2014 BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Usually, I pick a Top Five Film Score Albums for the past year.  However, this year I was unable to pick 5 scores that I thought were good enough to put on my Top Five Scores List.  For some reason, many of the scores this year that others lauded, I wasn't very impressed with including The Battle of Five Armies by Howard Shore, Interstellar by Hans Zimmer, Maleficent by James Newton Howard, The Winter Soldier by Henry Jackman, and The Guardians of the Galaxy by Tyler Bates.

So, instead of picking five scores that I liked this year, I thought I would branch out a bit and pick one score album I really liked and five other albums from five different music genres and briefly highlight them, because, believe it or not, I do listen to other types of music other than film scores.

So,

Without Further Ado

The Best Albums of the Year

Best Score Album of the Year

Draft Day - John Debney

John Debney delivers a score that does exactly what it needs to do for this football movie that has no football in it.  He actually overscores the movie with short fanfare-like cues that build the suspense to the final draft scenes.  I thought this was the best score of the year in the best movie of the year.  If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and go rent the DVD.

To hear a bit of the score, I featured Draft Day as my Film Music Cue of the Day right here on this blog right here:
http://mattstarr28.blogspot.com/2014/07/you-tube-film-music-cue-of-day-this_23.html

Best Christmas Album of the Year
That's Christmas to Me - Pentatonix

The acapella group Pentatonix (in case you don't know what acapella means - it means singing without any instrumental accompaniment - just vocals) came out with their first official album this last year with That's Christmas to Me (prior to this album, Pentatonix has only released EPs, which, in case you don't know, are half albums with 5 to 7 tracks only).  If you are a fan of Christmas music and acapella music like I am, this album is, simply put, a joy to hear.  Probably the outstanding track on the album for me is the hybrid of Winter Wonderland and Don't Worry Be Happy sung along with Tori Kelly.  The video is below.

Best Contemporary Christian Album of the Year

Sovereign - Michael W. Smith

Not a lot of people know that I am a huge collector of Christian music (maybe a lot of people don't even know that I'm a Christian, but that would be my fault) and Michael W. Smith is one of my all-time favorites.  I have all his albums on cd and he is a cornerstone of CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) as we know it.  For his 22nd studio album, Smitty gives us Sovereign which continues the trend in his music, and Christian music in general, toward a more worship-oriented sound (instead of the more pop-flavored music of the 90's).  And that best describes this album - it is a stirring worshipful experience to listen too.

Here is a lyric video of the title track - Sovereign Over Us.

Best Classical Crossover Album of the Year

Wonders  - The Piano Guys

The Piano Guys released their third studio album this last year named Wonders and I must say that this was a "Wonder"ful album.  There is some great stuff on this album including their rendition of "The Mission/How Great Thou Art" to what I think is the most outstanding track which also coincides with my love of film music and that is "Batman Evolution" going through some of the music associated with Batman from the TV series to the Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard music of the movies.  Really good stuff.  If you aren't familiar with The Piano Guys, do yourself a favor and pick up this cd.

Here is a video of "Batman Evolution".

Best Adult Contemporary Album of the Year

Stars - Collabro

If you haven't heard of Collabro, they are an English musical theatre boy group (or boy band) that won the UK's Britain's Got Talent a couple of years ago and this is their first studio album and what an effort this is.  The album begins with two songs from Les Miserables, the title track and then Bring Him Home.  It moves on the Come What May from Moulin Rouge (the only thing good to come from that movie and its a very good song that is being covered by everyone from these guys to Placido Domingo on his 2012 album Songs - the best Classical Crossover Album of 2012).  Then comes a particular highlight of the album in the song With You from the musical version of the movie Ghost.  Next comes the massive hit from the movie Frozen - Let it Go.  Then the standard, Anthem from Chess.  Then Somewhere from West Side Story and rounding the album off with Somewhere Over the Rainbow from Wizard of Oz.  Whew!!!  Now that's a collection of songs.  There are also two covers of pop songs on this album (OneRepublic's Secrets and John Legend's All of Me) for mass appeal and consumption.  This is a standout first recording from a group that has a bright future.

