Customer Reviews

High School Reunion - a tribute to those great 80's films!

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I never review items on Amazon but I had to give this one its props. My college radio station has been playing tracks off this comp for a few weeks and I finally bought it. I figured I'd only like a few songs (usual for comps), but this cd has like 15 killer tracks. Kristin Hersh doing Wave of Mutilation is my favorite as of today, but there are so many good ones that it's constantly changing. I recommend this one. Great songs, cool art, great liner notes, and an overall exceptional CD. Buy it!

My sister bought me the High School Reunion CD for xmas and I LOVE it!! It's like... fresh nostalgia. After opening it, all the 80's kids in the family had a listen and we competed to see who could be first to name the movie, the original artist, and the artist on the record. Even the gen x-ers/gen y-ers loved it.

My favorite tracks so far (and I've only had it for a day) is John P. Strohm covering Somebody's Baby, Kristin Hersh covering Wave of Mutilation, The Caulfield Sisters covering the Smiths, Matthew Sweet covering Tom Petty's "American Girl", and The Atomic Hep Cats covering Echo & the Bunnymen. AND... oh my gosh, Lori McKenna too. Her version of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" is soooooo beautiful. I keep playing it over and over. I also love some of the fun songs like Weird Science (it makes me want to dance), and Turning Japanese.

I highly recommend this CD. It is fun, fun, fun!!!

High School Reunion is a fun spin for anyone who grew up in the 80's. This collection is so much fun. It brought back so many memories of those terrific John Hughes and John Cusack films. I really enjoyed listening to this CD. It's a good one for your collection.

I grew up in the 80's so this CD brings me back. Smart selection of songs and cool indie artists. I'm glad they decided to go with more rock songs rather than the really cheesy 80's synth songs. There's some amazing covers on High School Reunion. Lori McKenna's version of "In Your Eyes" is worth the 13 bucks alone. Matthew Sweet doing Tom Petty? It sounds awesome. John Strohm turns in an edgy cover of "Somebody's Baby", and The Modifiers turn "Love My Way" into a Husker Du influenced punk masterpiece. Not all the songs are exceptional, some hold true to the originals, but most of them are standouts and that's very impressive for a compilation with 20 songs. And before I forget there is some hilarious liner notes written by Chris Gore from FilmThreat. That guy rocks - and so does High School Reunion. Cool vinyl-looking CD too! This is definitely one of my top 10 CD's of 2006 so far.

I love this CD. I think it's one of the best compilations I've heard in a long time. I read about it in the New York Times a few weeks ago. They gave it glowing reviews which is very unusual so I bought it from amazon and now I know why. This is the way compilations should be done. Fun covers, interesting re-structuring of classics, and just enough great artists to make it a fun ride. I was in High School during the 80's so this brings me back. Somebody's Baby, American Girl, Turning Japanese, Weird Science; it's all here. My favorite tracks (this week) are Lori McKenna's cover of In Your Eyes. It's beautiful. So is The Caulfield Sisters version of Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, and Kristin Hersh doing The Pixies is just icing on the cake. I also LOVE PC Munoz cover of I Go Crazy. This is a really great record. I've been playing it non-stop, and tonight it officially made it into my iPod. :-)

I grew up watching the movies that contained these songs and listening to these songs. Back in the 80's the movies were about the soundtrack as much as they were about the screenplay. Not only do listening to these songs transport me back to my high school days, but also remind me of all the great movies that came out back then.

I pre-ordered this cd thinking it was such a cool idea. Gather up all the great songs from my high school years into 1 cd. I am also a sucker for cover versions of songs - I love hearing a band take a new angle on a great song, makeit their own. This CD is full of great songs re-recorded magnificently. There really are no "clunkers" on this CD, it is incredible - every song is great.

Some songs that stand out are:

Somebody's Baby - John P. Strohm: This track is absolutely wonderful. It sounds so crisp and clean. He has so many layers of sound in this song. It is the best cover version of this song that I have ever heard.

American Girl - Matthew Sweet: what can I say. This is one of the best songs from the 80's, done by one of the best signer/songwriters of recent memory. Matthew sounds as good on this song as he did on his biggest MTV hits.

In Your Eyes - Lori McKenna: I saw Lori on Oprah a few weeks ago and now I have her on this cd. As much as I love Peter Gabriel's original version of this song - I have to say, I think Lori's version is 10 times better. And that is saying a lot because the original version is a classic. Lori version is so haunting, it gives me chills.

