on other soundtracks for famous films, such as Shrek, “Escape (Piña Colada)” had become a fun-filled summer and cruising staple and is conveniently played as they escape the prison on Starlord’s ship.

This is a comic book movie, but it does not mean that there cannot by an array of emotions, such as love, interrupted by glimpses of cockiness, thanks to Starlord. When they end up in Knowhere, a foreign planet inside the head of an old magical being, they end up at what seems to be a bar and Gamora becomes curious of why the tape player is so important to Peter Quill, because he would not leave prison without it. Peter puts the earphones on her head and plays the emotional song “Fooled Around and Fell In Love” by Elvin Bishop. The emotional song almost leads to a kiss, which Gamora refuses to let happen, for she is a trained warrior and refuses to fall in love. As the Guardians of the Galaxy see they are being followed and sought after by Ronan the Barbarian, brilliantly played be Lee Pace, and each side prepares to gather all of their forces, the classic song, “Cherry Bomb” by Joan Jett’s first band, The Runaways begins! At the end, without any spoilers, Chris Pratt sings the classic song,” o-o-h Child” and in the end, “Ain’t No Mountain High” plays and it ends the movie beautifully, leaving an extremely positive note, and possibly a sequel to the mix. This mix is so powerful because teenagers and kids of all ages, who see these people as their comic book heroes come to life, come to know classic Soft Rock of the seventies, that made a mark on that generation. This generation of kids will come to see the greatness of the seventies and how it rocked just as much as the current time and this soundtrack goes to show the power of movies over generations. It is a well-loved movie, and the soundtrack to Peter Quills life is just as loved. CrypticRock gives Awesome Mix Vol. 1 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Hollywood Records
Hollywood Records

Read the review of Guardians of the Galaxy:

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