Editor’s note: Welcome to the eighth of a multi-part series dissecting the 2008 Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every weekday leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category (or more) of the Oscars (there are 24 in all). To read any other posts regarding this event, please just click on the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!
By Jorn of Soundtrack Geek.
I guess there’s no secret that I love movies and I love music. What can be better than putting it all together in these nice neat little packages called movie scores and soundtracks? Not much! Without further ado, I present to you the first of my two categories: Best Original Song.
The first thing I noticed when I saw this year’s category is that one movie received three nominations. Why is that? What happened to share the love? Enchanted is good, but come on, three nominations in the same category, with two by the same artist? Right, let’s get on with Best Music from Ench… I mean Best Original Song. Yes, I repeat myself – get used to it!
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova’s “Falling Slowly” from the movie Once is a nice folk type American rock song. It will please the indie crowds out there, and it pleased me as well. It’s pleasant to listen to, and it kind of reminds me of artists such as James Blunt. Marketa Irglova however is quite hard to hear sometimes, but I guess that’s part of the charm.
Jamia Simone Nash & Impact Repertory Theatre’s “Raise Up” from the movie August Rush is an R&B song that is annoyingly catchy. Once you listen to this, it will be in your head all day – be warned! The kid in there is great too, a very cool voice. The only thing is that when you are enjoying the song and is just about to start singing, it abruptly stops. You check the CD for scratches, blow off some dust and frantically try to play the rest of the song, but there isn’t any more. I know that the academy awards wants their songs short, but there’s no rule that says that if you can’t finish it in time you just have to stop is there?
Amy Adams’ “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted is a typical musical song, it could have been taken out of The Sound of Music or Cinderella, for that matter. It’s nice and chirpy, yes, that’s right, chirpy. There are actual birds in that song as well. It’s very catchy, and on the second listen I found myself nodding my head from side to side and almost singing along. Its evil I tell you!
Jon McLaughlin’ “So Close,” also from Enchanted, is a completely different song from the Happy Pappy Chirpy Working Song by Amy Adams. It’s a standard love song which we’ve heard a million times before, but it’s not too bad. It fits the movie quite well as it has rolling harps in there and I could even hear a bird or two as well.
Finally, Amy Adams’ “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted is a bossa nova reggae love song. It’s charming and asks the question how one knows if someone loves you. It’s a good question, and I don’t think listening to this song will help at all. It’s a fun little song, but I like the other Amy Adams song better, but I just know it will annoy me to death in the end.
So what does the predictometer say about all this? Who will win? Who will really care? I can tell you some facts though. There is a 60% chance of the winner being from the movie Enchanted and a 40% chance of Amy Adams winning the award. There is a 98.23% chance that you will find these facts as interesting as watching a Paris Hilton movie. So there you go! Facts! The facts don’t change the fact that I am procrastinating here, so let’s get on with it.
My favourite here would be Amy Adams’ “Happy Working Song.” It’s just too cute and catchy and happy. Will it win though? You know what, I think it will! It’s been a while since a song like this won, and I think the world is ready for this. Right, I’m off to the dungeon Fletch has me working 24/7. I call it the Fletch dungeon sweat shop. I have one more category to cover this year and that is Best Original Score. Yay! See you soon!