Transformers reissued!
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Transformers: The Movie
(Volcano/Legacy)
This “20th Anniversary Special Edition” is not only meant to draw attention to last year’s DVD release of the movie, but to drum up support for the July 4th release of Steven Spielberg’s live-action film.
Whatever the purpose, it can’t inject a sense of “now” into this soundtrack’s 14 tracks, four more than the original version. Sci-fi fans and others of us geeks who had the toys as kids will give ironic high-fives to macho ’80s inspirational “metal” like “Nothin’s Gonna Stand In Our Way” and “The Touch.” D-list acts like Stan Bush, N.R.G. (who boast a singer who sounds like either Rob Halford or King Diamond), the Queensrÿche-aping Spectre General, and Lion — has anyone heard of these guys? Vince DiCola’s synth-metal score doesn’t feel tailored too much to a movie as much as a style, and “Weird Al” Yankovic’s Devo-esque “Dare To Be Stupid” still doesn’t make much sense in this environment. Among the perks are two versions of the movie theme song, though it would have been nice to get the cartoon’s theme — the one we all know — as well. We’ll need all hands on deck to tackle Unicron and save the Matrix.
— Steve Forstneger
