It is now December 1st and officially the last month of the year. Only Twenty Four Days until Christmas. And the Oscars are just around the corner. The Golden Globe Nominations come out Thursday December 15th. The Golden Globes Ceremony is Sunday January 15th. The Oscar Nominees are announced Tuesday January 24th. And the Oscars are on Sunday February 26th. Most of the nominated movies are released in these last couple of months of the year. And most of these movies have some great scores and soundtracks to go along with them. I like to think of it as soundtrack season as well. I almost love soundtracks as much as I love movies. It really is one of my favorite things about watching movies. The music is often what really makes me fall in love with the music. It is those cinematic moments with no dialogue and just the music that I really appreciate most.

Two of my favorite movies of the year so far came out a couple of months ago. Both Beginners and Drive are two of my favorites and they both have great soundtracks to go along with them. The Drive Soundtrack features songs from The Chromatics and Desire and an amazing score by Cliff Martinez. Beginners features songs from Jelly Roll Morton, Josephine Baker, and Mamie Smith. Another one of my favorite films of the year was the latest by Woody Allen. However, Midnight in Paris did not get a proper soundtrack release. The Soundtracks to Drive and Beginners are out now..




Drive
Soundtrack










Soundtrack






A couple of great soundtracks just came out this week and the week prior. One of the best movies of the year has an amazing soundtrack to go along with it. I am in love with The Artist. You have to go see The Artist. I already have plans to go see it a second time. It is one of those movies that I can't stop thinking about since I saw it. I know some people will want to pick on this beautiful little movie just because everyone seems to love it. But it really is a good as it seems. Some movies are just perfect and need to be unconditionally loved. And this is one of them. It is a beautiful tribute to Los Angeles and the silent era of film. I am big fan of Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. And I know it is not easy to pull off those early movies. Without the characters having an actual voice and dialogue, it is the job of the actor to convey everything that is going on with their actions, gestures and facial expressions. This movie does all that and ends of feeling like some long lost movie that they just uncovered. The casting of the film is perfect. The costumes, art direction, makeup, music and acting all come together to make one perfect film. I could watch this movie again just to see the dog that portray the leads sidekick companion. The dog is amazing! Just as good as the dog in Beginners! And did you know that John Goodman is in this movie. I would really see anything with John Goodman. And this is one of his best roles of all time. The film is in black & white and almost entirely silent. I just hope that everyone sees it and that it gets the recognition that it deserves. I really have not been impacted by a movie like this in a while. And it is always nice to be able to relive the movie over and over again by listening to the score or soundtrack to the movie. This is a good one.

Check out all of these soundtracks out in the last couple of weeks...




The Artist
Original Score (Music by Ludovic Bource)







Hugo
Original Score (Music by Howard Shore)








The Muppets
Original Soundtrack






War Horse
Original Score (Music by John Williams)







A Dangerous Method
Original Score (Music by Howard Shore)







The Skin I Live In
Original Score (Music by Alberto Iglesias)







The Descendants
Soundtrack






There are some great composers that you are probably more familiar with than you think you are. They are about 10 or so composers that are often used for the big movies of the year. Many of the directors use the same composers for most of their films. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg almost always use John Williams. Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, David Fincher and Peter Jackson all tend to use Howard Shore. Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, Gore Verbinski, and Christopher Nolan all tend to use Hans Zimmer. Almodovar uses Alberto Iglesias. Darren Aronofsky uses Clint Mansell. Tim Burton uses Danny Elfman. Hitchcock usually used Bernard Herrmann.

Here is a list of some of the great composers and the movies that they have done the scores for....

John Williams
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
The Long Goodbye
The Towering Inferno
Earthquake
Jaws
Star Wars (1977)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Superman
Raiders of the Last Ark
E.T.
Empire of the Sun
The Witches of Eastwick
The Accidental Tourist
JFK
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
A.I.
Minority Report
Catch Me If You Can
Harry Potter
Munich
Adventures of TinTin
War Horse
Lincoln

Howard Shore
The Brood
Scanners
Videodrome
Dead Ringers
The Silence of the Lambs
Ed Wood
Seven
Crash (1996)
Existenz
High Fidelity
The Lord of the Rings
Gangs of New York
The Aviator
A History of Violence
The Departed
Eastern Promises
A Dangerous Method
The Hobbit

