Frozen’s worthy successor

Frozen, featuring music from the blockbuster Disney movie, including the ubiquitous Let It Go that is being sung by nearly everybody all over the world, is still the No. 1 selling soundtrack album. Just goes to say that music lovers will keep on buying if you offer them a good product. But Frozen is nearly a year old and beginning to fade around the gills. The time is ripe for a successor and I think I have found one.

The soundtrack that might just dislodge Frozen from its post is The Fault In Our Stars. The album has songs from a big hit movie that was based on a big-selling book by John Green. Everybody loves the book just as they do the movie. And now everybody also loves the young, mood-filled pop-rock soundtrack. Why, just like what happened with hit films like Titanic, Frozen and others, an album of music from the film’s score has also been released.

It has been said that The Fault In Our Stars is the Love Story for this generation. Info for those born after the ’70s era: Love Story was about a 21-year-old girl who got cancer and died. She was the source for the famous quote, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” It was also a big hit movie based on a big-selling book by Erich Segal. It also had a big-selling soundtrack with the immortal Francis Lai theme song Where Do I Begin, that resonates in many romantic hearts to this day.

And what has The Fault In The Stars soundtrack got to offer? I say prepare to also fall in love all over again with the novel and the movie while you listen to the songs in the soundtrack. You will want to give everybody who helped put this album together a big hug because the music feels just like the movie which feels just like the book.

Then there is the utterly charming and uncompromising Ed Sheeran. Remember him with The A Team? He is now 23 years old and getting more and more talented by the day. The hot Brit pop star with the No. 1 selling new album X was inspired to write and record the theme, All Of The Stars, because like everyone else, he fell in love with the novel.

Additional highlights are also hot young acts like Jake Bugg, Simple As This; Birdy with Tee Shirt, Not About Angels and Best Shot, a sweet duet with Jaymes Young; Tom Odell with Long Way Down; Grouplove with Let Me In; All I Want by Kodaline and others. Plus, this very big plus, a CD box with lots of pictures and quotes from The Fault In Our Stars. Listen and get the supreme emo experience of your life.

The soundtrack to enjoy next is Jersey Boys. Largely because I love musicals and we have not seen a good one since Les Miserablés two years ago. Jersey Boys was a huge hit on the stage and the movie version is directed by the venerable Clint Eastwood. The screen legend who plays jazz and classical music has always had this thing for music. Check out the soundtracks of his films and I am sure you will notice how cleverly he uses music. And now at the age of 80-something he has directed Jersey Boys. This picture should not be missed.

 But I am still waiting for the movie so I might as well enjoy the soundtrack first. Well, not really the soundtrack because they did something different and interesting in this one. Jersey Boys Music from the Motion Picture and Broadway Musical combines tracks from the motion picture directed by Eastwood, from the Tony Award-winning stage musical and from the original recordings by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. In some cuts like Beggin’, all three sources were mixed together. Was mixing up the songs a good idea?

Can’t really say, until I see the movie. But Four Seasons music is timeless and whether it comes from Hollywood, Broadway or the old master recordings, you can bet that these will sound great. December, 1963 (Oh What A Night), Sherry, Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like A Man, My Boyfriend’s Back, My Eyes Adored You, Dawn (Go Away), Big Man In Town, Stay, Let’s Hang On (To What We’ve Got), Bye Bye Baby Goodbye, Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You and Working My Way Back To You are just some of the songs featured in the album.

The soundtrack to look back to and the reason why I am checking out new soundtrack albums today is the soundtrack to the enchanting 1994 movie Four Weddings & a Funeral. I started playing my old copy and realized that this must be one of the best compilation soundtracks ever made. You know what a compilation soundtrack is. It is when instead of writing new songs, you use existing recordings. And they did it masterfully in this one.

Four Weddings is the big daddy of the modern British romantic comedy. Among its progeny are Notting Hill and Love Actually. It starred Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell as lovers who keep meeting at weddings and funerals while they keep refusing to commit totally to one another. How they come to discover their love is wonderfully told in the film with great music in the background.

Get all dreamy with Love Is All Around by Wet Wet Wet; But Not For Me, Crocodile Rock and Chapel of Love by Elton John; You’re The First My Last My Everything by Barry White; Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Nu Colors; I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor; The Secret Marriage by Sting; and that unforgettable recitation of W.H. Auden’s poem by John Hannah.

“Funeral blues. Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone…”