A side note before we begin this post. After I put up the last one (Me and Abed have an agreement), people were telling me how much they liked the writing and how different it was compared to my normal style. First of all, thank you, but unfortunately starting from the second paragraph until “its the story of us” was taken from the film’s website (linked at the bottom of that post) under “The Film” link. I’m sorry to have misled you like that. Anywho…
Recently since Sibi posted dialogue from The Wackeness I’ve been stuck thinking about soundtracks and scores. Easily my favorite part of a movie, the music can make or break a film experience. The only career I’ve legitimately considered besides one in medicine (and soccer player…that ones still a work in progress) was music in film. Composing scores and putting together soundtracks is one of those things that brings the butterflies whenever I do it. Something as simple as playing the right track when we’re driving around that makes everyone vibe just right makes me feel great inside…it’s all about the little things, right?
Over the course of today and tomorrow I will be writing about my favorite scores and soundtracks. Two different categories for two completely different types of musical expression. I’m not going to include the ridiculous epics that everyone knows like John Williams’ Star Wars score, but instead choose ones from movies that are maybe less popular, or simply not appreciated as much as they should be. For some reason when I throw top 5’s together, I tend to pick stuff that less people know about (My top 5 movies are a great example of that.) I’d like to think its because I’m using this project as a place to showcase lesser known art to people who don’t find out about cool stuff like this…or maybe it’s to seem like I’m not a bandwagon jumper. I haven’t fully figured this out yet but lets go with the first one until I do. Also, before we start, I’d like to add that I’m not including disney movies because I’ve always associated scores with lyric-less music and because it’d probably take over at least 2-3 spots of the list (BIG disney fan).
Top 5 Scores (No Particular Order…for future purposes, lets just make it easy and say NPO. Thanks for cooperating)
5) Friday Night Lights – Explosions in the Sky destroyed this score. If you’ve ever played high school sports, there is a high possibility that you will cry during this movie.
Your Hand In Mine (Goodbye) – Explosions in the Sky
4) Hanna – When I walked out of this movie all I could think about was 1) how good it was, and 2) how dope the music was. Sometimes the great acting can take away from other good parts of the movie but being that this movie has a decent amount of action, it all coexisted perfectly
The Devil Is In The Beats – The Chemical Brothers
3) Afro Samurai – Music by the RZA. Case Closed. “He has produced almost all of Wu-Tang Clan’s albums as well as many Wu-Tang solo and affiliate projects. He is widely considered one of the most influential and landmark hip-hop producers of all time. He subsequently gained attention for his work scoring and then later acting in films. His revolutionary techniques of sampling, speeding up tracks to fit the beat laced, and his cinematic skits sprinkled throughout albums have greatly inspired other producers in the industry. He produced for a slew of Wu Tang solo albums as well as group albums that dominated not only commercially, but also thematically and artistically. His production from the mid to the late 90’s brought about one of the greatest ’bouts’ or ‘runs’ of inspiration the industry has seen, creating various classics.” Sean still won’t watch this with me cause he swears he’d only enjoy it if he was high. I wish I could somehow force him to watch it so that he could finally see what I’ve been raving about this whole time. I love the RZA (and Wu-Tang, for that matter…hence the longest section) for all of this and because he scored Kill Bill: Vol 1 and 2. The movie is awesome, music is even better. Check. It.
Ninjaman – RZA
Afro Samurai Theme – RZA
2) Gladiator – Seeing as how Hans Zimmer (The Lion King, Inception, every Ridley Scott movie) did the score and it won an Oscar, this one is clearly an exception. This movie makes me cry almost every time, mostly because the music is so fitting and the last song is Perfect.
Now We Are Free
1) Requiem For A Dream – This is #1 in my book. Period. Clint Mansell (Pi, The Wrestler, Moon, Black Swan) is a musical genius who has taken a step away from the norm of classical music scores and has started a phase of “modern music” scores…whatever that means. Not a big fan of the whole idea of genres, but I will say that he is creating a whole new type of aura around the movies he works on with his original sound. This score perfectly captures the feelings of the momentary ups, and very real (and realistic) downs that occur during the movie. This is the one score I can listen to from beginning to end just as something to chill to. Ugh… He’s so talented it’s ridiculous. The theme for the movie (Lux Aeterna…can be heard below) was used as the theme for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Requiem for a Tower) and for Lil Jon’s “Throw It Up”. Enjoy
Party
Lux Aeterna
Hope you enjoyed it
Top 5 Soundtracks to come tomorrow
WeDontBelongg 