Hans Zimmer
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy
Pacific Heights
Thelma & Louise
Backdraft
True Romance
Point of No Return
The Lion King
Gladiator
Black Hawk Down
Pearl Harbor
Hannibal
Batman Begins
The Da Vinci Code
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Angels & Demons
Sherlock Holmes
Inception
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
The Dark Knight Rises

Jerry Goldsmith
Planet of the Apes
Paton
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Papillon
Chinatown
Logan's Run
The Omen
Coma
Capricorn One
Alien
Star Trek
Polergeist
First Blood
Gremlins
Legend
Total Recall
Sleeping With The Enemy
Basic Instince
L.A. Confidential

Elmer Bernstein
Animal House
Meatballs
Airplane!
An American Werewolf In London
Stripes
Trading Places
Ghostbusters
Spies Like Us
The Three Amigos
Funny Farm
The Grifters
The Age of Innocence
Devil in a Blue Dress
Far From Heaven

Bernard Herrmann
Citizen Kane
Vertigo
North By Northwest
Psycho
Cape Fear
Jason & the Argonauts
The Birds
Marnie
Torn Curtain
Fahrenheit 451
Sisters
Taxi Driver

Max Steiner
Jezebel
Dark Victory
Gone With the Wind
Casablanca
Now, Voyager
Adventures of Mark Twain
Mildred Pierce
The Big Sleep
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Johnny Belinda
Fountainhead
The Flame & the Arrow
The Jazz Singer
The Cain Mutiny
The Searchers

Alberto Iglesias
The Flower Of My Secret
Live Flesh
All About My Mother
Sex and Lucia
Talk To Her
Bad Education
The Constant Gardner
Volver
The Kite Runner
Che
Broken Embraces
The Skin I Live In
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Carnage

Danny Elfman
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Summer School
Beetlejuice
Scrooged
Batman
Nightbreed
Dick Tracy
Darkman
Edward Scissorhands
Nightmare Before Christmas
Dolores Claiborne
To Die For
Freeway
Mars Attacks!
Sleepy Hollow
Big Fish
Milk
The Hunger Games
Dark Shadows
Oz, The Great & Powerful

Giorgio Moroder
Midnight Express
Amerian Gigolo
Cat People
Scarface
Flashdance
Superman III
Electric Dreams
Thief of Hearts
Neverending Story
Top Gun
Over the Top

Clint Mansell
Pi
Requiem For A Dream
The Fountain
Smokin' Aces
The Wrestler
Moon
Black Swan

Alexandre Desplat
Syriana
The Queen
The Golden Compass
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Ghost Writer
The King's Speech
The Tree of Life
The Ides of March
Carnage
Extremely Loud and Extremely Close

And the Soundtracks keep on coming in the following weeks. Next week we have the soundtrack for Shame, the new movie by Steve McQueen starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. In two weeks on 12/13 we have the soundtrack to the new Matt Damon film We Bought A Zoo. The soundtrack is all done by Jonsi of Sigur Ros. It features both old and new songs. This week also brings us the soundtrack to The Adventures of TinTin, the new film by Steven Spielberg. And the most anticipated film and soundtrack of the year is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. This new version of the film is directed by David Fincher. And the original score is composed by Trent Reznor. They were last matched up together to work on The Social Network.

out 12/6



Shame
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Preorder Now!



A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas-Original Score (Music by William Ross)

out 12/13




We Bought A Zoo
Soundtrack (Music by Jonsi)
Preorder Now!





Adventures of TinTin-Original Score (Music by John Williams)

Downton Abbey-Original Music from the Television Series (Music by John Lunn)

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows-Original Score (Music by Hans Zimmer)


out 12/20

The Rum Diary-Original Score (Music by Christopher Young)


out 12/27






The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Original Score (Music by Trent Reznor)
Preorder Now!





also out 11/21...
 





50 Words For Snow by Kate Bush











Drawing of Threes by Desertshore











Everything You Always Wanted To Know About The Sea by Sea Lions







also out 11/29...






Singles Collection by Gorillaz










Gish: Deluxe Edition by Smashing Pumpkins












Siamese Dream: Deluxe Edition by Smashing Pumpkins