Attack of the 2018 Oscar Nominees!

Attack of the Killer Soundtrack 55 This week we are joined once again by composer Erich Stem as we play and discuss all the 2018 Oscar nominees for Best Original Song and Best Original Score.  And while we try to decide how many tracks feature stand-alone-ish-ness, we also bring up… Wynton Marsalis, grooves, chord progressions and sound effects, a different artistic purpose, Hans Zimmer is actually the kind of person that he studied, reminiscent of past songwriting styles, the background music to an Ambien commercial, stuttering racists, no style no finesse definitely no subtlety, The Shape of Water, Harvard rap groups, something that is separate from the crowd, Philip Glass, Quincy Jones, that big Hollywood influence coming out, it's hard to say when you talk about original music and you're actually orchestrating the music of a prior composer, The Weeknd, James Bond, a composer with a jazz background versus a composer with a classical background, using traditional instruments, a relic of a bygone musical period, Henry Mancini, too polished, getting into the weeds on the musical aspect of thing, soul-crushing children's movies, a very interesting collage-style of writing, he used a variation of instruments, alternate history, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Dr. Dre.  "Ok, do the most creative thing you can… with your hands tied."