Song A Day Challenge: My Favorite Soundtracks (Day 5)

For my final selection in the Song A Day Challenge, I knew right away what I had to pick. I couldn’t list my favorite soundtracks without giving a shout-out to “Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1”! 🙂

“Guardians” would have been an awesome movie on its own, but the soundtrack full of retro music definitely kicked it up another notch. What makes the “Awesome Mix” even better is that these aren’t just random pop songs stuck in a film; in the movie, these songs are all part of a mixtape that Starlord/Peter Quill’s mother created for him before her death. This makes the soundtrack a lot more personal and impactful.

While there are many great songs included on the “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” album, my favorite is probably “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone. This song plays during the opening scene of the movie, where Quill is dancing around the planet on his way to steal an artifact. It’s such a fun scene and does a great job setting the tone for the rest of the film:

I’m also partial to the slightly melancholy “I’m Not in Love” by 10cc:

Well, that’s it for the Song A Day Challenge! Thanks again to Bradscribe for nominating me to take on the Song A Day Challenge!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Song A Day Challenge: My Favorite Soundtracks (Day 4)

For day 4 of the Song A Day Challenge, I knew I wanted to pick a track from one of my other favorite film composers, Hans Zimmer. However, Zimmer has written music for so many iconic movies — “Gladiator,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the Dark Knight trilogy, and more — that it was tough to narrow it down to one track.

Since my husband Aaron and I have been working through our Christopher Nolan blog-a-thon project, I decided to go with a song from “The Dark Knight Rises” called “Why Do We Fall?” It’s probably my favorite moment in the whole Dark Knight trilogy, where Bruce Wayne finally summons all his strength and climbs up out of the pit where he’s been imprisoned. I love how the music keeps building and building to this epic finish that really captures Bruce’s triumph over his demons:

Another thing I like about Zimmer as a composer is that he has a very distinctive style and I can almost always pick out his music in a film. Yet even though his music always has a certain sound, I love that he’s willing to experiment, such as the majestically organ-heavy music for “Interstellar” to the quirky, slightly out-of-tune theme for Guy Ritchie’s steampunk “Sherlock Holmes,” in this bonus track:

What are some of your favorite soundtracks from Hans Zimmer?

Thanks again to Bradscribe for nominating me to take on the Song A Day Challenge!

Song A Day Challenge: My Favorite Soundtracks (Day 3)

For day 3 of the Song A Day Challenge, I’m picking a song from the soundtrack to the 2009 Star Trek reboot film by Michael Giacchino. While John Williams will always be my all-time favorite film composer, I think Giacchino is my favorite of the next generation of film composers. I really appreciate what he was able to do with the music for the rebooted Trek franchise; like the movies themselves, he was able to honor what’s come before while also giving the score a fresh and exciting feel.

My favorite track is called “Enterprising Young Men,” which I believe plays as Kirk catches sight of the Enterprise in space for the first time. It’s upbeat, exciting, and captures that sense of wonder the Trek franchise is known for:

Interestingly, just as Star Trek director J.J. Abrams made the jump to a certain galaxy far, far away, Giacchino has also scored music for the Star Wars franchise. The first time I watched “Rogue One,” the music didn’t actually stand out to me all that much. But as I listened to the soundtrack later on at home, I’ve come to appreciate the music more. I’ve heard Giacchino had a very brief time to put together the music, and it would have been interesting to see what he could have done with more time. But there are some really lovely, emotional themes in “Rogue One,” such as the one from this bonus track:

Thanks again to Bradscribe for nominating me to take on the Song A Day Challenge!

Song A Day Challenge: My Favorite Soundtracks (Day 2)

For day 2 of the Song A Day Challenge, I’ve selected a song from the “Tron: Legacy” soundtrack by Daft Punk. I actually don’t own the “Tron: Legacy” film; it’s entertaining to watch but definitely falls short of what it could have been. However, I really, really love the soundtrack because it’s what first introduced me to French electronic music duo Daft Punk.

I thought Daft Punk did a really great job transferring their signature style to a full-length film score. The music has a very cool, futuristic vibe. Here’s one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack (the music actually gets going about 0:45):

I know I’m also supposed to be sticking to film scores, but here’s a bonus track from my favorite Daft Punk album, the disco-infused “Random Access Memories”:

Thanks again to Bradscribe for nominating me to take on the Song A Day Challenge!

Song A Day Challenge: My Favorite Soundtracks (Day 1)

Thank you to Bradscribe for nominating me to take on the Song A Day Challenge! The rules are you have to post a song a day for five consecutive days. Since I love movies so much, I thought it would be fun to do songs from film soundtracks.

My first song isn’t much of a surprise: “The Imperial March” from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.” 😉 John Williams is my all-time favorite film composer, and it was tough to pick out my favorite song from his Star Wars movie scores. But I finally had to go with “The Imperial March.” It’s a simple but powerful song that conveys the might and threat of the Empire. The Star Wars movies wouldn’t have the same impact without Williams’ iconic score.

Let me know if you’d like to join in the Song A Day Challenge; I’d love to hear your favorite songs as well!