Abraham’s Daughter – Arcade Fire

New Music!

Hi! Sorry for the lack of … anything recently. My life has been completely taken over by The Hunger Games. Everyone probably thinks they are the most extreme fans but I regularly exhibit worrying signs of addiction. Stephen Fry still reads HP to me to sleep and I save my HP stationary paper for really, really special people. Anyway, 3 books, 1 soundtrack and 7 hours browsing The Hunger Games Tumblr page and I’ve come back down to Earth. Or as close to Earth as one can be while listening to the audiobook. Anyway, as the film is released on Friday (Friday! So close! And on a side note: my local cinema is one of the only ones to show prreviews on the Thursday. I’m busy unfortunately, which has made me about as happy as a trackerjacked Glimmer) I thought I’d pull some notable songs from the soundtrack. Which is really, really good. Behold:

A Real Hero – College (feat. Electric Youth) (Drive Soundtrack)

This album artwork should give you an idea how crazily cool Ryan Gosling is in Drive

I saw lots of films this weekend. Green Lantern – bad, Tinker Tailor – better, Drive… Drive is just one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Beautifully filmed, magnificent acting (Ryan Gosling performs like Clint Eastwood) and one of the best soundtracks ever. Drive represents a moment in a cinematic history and this is helped hugely by a wonderful score. Henry’s looked at such things before so check his thoughts out but I’m going to give you some life-changing advice instead.

The Downeaster “Alexa” – Billy Joel

I’m sure by now many of you have already seen the second instalment of The Hangover which, despite not being quite as funny as the first one, still had me in stitches in parts. But like the first one, on a second watch what strikes is the quality of the film around the laughs. The direction is good but the soundtrack is really excellent. It sets the tone for the movie beautifully and whilst Stu’s (Ed Helms) song wasn’t quite as memorable as What do tigers dream of, the rest of the music really rocks.

So I went out and bought the soundtrack straight after seeing the movie yesterday, but it was for one song in particular. The opening shot of the resort in Thailand was accompanied by an awesome song, strong and lyrically beautiful. Did it compliment the movie? Sure. But the song itself was what I cared about and I’m sure those with me will testify to how irritating I was asking who it was.

People, it’s Billy Joel! Suffice to say, I was surprised. We Didn’t Start the Fire is obviously a classic but Billy Joel has never been an artist I have cared much for. I sure as shit was wrong though because this is a great song and I’ve been singing it (badly) all day. Although this was originally released on the album Storm Front twenty years ago, this version has a delightful snippet from the movie with one of my absolute favourite quotes so listen out at the end!

Strobe (Adagio In D Minor) – John Murphy

So since there hasn’t been any classical for a while, I thought I’d maybe give you some soundtrack music. Hans Zimmer’s Time from Inception was the last soundtrack on here, and it’s epic, so maybe it’s time to explore a little more. The first song is super cool. It appeared in the movie Sunshine, and is called Strobe (Adagio in D Minor). It’s the only song I would ever want to be playing in the background as I got ready to try something outrageous in order to save the world, or sprint out of a burning building in glorious super super slo-mo. Check it out:

As an added bonus for you, here’s Flying Home by Marius Vries, Ilan Eshkeri, Henry Jackman, and John Murphy. I know that’s a lot of names, but even though this song is short, it’s awesome. The strings and electric guitars blend really well, and although it’s not perhaps on the same level of epic as Time, it’s certainly not far off.

Does it maybe surprise you that both of these songs are from the score of the movie Kick-Ass? Good music is good music…

Time – Hans Zimmer

Okay, maybe it’s a little unusual, but if any piece of classical music is good enough to feature on a blog, this is it. German composer Hans Zimmer has helped produce soundtracks to over 100 films over the course of 3 decades. It’s safe to say that he knows what he’s doing. Each soundtrack is incredible and fits the film staggeringly well, and there are always at least one or two absolute gems to be heard.

This track, entitled Time, is from the recent movie Inception. It’s an epic song and the strings swell beautifully with an piano accompaniment. Near the climax, horns are blasting and it just makes for something incredible. I would just put this on and sit back and listen…

Then again, if classical music isn’t your thing, never fear. You know we like to look after you over here, so here’s an awesome remix of the song to enjoy:

Time – Hans Zimmer (We Plants Are Happy Plants Remix):