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Music with Matt: 2013 Coachella highlights

Posted by on 4/25/13 at 10:53 am

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Sunday night saw The Red Hot Chili Peppers closing this year’s Coachella Festival.

2 weekends, 6 days, 175 acts, and 180,000 fans later, here are just a few of the highlights from both weekends.

As proceedings drew to a close on the first weekend, a windstorm with gusts of over 75 mph ripped through the usually quiet desert community of Indio in California, blowing dust and sand into the faces of the festival faithful who had made the annual pilgrimage, leading one unhappy punter to dub the heads-down, squint-eyed march to the parking lot as “the hipster trail of tears”.

 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers closed the festival

The Red Hot Chili Peppers closed the festival

After much speculation that Phoenix would close their first Saturday night set by collaborating with Daft punk, they threw everyone a curve ball by unexpectedly being joined by non other than R. Kelly, for an extremely unlikely mash up of their song “1901″ and the R&B star’s “Ignition”. Everyone gasped, took photos with their phones, then boogied for all they were worth!

The Dropkick Murphy’s opened an emotionally charged set on the second weekend with “For Boston” whilst a flag with the city’s seal waved behind them. The band thanked the crowd for “showing so much support for the people of Boston,” and went on to dedicate “Your Spirit’s Alive” to everyone supporting the city. They also raised upward of $100,000 to benefit the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings and their families.

Dropkick Murphys opened their set with a tribute to Boston

Dropkick Murphys opened their set with a tribute to Boston

The Brits were well represented with Blur, Stone Roses, Franz Ferdinand, and New Order all occupying late night spots.

New Order delighted the audience by playing their former incarnation Joy Division’s classic “Love Will Tear Us Apart” on Saturday night/ Sunday morning. The Stone Roses, who closed Friday night ahead of Blur on the first weekend, switched places with the Britpop legends for the second weekend. Although no official reason was given for the switch, The Roses first weekend crowd was conspicuously small. Apparently, although iconic in Britain, many of the festival-goers had never heard of the band! Blur, of course, drew a huge crowd that enthusiastically “Woo-Hoo-ed” their way through “Song 2″, causing one of the less educated audience members to cry “These guys are gonna be big!” Perhaps they didn’t really know who Blur was either!

 

Blur hit the stage at the festival

Blur hit the stage at the festival

One of the highlights of this year were indie-rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs and in particular their lead singer Karen O. Dressed in a purple sequined pant suit one weekend and an embroidered canary yellow the next, she swung the mic, then swallowed the mic, bounce up and down on the drum riser, and generally covered the stage like a whirling Dervish. In “Cheated Hearts” she sang, “Sometimes I think that I’m bigger than the sound,” and after Friday nights performance it was clear that yes, sometimes she is!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were a favorite

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were a favorite

 

As is usual with Coachella, the celebs were out in force. Troubled actress, Lindsey Lohan was spotted hanging at the backstage artists village on Friday, just a few weeks away from her 90-day rehab lock down. Rob Pattinson and Kirsten Stewart were seen knocking back the Gatorade (gasp) during the Jurassic 5 set, and amongst the other stars in attendance were Clooney squeeze, Stacy Kiebler, Leo DiCaprio, and German actress Diane Kruger, all enjoying the sounds in the sunshine.

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Music with Matt: BRIT Awards 2013

Posted by on 2/21/13 at 8:19 am

 By Matthew Cheadle 

mattmusic

Over in little old England last night, in typically raucous fashion, the British Music industry held their own annual awards ceremony, ‘The Brits’, at London’s O2 arena.

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Adele added to her Golden Globe victory by winning Best Single for her Bond Theme, “Skyfall”. In a video message from Los Angeles, where she is rehearsing for the Oscars, she sent a big thank you for her award, and a cheeky little dig at being cut off mid-speech at last year’s ceremony. “I won’t keep you too long because I don’t want to interrupt the best album speech at the end of the night. But I love you all.”

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The two biggest winners of the night were singers that are currently little known in the US. Emeli Sande won Best British Female and British Album, and singer-songwriter Ben Howard won Best British male and British Breakthrough, surprisingly beating favorite, Rita Ora.

Emeli is a Scottish singer who cites Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell and Alicia Keys as influences and has a soulful style that combines warm melodies, cool beats and piano and strings in a heartfelt package.

