Richard and Adam love a themed album, don’t they? Their last offering was their Christmas album and this time around, they have chosen songs from some of the favourite films, to give us their third album, called At The Movies. Upon first glance, you can see the films from which the songs are taken from right away. Mariah Carey’s Without You? Prizes if you can guess which film that is taken from!
The album opens with Can You Feel the Love Tonight, taken from the Lion King, it’s hard not to compare it to Elton John’s version, because we love the original so much, but they give their own spin on it, who knew the Lion King could have operatic moments. Moon River completely suits them and you can hear how their voices have matured on this song. Parla Pio Piano shows their vocal skills to the very best of their ability, they sound so advanced for their young ages on this song and we think they should be concentrating on more difficult songs like this, as they truly excel and shine. Without You is one of our favourite songs, (clearly they have excellent taste in song choices), there’s quite a slow start to the song, but on the second half of the song they pack in some punch and the orchestration sweeps them along to an epic moment.
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You topped the charts for what seemed like an eternity, watching Top of the Pops waiting for a new number one, but alas we had to wait a whopping four months for a new one! What better song to take from the movies than this one? Richard and Adam have given this song their own, romantic twist on it, which is completely removed from the rockier version we’re used to. This is one of our favourites on the album, they simply sound classy and note perfect. Kiss from a Rose is given an almost theatrical operatic sound and we like it a lot! We can almost imagine the Phantom in the Phantom of the Opera singing this song, that’s what their version evokes for us, wearing capes and powering across the stage as they go.
When You Say Nothing At All sounds as if it was almost made for them. When we saw Goldfinger on the album, we did scratch our heads a little, as to how they could take on such an iconic and diva-standard song, made famous of course by the great Shirley Bassey. We were not initially convinced by it, as we thought that it needed a lot more oomph, until 3/4 the way through and the guys really give it some belt and really get in to the energy of the song and when the drama in the music keeps on getting bigger and bolder, Richard and Adam seem to come out of themselves more, where it’s needed. When Somebody Loved Me and I Have a Dream finish the album off. I Have a Dream is given to us in a-cappella, it’s nice enough, but we almost feel as if we’re listening to them rehearsing before going on-stage (not a bad thing), but in the midst of it, we feel as if we’re waiting for the music to kick in.
There are a lot of slowies on this album, a lot of songs where you could sit back, relax and have a glass of baileys/whiskey (delete as appropriate) and just enjoy their voices. They are certainly improving with age and their voices will only continue to develop and get stronger as they mature. We feel as if Richard and Adam should continue to push themselves to try difficult pieces, because it’s in those moments that you realise just how strong their voices are. There are so many classic favourite songs on this album, that their fans will know and they’re going to love listening to their versions of them. Great effort, guys.
