#1 "Etude No. 2" by Philip Glass from Glass: Etudes for Piano
Man, Philip Glass is another one of those severely underrated musicians out there today. He's a composer and classical pianist that I almost got the chance to go see in Lawrence last April, but missed out on. I regret that immensely.
Some may say his music all sounds the same, but he is REALLY good at minimalist and surreal piano work. Even orchestral work, as evidenced from his work on The Illusionist and the odd documentary Naqoyqatsi.
This track is from an album of just him and his piano, and it's a great mellow listen. Very unique and modern style, and interesting and complex enough to listen to both passively and actively.
I apologize for the random video, but it has a chunk of this piece in the background.
#2 "Mess Around" by Ray Charles, from Ray soundtrack
In keeping with the piano theme, this is one of my favorite Ray Charles songs. You can't help but start dancing and singing to this classic, and the piano work is creative and a lot of fun.
And it has a pretty sweet tenor solo. I used to play sax (alto, actually), so I'm always partial to sax features.
This song is just plain fun.
#3 "Charles In Charge" by Relient K from Relient K
Ah, old school Relient K. Back when they weren't popular, they were...well, still awesome. Certainly a less polished sound than they have now, but still fun, random, and surprisingly musically talented. Everyone thinks that punk/rock bands just know three chords and one drum beat, but Relient K has proven themselves to be unique time and time again with each new album.
In fact, I used one of their songs to propose to my wife. But that's another story for another time.
This is one of their short punk songs, and I think it's a remake of a crappy 80s sitcom. It's fun, and has a sweet solo I learned in high school and played with my friend Jeremy, who was my best man a month ago.
So, at the part when someone yells "Hey this'll be Matt Thessian on solo guitar! He's a bomb!" just replace his name with mine.
I miss high school sometimes. And sometimes I say crazy things.
#4 "Molussus" by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, from Batman Begins soundtrack
Gotta love me some Hans. While one of the most yawningly consistant composers out there today (everything is the same, drum beats, bass, electronic this and that, etc.), when he's paired up with a melodic guru like Howard, good stuff comes out. The score for Begins and Dark Knight are two of the darkest, moodiest, and most fitting scores to a movie I've every seen. Sure they're poppy and predictable, but their stuff is memorable and fitting to the movie. Batman doesn't need more than two notes for his theme, because Batman is not a musical character, he is a moody darkness.
And they really capture that.
As for this particular track, I couldn't tell you where it is in the movie other than it's quite entertaining and capture the movie's main themes, Zimmer's electronic bass and drum beat, and Howard's eerie string use.
And as for the name, it really bugs me that they named all the tracks on this album after bat species. Cool idea as a subtitle maybe, but annoying as all get out when you're trying to remember which track is which.
#5 "As Long As You're Mine" by Idina Menzel and Leo Norbert Butz from Wicked
I know, I have some musicals in my iTunes. Whatever. They're catchy.
And Wicked is pretty darn catchy. Genius work tying it to a childhood story that everyone knows, giving it some adultish content, and voila, you've got a non-sucky prequel.
This is a love song, and one of the most intense ones I've heard. The pounding chords and tight duet make it seem like they're about to get to it right on stage, and makes for a great song.
Sadly, I've never seen the whole musical (I only got the soundtrack from my sister), so I don't get the full effect, but it's still pretty entertaining as far as epic-sounding songs go.
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