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Howard’s is a mellow acoustic based sound that combines folk artists from England’s past such as Nick Drake with more contemporary artists like Damien Rice. His album, “Every Kingdom”, has gone platinum in the UK.

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More familiar winners of the night were Mumford & Sons for Best British Album, repeating their Grammy win of last week. They said, “We love being British and we love going around the world and telling people we’re British, so we’re very proud and very grateful.”

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In the international categories, The Black Keys took the award for Best Group, and Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey won Best Male and Female respectively. Lana, who now lives and loves living in England, told the crowd she was “honored” to win the award, and Ocean said he was now “definitely a long way from serving fast food in New Orleans.”

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Coldplay won best British live act, beating The Rolling Stones, who were nominated 35 years after they were shortlisted for the first ever Brit Awards.

Taylor-Swift-Lyrics

Live performers included a tuxedoed Justin Timberlake, a bright blue suited Robbie Williams, and Taylor Swift performing her song “I Knew You Were Trouble” in a wedding dress, a move that surely had nothing to do with the presence of former beau Harry Styles from the boy band One Direction.

729-one-direction-620x349 Ironically, One Direction themselves nabbed a special “global success award’ in recognition for their overseas achievements. One imagines that’s the first time Miss Swift has been recognized as such.

Here is One Direction picking up their award….

 

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Music with Matt: Tom Jones is showing some spirit on his latest offering

Posted by on 5/29/12 at 2:44 pm

By Matthew Cheadle

Just a few days shy of his 72nd birthday, Sir Tom Jones has released his 38th studio album. Already out in the UK and in the Top Ten, with a US release date just around the corner, “Spirit in the Room” is his first since 2010’s “Praise and Blame”.

With producer Ethan Johns once again at the helm, “Spirit” follows a similar formula to the previous album, with Jones this time around tackling stripped down cover versions of material from songwriters such as Paul McCartney, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen.

The album opens up with Cohen’s “Tower of Song”, containing the line “I was born with the gift of a golden voice.” Jones’ voice has indeed been a gift for over five decades now, but for so many years has floundered in the choppy waters of collaboration and reinvention, struggling to be relevant. Here he eschews his customary testosterone fuelled bellow for a restrained thoughtfulness more in keeping for an artist in the twilight of his career.

It may seem at first that Jones doesn’t quite belong here, as if his voice is too big for the material, or that at any moment we expect him to start belting it out and shaking his hips. Or is it that after one or two ill-conceived and age inappropriate reinventions in the past, we don’t quite buy what we’re hearing?

The thing is though; Jones has always had the blues in his voice, if not much of his material. He grew up, like so many British artists of the sixties, influenced by black American music, and here as on his previous album, he seems to be finally giving us a taste of what he’s really all about; soul. Not the musical genre, per se, but the emotion, the delivery, the importance of what he’s singing. The songs on “Praise and Blame” were perhaps blacker, bluesier and more old school than on “Spirit”, but the interpretation and the feel is continued. “All Blues Hail Mary”, and “Soul of a Man” are as soulful as anything Sir Tom has recorded. Is it possible that these are the sorts of records Jones always wanted to make?

One thing’s for sure; “Sex Bomb” it ain’t!

The mood is fairly constant throughout, ranging only marginally from the melancholy of McCartney’s “(I want to come) Home”, to the brooding blues of “Soul of a Man”, to the austere gospel of “Charlie Darwin”. All the while Jones’ voice retains its gravel and tone of old but is understated and even fragile and tender in places.

There is, of course, precedent for this kind of late in life artistic reflection. Rod Stewart came over all loungey with his “American Songbook” series, but here Jones and Johns wisely opt for the more rootsy, bare bones approach adopted by Johnny Cash and producer Rick Rubin on Cash’s interpretations of classic American songs in the years just before his death.

The album is shot through with tasteful, low-key production.   Acoustic guitars and pianos are punctuated with sparse percussion and the occasional electric guitar dripping with fifties era tremolo and reverb.

Despite its mellowness, “Spirit” doesn’t ever really feel one paced. The one track where the instrumentation truly livens up is Tom Waits’ “Bad as Me”, coming across like a booze addled snake charmers strain, with its gin-soaked rumba and weaving guitar lines. Jones, obviously enjoying himself, plays with characters within his voice to suit the mood and Waits’ nether world lyrics.

