A year that brought much sonic delight into our lives, 2010 saw the return of composer favourites like Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer, as well as the emergence of new talent in the shape of one-time Nine Inch Nailer Trent Reznor and A Single Man’s Abel Korzeniowski. Some of our favourite bands and musicians got a play too, with Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and Twilight: Eclipse calling on the talents of Beck, and Tron Legacy launching Daft Punk’s aural assault. Casting an ear over 2010, here are 18 of the tracks we loved the most.
Audio courtesy of We7.com.
Artist: Free Blood
From: 127 Hours theatrical trailer
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Artist: Bat For Lashes / Beck
***From: ***The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Artist: Edith Piaf
From: Inception
Artist: Hans Zimmer
From: Inception
Artist: Kevin Renick
From: Up In The Air
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Artist: Kirsten Stewart & Dakota Fanning
From: The Runaways
Skip to Track 8 on the player (left).
Artist: Dan Black
From: Easy A
Artist: The Dickies
From: Kick-Ass
Artist: Please Don’t Follow Me
From: Greenberg
Skip to Track 16 on the player (left).
Artist: Marvin Berry & The Starlighters
From: Back To The Future
Artist: Ryan Bingham/T-Bone Burnett
From: Crazy Heart
Artist: Daft Punk
From: Tron Legacy
Artist: Metric
From: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Skip to Track 11 on the player (left).
Artist: Scala & Kolacny Brothers
From: The Social Network teaser trailer
We don’t know why David Fincher settled on this Belgian girls choir’s tender take on Radiohead’s anthem to self-loathing for The Social Network teaser, we only know that it was the pick of the year. Lyrically, musically, everything-ly, it just about perfectly captured the essence of Mark Zuckerberg and his battle with the Winklevii, and with himself. Scala & Kolacny Brothers have covered other artists – U2, Nirvana and Rammstein among them – but we’re thinking the German industrial band’s “B********” wouldn’t have captured the mood quite as well.
Artist: AC/DC
From: Iron Man 2
Artist: The Strokes
From: Somewhere trailer / soundtrack
The woozy, rumpled heartache of this Strokes’ B-side – a stripped-down prototype for Room On Fire’s You Only Live Once – meshed perfectly with Phoenix’s moody instrumental in the trailer for Somewhere. If we had to pick between the two, we’d go with Julian Casablancas and co. Their reunion with Sofia Coppola is just about pitch-perfect for the movie.
***Artist: ***Langley Schools Music Project
From: Catfish trailer
The Scala & Kolacny Brothers weren’t the only choir in town this year. Langley’s ‘70s outsider musical kiddiwinkles may be all growed up now, but their beautifully uplifting covers lived on in doc-that-may-or-may-not-be-mock, Catfish. The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, with added bells and guitars, was an inspired pick to match the film’s upbeat yet unmistakeably wistful mood. It made us wish we’d chucked our recorder away and gone to school in Langley instead.
Head to The Langley Schools Music Project website to find out more about the group and hear other recordings.
Artist: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
From: The Social Network
Trent Reznor was no stranger to lending his vocal chords to Fincher movies (a chop-up of NIN’s Closer gave Se7en’s opening its tundra-bleak sweep). But The Social Network was his first full score, a suitably angular accompaniment to the director’s Facebook origin story that paired Reznor with English musician Atticus Ross. This sparse ambient closer (available to download as a free five-track sampler), a poignant, piano-led soundscape, was a fitting end and perfectly summed up the film’s elegantly sober mood.