The return of the movie soundtrack

Just because everybody has gotten caught up in the sweet, affecting music of La La Land, does not mean that it is the only movie soundtrack worth listening to these days. In fact, it is just the latest in a line-up of releases featuring songs from motion pictures that is certainly worth your while.  If you will take the trouble to listen to them, you will also find lots of enjoyable and, I must add, truly inspiring sounds in the music of Sing and Moana.

Sing goes behind the scenes of a singing contest and tackles the usual problems of aspiring singers like shyness and family conflicts and on the part of the organizers, lack of funds. The soundtrack made up of popular tunes is a keeper. It also includes must-haves like the theme, Faith, a new song performed and co-written by Stevie Wonder and featuring Ariana Grande and a superb medley of Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight by Jennifer Hudson. The latter alone is already worth the price of the album.

Also included are Gimme Some Lovin’ by The Spencer Davis Group; The Way I Feel Inside and I’m Still Standing by Taron Egerton who plays Johnny, a gorilla; Let’s Face The Music And Dance by Seth MacFarlane as Mike, a mouse; I Don’t Wanna by Beck Bennett and Scarlett Johansson, two punk teen-aged porcupines; Venus and Shake It Off by Nick Kroll and Reese Witherspoon as dancing and singing pigs; Auditions by the cast; Hallelujah and Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing by Tori Kelly as a shy elephant; Set It All Free by Johansson; My Way by McFarlane and others.

Moana is the latest musical adventure animated feature film from Disney. It is about a young girl, the daughter of a chief, chosen by the ocean to return an old relic to a goddess in order to save her sea-faring people from hunger. It is a difficult task but Moana has the spunk and determination and lots of help from her family, her pet rooster and if she can convince him, also from the shape-shifting demigod Maui.

Moana has music by the Hamilton sensation Lin Manuel Miranda, Pacific music singer and songwriter Opetaia Foa’i from Samoa and film composer and arranger Mark Mancina. It is notable for its clever use of Polynesian vocals and instruments native to the South Pacific combined with Broadway and Hollywood style arrangements. Disney really scored big on this part. With a box-office gross of over $500M, Moana has by now made the world aware of the intriguing beauty of Pacific music.

There are seven songs in the soundtrack. How Far I’ll Go, the theme performed by newcomer Auli’i  Cravalho and in a pop version by Alessia Cara; Where You Are by Christopher Jackson and Nicole Scherzinger as Moana’s parents and Rachel House as her grandmother; We Know The Way by Foa’i and Miranda; Shiny by Jermaine Clement, the giant coconut crab; I Am Moana Song of the Ancestors by House and Cravalho; and big surprise, You’re Welcome by Sexiest Man Alive and big action star Dwayne Johnson who plays Maui and here acquits himself very well as a vocalist.

More soundtrack news. The digital pre-order for the Fifty Shades Darker original motion picture soundtrack is now live. This will give you access to the album’s first single release I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker) by Zayn, ex of One Direction and Taylor Swift.  Also included is the latest from the sensational Halsey, Not Afraid Anymore.  The full album will be available by Feb. 10, in time for the release of the Fifty Shades Darker movie.

I do not know yet what the whole album will sound like but it will have songs by Nick Jonas, Nicki Minaj, Tove Lo, John Legend, Sia, Kygo and others.  Hopefully, it will be as good or I should say as great as the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, which I believe helped fuel the soundtrack revival in the charts.  That one was a unique case because the soundtrack turned out to be better than the book and the movie.  Nothing much memorable occurred in both but the album has one astonishing cut after another.

Love this line-up of hits: I Put A Spell On You (Fifty Shades of Grey) by Annie Lennox; Undiscovered by Laura Welsh; Earned It and Where You Belong by The Weeknd; Meet Me In The Middle by Jessie Ware; Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding; Haunted by Beyoncé; Salted Wound by Sia; Beast of Burden by The Rolling Stones; I’m On Fire by AWOLNATION; Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra; One Last Night by Vaults; I Know You by Skylar Grey; and a magnificent slowed down, utterly sexy Crazy In Love by Beyoncé.