Contrast this with the following song, Richard Thompson’s beautiful “Dimming of the Day”. Accompanied only by an acoustic trio of guitar, bass and drums, Jones’ simple and honest delivery, allows the song ample room to breathe, focusing on the emotional content of the lyrics and melody.

And there it is; the new silver-haired Tom Jones, no longer relying on belting out blustery pop favorites for middle-aged women eager to use their underwear as stage bound projectiles, but a fine singer acting his age by performing ageless material with an understated delivery and motionless hips! This may not be the Tom Jones everybody wants, but it brings a touch of class and dignity to one of the UK’s most treasured musical knights. I wonder if Jagger has heard it yet…?

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Music with Matt: Reflecting on the sad passing of musical icons

Posted by on 5/22/12 at 6:44 am

By Matthew Cheadle

It’s been a sad week for music. With the death of Robin Gibb on Sunday (May 20th) and Donna Summer last Thursday, disco in particular has lost two of its giants in just a few days.

Gibb was 62, and as part of the Bee Gees, had sold over 200 million records worldwide. They had hits spanning five decades, including “Massachusetts”, “Tragedy”, and from the hit movie Saturday Night Fever, “Stayin’ Alive”, “Night Fever”, and “How Deep is your Love?”

Indeed, they were second only to Lennon and McCartney as the most successful songwriting unit in British popular music. They developed a singing style that made heavy use of falsetto, which became their trademark for many years and helped relaunch their careers as leaders in the disco scene in the mid to late seventies.

On top of their own success as the Bee Gees, Robin and his brothers, Barry and Maurice (who died in 2003) also had phenomenal success writing songs for the likes of Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, and Destiny’s Child.

Gibb’s health problems began in 2010, when he had emergency surgery for a blocked intestine, the same condition that killed his brother, Maurice. In late 2011, it was revealed that Robin had colon cancer that had spread to his liver, and he was undergoing chemotherapy. In March 2012 it was announced he was in remission from cancer, but then in April he was reported to be fighting for his life after contracting pneumonia. Although he made remarkable progress to come out of his coma, it was then discovered he had advance colorectal cancer, and died less than a month later.

Donna Summer, was born on New Year’s Eve 1948, and by 1976 had become the “Queen of Disco” following the success of her break out hit “Love to Love you Baby”. Originally the song, which Summer co wrote with producer Pete Bellotte in 1975, was to be recorded as a demo for another singer. However, she then approached another producer, Giorgio Moroder, who was interested in developing the song with the new disco sound that was becoming popular, and after hearing Summer’s version with her vocal being recorded in the dark to get her in the mood, he decided they should release her version of it. It went to number 2 in the US.

She then went on to have further hits in the seventies with “I Feel Love”, “Hot Stuff”, “MacArthur Park”, and the duet with Barbara Streisand, “No More Tears (Enough is Enough)” before moving away from disco in the 1980s.

Summer, who had become a born again Christian after a period of drug addiction, was involved in controversy in the mid-80s after she was alleged to have made anti-gay remarks about Aids and its victims, which she denied. She later apologized for any pain she had caused and bounced back into the charts in 1989 with the single “This Time I Know It’s for Real”, produced by British production team, Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

Donna Summer died on May 17th in Florida of lung cancer.

Two other deaths this last week in the music industry, less widely reported by no less important, are those of Chuck Brown and Donald “Duck” Dunn.
Chuck Brown was known as the Godfather of “go-go”, a form of funk music from the Washington DC area, considered an early influence on hip hop, with its heavy percussive style and call and response vocals. His shows with his band, The Soul Searchers, would sometimes last for hours, often with long periods of uninterrupted music. His biggest hit was perhaps, “Bustin’ Loose”, later sampled by Nelly on “Hot In Herre”. Brown died on May 16th from pneumonia at the age of 75.
Donald “Duck” Dunn, was the bass player with sixties Rhythm and Blues group, Booker T and the MGs. As such he was hugely influential in the development of the Stax Records sound from Memphis, playing on recordings for the likes of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett. He later went on to play with greats such as Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart, as well as being a member of the Blue Brothers Band, and appearing in their 1980 movie. He died in his sleep on tour in Tokyo, aged 70.