Best Pop Album of the Year

My Everything - Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande hit this last year with her second studio album like the bomb she is with the best pop song of the year -  Problem (w/ Iggy Azalea).  This is a really interesting and incredible pop song (the video I featured here on my blog here:

http://mattstarr28.blogspot.com/2014/12/have-you-seen-this-its-time-for-new_14.html

It is also highly unique as I pointed out in my post above when discussing the video.

This album does feature a lot of collaborations, especially with rap artists but there are also some techno influences (as in the track Break Free featuring DJ Zedd) and some R&B sexiness (as in Love Me Harder featuring Weekend).

Ariana is kind of a cross between Mariah Carey and Britney Spears (perhaps closer to a Christina Aguilara if Christina would calm down and sustain some notes in her songs).  She portrays a demure sexuality that's almost kittenish but is still adult in her image and her music.  This is probably the best pop album by a female artist since Britney Spears' 2011 album Femme Fatale (and much better than Britney's 2013 album Britney Jean) and well worth buying and I must admit to having a little bit of a crush on her (Thank God she's 21 but I still sorta feel like a dirty old man, heh-heh).

Here is the video for the aforementioned Love Me Harder (featuring Weekend):

Well, there you go and that about covers all my musical interests in one post.

2014 wasn't a great year for music but if you search hard enough, there is good stuff out there so Keep Listening!!!

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

If you got to know me a little, you would find out that I'm one of the few regular people that is on Twitter.

One thing that I like about Twitter is that you can get sent all kinds of interesting and funny and amazing pics, so I'm going to be posting those pics that I find interesting or funny or amazing.

So

without futher ado here is the

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

WHITE LION

YOU TUBE FILM MUSIC CUE OF THE DAY

This feature on my blog showcases one of my great loves and personal hobbies:

FILM MUSIC.

I am a passionate fan of film music and my collection of film music is vast but I want to combine that with a visual aspect (which film music should be aligned too) so I'm going to use You Tube to accomplish this goal.

I will search through You Tube and find videos that feature film music and embed those videos on this blog.

For this Film Music Cue, I have selected a scene from Oliver Stone's epic movie Alexander.  To me and IMHO, Alexander is one of the best movies of the decade but I also think that I am the only person on the planet that feels that way.  It's just the way I am.  There are certain movies that I like that no one else does like Alexander and there are certain movies that I loathe that everyone else thinks are great such as Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight.

(I'm actually thinking of doing a new feature on this blog that highlights this dichotomy so be on the lookout in the future).

But back to Alexander and this clip.

This clip and film cue features the scene in which Alexander "tames" his legendary horse Bucephalus and as he does so, Vangelis' transcendent music is on full display.  I really believe that, like me, Vangelis loved this movie because he provided some of his best material ever for this movie so it must have inspired him somewhat.  Just listen and marvel at the majesty of this music for a simple scene of a boy riding a horse for the first time.

GREAT!!!

A LITTLE MAGIC IN YOUR LIFE?

Have you ever been curious about that card game called Magic: The Gathering?

Well, I was.  

So, I bought some pre-made decks and began the process of learning how to play the game.

However, learning how to play the game turned out to be a daunting task as I watched some instruction videos and only understood about half of what I was seeing.

So, as an industrious and intelligent person who has played a lot of different games over the years, I proceeded to just make up my own rules.

And somewhat surprisingly, my rules work and the game plays smoothly and with a good deal more excitement than when using the regular rules (if you can decipher and implement the regular rules, they are incredibly complicated made even more so over the years as new card-types have been added).  I found the game when using the regular rules to be overly-complex and a bit taxing (meaning the game proceeds slowly) and some of the best cards can't be used because of the slow pace of the game.  Utilizing my rules, many of the more powerful cards can easily join the game.  However, other cards and the effects of those cards cannot be used because certain mechanics of the game in my system are not employed.

