The plot for
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
follows a novice Icelandic band that fumbles their way into an international song contest, experiencing ridiculous misadventures along the way. This soundtrack collects all the
ABBA
-inspired and Europop satire songs, offering up over-the-top pop from fictional artists portrayed by
Will Ferrell
,
Demi Lovato
, and others. The film is a comedy, and these songs are on-point parodies of overly dramatic and fantastical Eurobeat ("Volcano Man," "Double Trouble"), sad and lonely confessional pop-star balladry ("In the Mirror" is C-grade
Adele
), and other silly folk songs or references to the film. The satire is a little too on-the-nose in most cases, as many of these surprisingly catchy songs sound like genuine bids for pop appeal with the kind of glossy production most Top 40 radio hits are made of. The laughs are subtle for the most part, but the soundtrack illustrates the amount of effort and detail that went into the songwriting aspect of a film based around a very specific music culture. ~ Fred Thomas