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Music with Matt: Texas Twister

Posted by on 3/20/12 at 4:24 pm

This year’s SXSW (South by Southwest) music festival came to a close over the weekend with performances by a host of major names.

For those of you not in the know, SXSW is a weeklong happening, which takes over the city of Austin, Texas once a year around this time.

Started in 1987 as a music business conference, it has grown to become a major event where tens of thousands of people and a few thousand acts cram into every conceivable venue in the city from clubs to BBQ joints to parking lots, to play, listen to and talk about music.

Traditionally it represents the future of music, allowing new, unknown, and up and coming acts to showcase their talents.

Artists such as Amy Winehouse, The White Stripes, James Blunt, Norah Jones, and The Flaming Lips all got their big breaks playing at SXSW. These days, however, it also attracts bigger names who are either genuinely showing interest and support to industry hopefuls (Springsteen, Jack White) or hoping to gain some “indie-cred” amongst a less populist audience whilst earning themselves a nice pay-check.

Along with the names, of course, comes big corporate branding inevitably cashing in on the popularity of a once commercially independent festival. Snack chip companies mocking up stages to look like giant vending machines, and energy drink companies holding street parties, are the now all too familiar trappings of a music industry relying on non music industry money to prop it up.

Some of this year’s crop of hopefuls who received rave reviews were Denver folk-rockers The Lumineers, soul-rockers Alabama Shakes, British soul singer Michael Kiwanuka and alt-country artist Lydia Loveless.

On the flip side of fame and fortune, the celebrities came to close the festival over the weekend.

Norah Jones performed her entire new album, Mumford and Sons played what they labeled “real music from real people” on the lawn of the LBJ Presidential library, Matthew McConaughey banged his bongos with The Cult (…?!), and Timbaland played a set at Perez Hilton’s party claiming “I don’t know if I can get off the stage….I’ve got too many hits.”

Rap stars such as Jay Z and Eminem were in town, and there was also room for returning icons such as Jesus and Mary Chain, Jimmy Cliff, and Fiona Apple over the course of the week.

One of the best sights of the week, apparently, was Bill Murray standing astride the bar in a country saloon, singing along to Jack White’s classic ‘Goodnight, Irene’, whilst one of the worst was the full-blown brawl between rapper A$AP Rocky and friends versus a drunk and disorderly crowd at a Vice after party.

All in all though, SXSW represents a passion for music of all genres, endeavoring to rise above creeping corporate coarseness and proving once again that the decline in cd sales and the traditional industry business model has no reflection on people’s love of music and their willingness to embrace it.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr5vFT75ly4']

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Music with Matt: The Boss is back!

Posted by on 3/13/12 at 6:22 am

By Matthew Cheadle

Bruce Springsteen hit the UK number one spot on Sunday for the ninth time with his new album “Wrecking Ball”.

The 62-year-old, nicknamed “The Boss,” first topped the UK album charts more than twenty years ago, with the global hit ‘Born in the U.S.A.’

Springsteen’s latest release mixes his familiar anthemic rock with folk, Celtic music, and even rap influences. With titles such as ‘Shackled and Drawn’, ‘Death to my Hometown’, and ‘This Depression’, the album has a darkness and anger about it reflecting an America disenchanted with economic hardship and the struggle of the working man.

There are plenty of uplifting moments, however, with the driving rhythm of the opener ‘We take care of our own’, and a classic slice of Springsteen in ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’.

‘You’ve got it’, has a bluesy, beery, bar-room swagger to it, and on the deluxe edition, the closing track, ’American Land’, is a wonderful dollop of up tempo Irishness, reminiscent of The Pogues, that’ll get your feet-a- tapping!


From one working class hero to another on the subject of hard work, former Oasis man, Noel Gallagher spoke to CNN recently about his love of being in the music industry, saying that “it was the greatest thing that could ever be bestowed on a human being”.

He went on to say, ”it’s hard work, but work’s great…and in the music business it gets you in to the good kind of trouble.”

Gallagher’s hard work has paid off, as his new album ‘Noel Gallagher’s High flying Birds’ has gone double platinum and the tour has been more successful than anticipated. Lack of major US success still bemuses him, however, jokingly calling the Americans “stubborn fools” with “no taste”. And on the subject of American disenchantment, he says in reference to this year’s US Presidential election,

“If Obama loses to that other bunch, then good lord…I will stand”.