Bring on the Dancing Horses - The Atomic Hep Cats: Such a great, pop/grungy version of this song. I like this song in the 80's, I wouldn't say I loved it. But I love this version, such a fresh spin of the song.

Repo Man - Frank Black: Frank Black doing what he does best. He is an music icon and it is obvious why with songs like this.

I can't find a reason to eject this from my cd player, it is awesome!

Who can argue with the fact that it's huge fun to sing cover's of 80's songs. Eighties songs are some of the most popular songs chosen at Karaoke Bars on any given night. American Laundromat Records has released "High School Reunion-A Tribute To Great 80s Films." The album features 20 great 80's classic songs covered by up and coming and underground artists for the most part. The major classic 80's teen flicks are covered in this release. Songs from the soundtrack of Valley Girl, Sixteen Candles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Pretty in Pink and The Breakfast Club are among the films with songs on the High School Reunion Tribute CD.

Every group puts their own spin on these classic songs. Are they better, the same or worse than the original versions? That's up to the individual listeners taste. The Dipsomaniacs version of "A Million Miles Away," is similar to the original and a very good cover. The group Blank Pages offers up a somewhat slower version of The Vapors classic song "Turning Japanese." AM's version of "Don't You Forget About Me," is nothing like the original. This song has been covered so many times over the years by various artists including Billy Idol who covered the song on his Greatest Hits CD. It's really interesting to listen to how these various artists put their own spin on songs you have heard time and time again. Some of the songs are so different they are only recognizable by lyrics, especially The Modifiers cover of the Psychedelic Furs song "Love My Way."

If you like 80's music enough to listen to some covers check out the CD High School Reunion. It's really nice to hear these artists interpretations of these songs.

I'd been hearing a lot about this CD so I reluctantly bought it and man this is a totally awesome compilation. Matthew Sweet covering Tom Petty's "American Girl" is worth the $15 bucks easily. John P. Strohm turns in an edgy cover of Jackson Browne's best song ever "Somebody's Baby", and Nashville's newest darling Lori McKenna does a version of "In Your Eyes" that's sa-weeeeeet. I have to say I'm impressed by a lot of the indie bands I never heard of too. Anyone who likes those goofy 80's films, was completely in love with Molly Ringwald, or owns one of those Saturday Morning Cartoon CD's will dig this compilation.

WOW! That's all I can say. This is by far the best compilation I ever bought and I've bought dozens and dozens over the years. I actually learned about this from the New York Times review. I immediately purchased it on iTunes. I loved it so much I had to have an actual CD too. Glad I did because the CD has great liner notes.

The music is fantastic. Lori McKenna's version of In Your Eyes is outstanding, Matthew Sweet does a dead-on cover of American Girl, Turning Japanese is so much fun as is Weird Science. There's also some really different versions of Love My Way, and I Go Crazy which I cannot stop playing. The Dresden Dolls do a really excellent version of Pretty in Pink which kind of shocked me. I also absolutely LOVE John P. Strohm's cover of Jackson Brown's Somebody's Baby. Usually these compilations have one or two good songs. This one has 20!!!

This Christmas it has become my perfect grab bag gift & holiday stocking stuffer. I've probably purchased 9 copies so far. I cannot recommend this one enough. It's worth every penny, and makes a great gift.

Merry Christmas!

I bought this one last month along with 4 other 80's-related CD's. I had an 80's party!!! This one was a favorite with my friends and family. High School Reunion does a great job capturing those oh-so-important moments of those quintessential 80's teens films by having cool rockers like Frank Black (Pixies), Matthew Sweet, Kristin Hersh (Throwing Muses), Lori McKenna, etc. reinventing them. My favorite tracks were Lori McKenna's version of Peter Gabriel's classic "In Your Eyes", John Strohm covering Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby", Matthew Sweet (I love that guy - buy his new all covers record - it rocks) covering "American Girl", and The Modifiers doing "Love My Way", Kristin Hersh covering The Pixies "Wave of Mutilation", and there's so many more. Turning Japanese, Million Miles Away, Repo Man, Bring on the Dancing Horses, and the list goes on. I think there's 18 or 19 tracks in all. The 80's are back!!! Well, only for the moment I fear. x smile x