Actually, I was proud of myself that I could take a very complicated game and simplify it down in a way that still worked and proved to be enjoyable.

I'm tempted to go to one of those Friday Night Magic Gatherings and see if anyone would want to play the game using my rules.  Maybe I can start a new trend in Magic gaming.

Anyone up to the challenge?

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

If you got to know me a little, you would find out that I'm one of the few regular people that is on Twitter.

One thing that I like about Twitter is that you can get sent all kinds of interesting and funny and amazing pics, so I'm going to be posting those pics that I find interesting or funny or amazing.

So

without futher ado here is the

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

Is This a House or a Mall?

Actually its Will Smith's house.  Extravagant? Gratuitous? Jealous? All of the above.

RINGS, SUPERBOWLS, AND THE DALLAS COWBOYS

I recently finished reading Joe Nick Patoski's book, The Dallas Cowboys which is a pretty exhausting history of the football team with alot about the city of Dallas and the various owners of the team over its 50 year history.  As stated, the book is fairly exhaustive and provides much more than I ever really wanted to know about the history of Dallas as a city.  It also provides a detailed history of the owners of the Cowboys, specifically the team's first owner, Clint Murchison (who I had never heard of before reading this book, I always thought Tex Schramm owned the team but it turns out he was the General Manager all those years) and the current owner, Jerry Jones (who a guy told me yesterday was "the Devil", heh-heh).  However, the book really shines when it centers in on the team and its performance and players.  When Patoski concentrates on the team, the book really finds its focus which at 725 pages tends to meander a bit.  I would definitely recommend the book for any really serious Cowboy fan buy for the casual fan, not so much.

One thing that came of this book for me was a bit of a question.

In its history, Dallas has won five Superbowls.  Is it possible to get one of those Superbowl rings from their Superbowl wins?

Well, come to find out, its totally possible.

Quite easily, I found a store online that sells replica Superbowl rings at really affordable prices and I immediately ordered me a couple.

I ended up getting the Superbowl ring from the 1992 season (1993 Superbowl) and from the 1971 season (1972 Superbowl).  Those years are significant to me as I was born in 1971 and it was the first Superbowl that Dallas won and the 1992 Superbowl was when I turned 21.

1971 Ring

1992 Ring

I gotta say, these rings are pretty cool and I'm considering getting a couple more (especially the 1989 San Francisco 49ers ring which is the year I graduated from high school and I may wear as a pinkie ring because I can get it in a smaller size, pretty pimping, huh?).

I prefer to wear the 1992 Superbowl ring because the 1971 ring is huge due to its width but I like them both.

Pretty awesome!!!

For more football talk see my previous post, The Best Pro Footballs Teams I Ever Saw:  http://mattstarr28.blogspot.com/2014/12/best-pro-football-teams-i-ever-saw-just.html

  

MICRO HERO OF THE DAY

OK, its time for a new feature on this blog featuring micro heroes.

Costume Variations

for

BATMAN

So recently I finally got around to watching Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and it was so awful that I could probably write a book on all the things wrong with that movie.  However, it got me thinking back to Nolan's first Batman movie, Batman Begins.  So, I went and bought the movie (for $2 on DVD, pretty good deal) and watched it again to see if it's a little better than I remember.

And you know what, Batman Begins is not too bad.

Now before anyone starts yelling hypocrite after all the time I've wailed against Nolan's movies, Batman Begins is not a perfect movie.  It suffers from horrible casting and some questionable conceptual ideas (such as the Batmobile).  But, as far as an origin story for Batman, it's not half bad.  All the elements are there including a correct portrayal of Bruce Wayne as a persona that Batman puts on to fool people and the fact that Bruce Wayne never came back from his travels and training - Batman came back.

I have to admit that Batman Begins is the best of the Nolan Batman trilogy and probably the best that Nolan could do with his limited understanding of the character of Batman as seen in the other movies of the trilogy, especially The Dark Knight Rises, but don't get me started on that because I could write a book.