On a final note, just a quick up date on some of my “one’s to watch in 2012”.

The Civil Wars, have landed this week’s Billboard Magazine’s cover and cover story, talking about their humble beginnings, Grammy awards, collaborating with Taylor Swift, and recording songs for the much-anticipated ‘Hunger Games’ movie.

Brit award winner Lana Del Rey, has been added to the line up for this year’s Isle of Wight festival, playing the Big Top on Friday 22nd June. It’ll be interesting to see how she fairs with the intimidating huge stages and even huger crowds.


And finally, Brit rockers Kav and his band of Blaggers are starting to make big noises in the UK, with a series of blistering sold out gigs and their new single “Blaggers and Liars” being pushed heavily on Q and Kerrang! radio and under scoring the footie highlights on the Sky Sports channel for some of their Premiership matches.

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Music with Matt: A Grammy Recap

Posted by on 2/14/12 at 8:42 am

As I’m sure you’re all aware the 54th Grammys ceremony was held in Los Angeles on Sunday night, but the celebrations were obviously tempered due to the sad and sudden death of Whitney Houston on Saturday.

Host LL Cool J, lead the room in prayer and later in the show, Jennifer Hudson gave a moving rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ by way of a tribute.

However, the room sprung to life with a superb live performance by Bruno Mars who, although didn’t bag an award, is a prodigious talent and is surely to be a huge star and many time Grammy winner in the very near future.

Other great performances of the night were Adele, who capped off her hugely successful night with a stunning version of her hit ‘Rolling in the Deep’, and Sir Paul McCartney who lead a wonderfully indulgent guitar wig-out to close the show with help from Dave Grohl and Joe Walsh on a Beatles’ classic ‘The End’.

Whilst some of the collaborations seemed a little arbitrary at times, it was a night for tributes.Not just for the dearly departed Houston and Etta James, but also for living legends, The Beach Boys and Glen Campbell who also collected a lifetime achievement award.

And so on to the awards.

Adele and the Foo Fighters were quite rightly the runaway winners, bagging six and five awards respectively, and in doing so chalking up a massive victory for great music written and recorded by genuinely great artists that continually display talent and integrity.

For Adele, the world is now at her feet, and if she looks after her voice and continues to make great records and the correct career choices she could well become one of the all time greats. She also helped me win two of my picks (Best Album and Best Song/Record) so I love her for that too!

If I may be self-indulgent for a moment, I’ll whip through the rest of my predictions. Bon Iver picked up Best New Artist as I tipped them to, and Tony Bennett and Amy Winehouse won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance as I also predicted.

Kanye did me proud on Best Rap Collaboration and Album, although I missed with Best Rap Song, which he and his collaborators won, with ‘All the Lights’ when I went for Dre and Eminem!

As far as the  Country awards were concerned, although I fluffed a couple of the winners, one of my “One’s to Watch in 2012”, The Civil Wars, made out like bandits, taking Best Duo/Group and Best Folk album. I feel like a proud Father!!

Oh and by the way…what on earth was that Nikki Minaj performance all about? On a night when we witnessed the coming of age of one great female singer and the sad passing of another, a third, surely left everyone at the Staples Center and at home completely mystified.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZbscReHcGo']
Fortunately, with Adele at the forefront, the future of female vocalists looks rosy.

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Music with Matt: More Grammy Previews & Predictions

Posted by on 1/30/12 at 6:43 pm


Carrying on with my preview of this year’s Grammy awards, here’s a look at the nominees for Best Record and Song.
For those of you that are confused by the difference, Best Record goes to the artist and production team (producer, engineer, mixer) whereas Best Song goes to the songwriters themselves (often but not always the artists).
There you go…now you know!

As with Best Album, the frontrunner for me is Adele. ‘Rolling in the Deep’, drives along with an emotional intensity and a vocal performance that displays Adele’s power and soul in all its glory.

In sharp contrast, ‘Holocene’, from new indie-folksters Bon Iver, is a slow moving, atmospheric piece with abstract lyrics. 
However, its stirring beauty, if a little somber, is still moving and it’s certainly one of the more interesting choices for a mainstream award nomination.

Bruno Mars’s, ‘Grenade’, is a hooky slice of R&B with an almost tribal drumbeat. I don’t think he’ll win here but is sure to scoop in other categories and for some years to come.

