The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition

(Reigning Phoenix Music)

There are some albums you listen to because they're brilliant. There are others you listen to because they transport you somewhere. Back to a particular time, a particular place, a particular feeling. The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition manages to do both for me, although admittedly the nostalgia factor here is absolutely massive. I loved Transformers as a kid, and hearing this music again brings back a ridiculous number of memories. Quite frankly, it makes me grin like an Eight-year-old all over again.

I still have the original soundtrack, and it remains one of those records that I can stick on whenever I need a guaranteed smile. The original Transformers: The Movie soundtrack was such a strange and wonderful collision of animated sci-fi, Eighties excess, melodic rock, keyboards and enormous choruses. Looking back now, I genuinely wonder whether records and soundtracks like this were the beginning of my lifelong love affair with melodic rock. I was absorbing all these huge guitar sounds, soaring vocals and instantly memorable melodies before I even really understood what the genre was.

And at the centre of all that, for me, was Stan Bush. Bush has remained one of my favourite musicians to this day, and there is something almost magical about hearing his voice attached to this material. His vocals have an unmistakable warmth and emotional quality, and they fit the world of Transformers ridiculously well. There's an earnestness to his delivery that makes even the most gloriously Eighties moments feel completely sincere. Thankfully, one of the smartest decisions made with this Reformatted Edition is keeping Bush's iconic vocals on his contributions.

Because this isn't simply a remaster or a cleaned-up reissue. The Reformatted Edition takes the original material and essentially throws it into the workshop, gives it a new coat of paint, changes a few of the mechanical components and sends it back out into battle. The band behind the new versions is dubbed the Knights of Unicron, and they've given the music a noticeably different presentation while retaining enough of the DNA of the original to keep that nostalgic connection intact. And I have to admit, I wasn't entirely sure how I'd feel about that.

When you have such a strong emotional attachment to an original soundtrack, there is always a danger that messing around with it will feel sacrilegious. Sometimes you don't want someone improving your childhood memories. You just want them left alone. Thankfully, that's not really what this album feels like. Instead, it's more like an alternate-universe version of something I already love.

It's different. Very different in places. But it's also brilliant in its own way.

The updated production gives some of the material a bigger, more modern rock presence, while the guest vocalists bring their own personalities into the mix. Sebastian Bach is an obvious highlight, and his involvement is particularly fitting given the unapologetically larger-than-life rock attitude running through the whole project. There's a wonderful sense that everyone involved understands that this material is supposed to be fun. Nobody is pretending that we're dealing with minimalist art music here. This is giant robots, Eighties rock and emotional melodrama with the volume knob permanently stuck somewhere between eleven and twelve. And that's precisely why it works.

It's also great to hear Vince DiCola making appearances. His contribution to the original Transformers: The Movie score is an enormous part of what made that soundtrack so distinctive, and his involvement here provides another important link between the original and this new interpretation. His music helped give the movie that epic, futuristic atmosphere, and hearing those familiar musical fingerprints within this reformatted version adds another layer of authenticity.

The biggest challenge with an album like this is balancing nostalgia with reinvention. Go too far in one direction and you've either created a glorified copy or something that barely resembles the source material. The Knights of Unicron largely manage to find that middle ground. They aren't simply trying to recreate the original note-for-note, but neither are they throwing away everything that made it special.

For someone coming to this without the emotional baggage of having grown up with Transformers, I suspect this will simply sound like a gloriously over-the-top melodic rock soundtrack with a fascinating Eighties heritage. For those of us who were there, though, there's an additional dimension. Every familiar sound seems to unlock another little memory.

It isn't perfect, however. I'm going to say this now and probably upset someone: ‘Dare To Be Stupid’ was shit on the original soundtrack and it continues to be shit here. There, I've said it. I know some people absolutely adore it, but for me it remains the one great big blemish on an otherwise hugely enjoyable experience. Reformatted, reimagined, polished, whatever you want to call it, it's still ‘Dare To Be Stupid’. Sorry, Weird Al.

Aside from that particular musical crime against my childhood, I absolutely love this album. The Reformatted Edition doesn't replace the original for me. It couldn't. The original soundtrack is tied to childhood memories, the film itself, and that feeling of discovering music that would eventually become a huge part of my life. This new version is something different. It's a celebration of that material rather than a replacement for it. And that's what makes it so much fun.

For me, this is more than just a Transformers soundtrack. It's a musical time machine. It's a reminder of why big melodies, huge vocals, guitars and unapologetically emotional rock music grabbed me in the first place. Hearing Stan Bush still sounding fantastic, Vince DiCola's involvement, the Knights of Unicron putting their own spin on the material and guest appearances such as Sebastian Bach makes this a fascinating companion to the original.

The original will always have the sentimental advantage, but this Reformatted Edition absolutely earns its place alongside it. More than forty years after I first discovered those transforming robots, I'm still getting a ridiculous grin on my face when I hear this music. And honestly, what more could you ask from a soundtrack?

The Transformers: The Movie: The Soundtrack: The Reformatted Edition is an absolute nostalgia bomb for anyone who grew up with giant robots, Eighties rock and more emotional trauma than a Saturday morning cartoon really had any right to deliver. The original soundtrack will always hold a special place in my heart, but this new incarnation proves that these songs and compositions still have plenty of life in them. The Knights of Unicron have given the material a fresh identity without destroying what made it special, and hearing Stan Bush and Vince DiCola involved is the icing on the cake. If this music was part of your childhood, prepare to smile.

Autobots, Roll Out!

8/10

Essential Track – ‘Dare’

Review by Woody