Once Upon a Sound

"The best soundtrack music by-passes your mind and goes straight to your soul ..." Cameron Crowe

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Pixar Special

""I Will Go Sailing No More" was a wistful lament for Buzz when he made the agonizing discovery that he was a toy, not a space hero. (Randy) Newman's winning score helped set the mood for the charming film that was a box office champion for Christmas 1995." Toy Story

"Seeing the 'Married Life' sequence for the first time. I just cried. Here you have this film, which is very funny and colorful with lots of adventure, but at its heart it's telling you, 'Don't forget, this is what we're all going to go through in our life.' Out of that feeling came the whole score." Michael Giacchino (Composer of Up)

"There are grand orchestral themes full of lush string playing, stirring action music, cues that sounds like they combine sound effects with the music, contemporary pop tunes, and even a complement of those quirky little motifs, usually played on odd instruments, that are Newman's signature as a composer." Wall-e (Original Score)

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With the start of the 6th season of AMC's Mad Men having just begun I thought it was only right that I featured one of my favourite songs from season 1 as my Tune of the Day today.

Here's Ella Fitzgerald singing Manhattan. It's worth checking out the other songs featured throughout the past 5 seasons as you'll find many treats that they've thrown in!

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"The visuals are addictive and the score, by Jonze's ex-girlfriend Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, is mesmerizing. Max Records, who plays the protagonist, Max, is, in a word, exceptional, capturing the adventurous curiosity and emotional turbulence that define what it means to be a child in any era." Vanity Fair.com

I can imagine that being a part of this film and it's process through directing, filming the backdrop of the scenes in the forest, recording the soundtrack and piecing all areas of the story together must have been a pretty special experience.

Some of my favourite songs from the soundtrack are; Worried Shoes (a cover of a Daniel Johnston song), Hideaway and All Is Love.

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The Making of Where the Wild Things Are Soundtrack

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Where the Wild Things Are is a 2009 film adaption of Maurice Sendak's classic children's tale about a badly behaved young boy who is sent to bed and imagines his own world in a forest full of magical creatures where he is named king.

I didn't read the book as a child, however I watched the film, which was directed by Spike Jonze, and fell in love with the story, the characters and the beautifully crafted soundtrack by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The soundtrack features vocals from Karen O, Max Records (who plays the young boy Max in the film) and a group of children who Jonze and Karen commissioned to be a part of the background singing.

The film is set in southern Australia and the surroundings that were chosen to shoot the majority of the scenes in the film are captivating and, I feel, perfectly in tune with the story.

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"Karen [O, of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs] just channeled it and when I heard that first batch of songs, it felt like my childhood. It felt like what I was trying to make the movie feel like." Spike Jonze

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Here's an interesting little article I found on the BBC's website from last year.

It discusses how the BFI's Sight and Sound magazine poll decided upon Vertigo to be named the 'greatest film of all time' after Citizen Kane had been at the top spot for the last 50 years!

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Monday's Tune of the Day is from the wonderful film Garden State. Iron and Wine's beautiful version of Such Great Heights is just one of the superb songs from the films soundtrack.

Other favourites of mine include Don't Panic by Coldplay, Caring is Creepy by The Shins and The Only Living Boy in New York by Simon and Garfunkel.

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We can thank Vince Gilligan for today's Tune of the Day! Taken from season 3 of AMC's Breaking Bad, this is A Horse With No Name by America. Anyone else excited about the return of season 5 in June!?

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Here's another top film list for ya'll! I wonder what The BFI will have to say about this years films?

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Tune of the Day time folks. This is the final scene from the last ever episode of Sex and the City. The song is You Got the Love by The Source ft. Candi Staton and it fits perfectly with this emotional goodbye from Carrie and the gals!

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Having been, to put it mildly, obsessed with Sex and The City (and, like many other people, OK females, that I know) I needed something new, fresh and "inspirational" to fill the void that Carrie and co left. No, before you all look away, I'm not talking about The Carrie Diaries!

I'm talking about Girls, obviously! Discussed by Dunham in the video below is Season 2 Episode 9 "On All Fours"; one of my favourite episodes from the program so far. Firstly, we see Marnie doing a cringe-worthy version of Stronger by Kanye West, secondly everything that happens to all the main characters shows them in a vulnerable light and in a moment where none of them are particularly certain where they're going or what they want.

And finally, I love the last song that they have chosen to play in the episode; I think it fits perfectly to reflect what has been going on. And Daniel Johnston has a super voice.

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HBO Girls, Lena Dunham. Season 2 Episode 9 "On All Fours"

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Lena Dunham began her career (by began, I really mean this was what she was doing at the point when I first discovered who she was ...) by producing and starring in her own feature film Tiny Furniture.

She gained commercial recognition when her series Girls hit our screens thanks to HBO. With help from her executive producer Judd Apatow (of Knocked Up, Super Bad, Bridemaids and Pineapple Express fame) and the wonderful actors and actresses in the programme (Zosia Mamet who plays Shoshanna being one of my favourites, she's ridiculous, in the best sort of way), Girls has become massively successful, especially for 20 something females of whom most find that they can "connect" to many of the themes portrayed in the program.

Alongside its hilarious, emotional and provoking story lines, the music used is very clever. From tracks by artists such as Santigold, The Vaccines and Fleet Foxes, to name but a few, the songs chosen appear to fit what is going on in each episode and reflects how the characters are feeling at that time.

See my next blog entry for a short clip of Dunham discussing Season 2 Episode 9 ...

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"Music is such a huge part of my creative process. I make playlists to write by and listen to as I head to set in the morning, and I experiment in editing with songs that the characters would love and that accurately reflect their struggles." Lena Dunham

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Happy Easter everybody!

Tune of the Day today is from Dirty Dancing, a classic! I've not gone for the obvious choice of Time of my Life but instead the mo-town hit by The Contours, Do You Love Me. Here's a great clip from the film; the scene in which the Contours' song is used, enjoy!