‘The Cave’, by Mumford and Sons is a rollicking chunk of acoustic folk, complete with haunting harmonies and reeling banjos. 
Although seemingly old-fashioned, there is something very refreshing and invigorating about the Mumford’s
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KkUeRPjc-Y']

So, these four songs appear in both Best Record and Song categories. 
The fifth nomination in Best Record goes to Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’, which seems somewhat out of place in the more austere company above. Whilst it is fine as an up-lifting slice of pop, if this is the best record of 2011 then the music industry is in more trouble than we thought!

In place of Perry in Best Song category is the collaboration between Kanye West, Fergie, Rihanna and a few hundred others. 
An odd choice for song this, as it seems to have more going for it in the production rather than the melody department, with its interesting mash up of strings, brass and off- kilter beats. 
It would certainly win longest intro award, and indeed the intro promises much, but unfortunately what follows descends back into heard it before rap/ R&B crossover.
SHOULD WIN: ROLLING IN THE DEEP.
WILL WIN: ROLLING IN THE DEEP.
Up next: Best Newcomer and other stuff!!
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw&ob=av2e']

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Matt’s verdict: Pop Royalty Lack Golden Lustre

Posted by on 1/18/12 at 9:58 pm

Matthew Cheadle, Celebzter’s music columnist, weighs in on the Elton/ Madonna fued

The queen of pop and the queen of…well, just about everything else, are at it again.
Madonna and Elton John are at each other’s throats once more after Sunday night’s Golden Globe awards.

The pop superstars were up against one another for best original song;
Madonna for ‘Masterpiece’ from her self-directed movie, ‘W.E’, and Sir Elton for ‘Hello Hello’, from ‘Gnomeo and Juliet’.

A much publicized bitch fight ensued when Elton rather unchivalrously declared that
“Madonna doesn’t have a f**king chance of winning” and, once her Madgeness had clinched it,
his husband, David Furnish, took to Facebook for a rant at the injustice of it all. “Madonna. Best song??? F**k off!!!” 
                          
For her part, Madonna gave a speech that Furnish correctly described as “embarrassing in its narcissism”. 
Displaying an arrogant indifference to writing the song, she claimed, 
“I’m trying to focus on being a director and I want people to be able to pay attention to the film. And I don’t have time.”
 And yet somehow “magically and miraculously the song emerged”.

So enough of the bitching, what about the songs?

‘Hello Hello’ is a jaunty effort that bounces along like a kids TV theme,
with a chorus and ending that has more than a passing nod to The Beatles’ ‘Hello Goodbye’.
With kiddy lyrics to match; ”do a dizzy dance, twirl around and take a chance”, 
this is certainly not lyricist Bernie Taupin’s best work. 
Interestingly, in 2006,Taupin was a worthy winner for ‘A love that will never grow old’ from ‘Broke Back Mountain’.
 
Madonna’s ‘Masterpiece’, unsurprisingly, is anything but. 
A slice of bland pop with a Latin flavor, complete with cod flamenco guitar. 
Once again the lyrics leave much to be desired…”if you were the Mona Lisa, you’d be hanging in the Louvre” 
is hardly award winning material, yet win it did.

Sinead O’Connor should feel hard done by. 
She sang ‘Lay your head down’ nominated from the film ‘Albert Nobbs’. 
With lyrics by Glenn Close, it’s a beautiful and heartfelt, understated ballard with a Celtic influence, 
much more in the class of recent and worthy winners of the Globes. 
Yet how many have heard the song…or even heard of the film?

2010’s winning song from the movie ‘Crazy Heart’, by T-Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham, 
and 2009’s ‘The Wrestler’ by Bruce Springsteen, are examples of the timelessness and 
quality of songwriting that award-winning movie songs should have. 
Even 1984’s ‘Flashdance’ by Giorgio Moroder was dynamic and uplifting!

Obviously the subject matter of the movies has a great bearing on the songs that accompanies them. 
Let’s face it; it’s tough to get to earnest about talking Gnome’s! 
Here’s the real issue of Sunday night.The songs don’t always have to be moody and somber, 
but surely if prestigious Hollywood awards are being given out for music, 
then it must be of the very highest caliber, and in all honesty neither Madonna’s nor Elton’s was anywhere near that mark.

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