City of stars - are you shining just for me?

Continuing my trip back through the 2017 album charts.

10/02/17 : La La Land (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Various Artists


I remember enjoying the film and that the songs seemed to work well within it, without really remembering any of the details - so it will be interesting to see how this works out.

Amusingly, two bars into "Another Day Of Sun", I'm immediately remembering the film intro which was really well done.  With the exception of "City Of Stars" (which I like, but I'm not sure I needed three versions of it), the rest of the album didn't jog many memories (although it did remind me John Legend was in the film, which I'd completely forgotten) but I did recall the general vibe of things - which, for me, was just a little too jazzy to enjoy a full album of. But I do have to agree it's not all jazz and it's all done pretty well so it did make me think I should watch the film again. The only other thing I have to say is that, having listened to it all, I still can't decide whether I like Ryan Gosling's voice or not - but it definitely works well with Emma Stone's on "City Of Stars". 

We're at #2 in the charts this week on their fifth week of a very decent 22 week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its fourth week. The rest of the top five were Elbow (a new entry), Little Mix, Pete Tong & The Heritage Orchestra and Ed Sheeran with three more new entries in the top ten for Black Star Riders (#6 - various members of Thin Lizzy doing their thang), Sampha (#7) and Lower Than Atlantis (#8 - a punk band who mellowed as they grew up, according to Wikipedia).

Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album but it does tell us that the music was written by Justin Hurwitz, a long-time friend and collaborator of director Damien Chazelle - they've worked on five films together. The lyrics were written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who we've actually already briefly met this year because they provided one of the tracks for the Trolls soundtrack - but they're probable slightly better known for their work on The Greatest Showman these days, which we might possibly get to see in '18 because it spent half the year at #1 and the entire year in the top five.

There's no word on critical reviews, but the film did win two Academy Awards - Best Original Score and Best Original Song, for "City Of Stars" (beating "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)" amongst others). It famously didn't win the Best Picture award though, despite Faye Dunaway telling us otherwise - they deserve credit for their grace in dealing with that somewhat unfortunate situation. The album did well commercially, getting to the top ten in a load of countries, including #1 in Greece and Spain and #2 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a decent CD copy for three quid but if you want the special edition blue translucent vinyl (with a nice alternative cover) then it's going to cost you £75. I'm not generally a fan of film soundtracks because of the lack of context, but I think this one got away with it - but it was still a bit too jazzy for me.

17/02/17 - Better than expected

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And all at once I owned the earth and sky

Image
A new year to start the New Year - starting my trip back through the 2001 album charts. 30/12/01 : Swing When You're Winning -   Robbie Williams There's a reasonable argument I should reject this album, but it was such a surprising cultural moment that even I don't feel I can, so it means we're starting the year with one that "we" own. This is our fifth visit with Mr Williams - I'm determined not to enjoy it, but I also have to admit I'm not going to hate it nearly as much as I would like to.  You know what? This is perfectly fine. Completely inessential, but he's not doing anyone any harm. For the most part, it's classic Sinatra-or-thereabouts tracks which Robbie does a decent job with on the vocals (along with some slightly peculiar guests) and they've obviously got some decent musicians in to lay down the backing tracks. He rarely does anything wildly original with them but, most importantly, he doesn't ruin them either - I don't...
Read more

I wanna keep the door from closing, yeah

Image
Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 26/12/25 : I Barely Know Her - Sombr Christmas week gives us some odd albums - last year we had Lana del Rey's album from '12, which hasn't left the chart all year. I'm pleased to say we're somewhat more up to date this year with an album that came out in August - I met it as a new entry  and was somewhat nonplussed by it, but I have mentioned it a couple of times since because it's just not gone away, which is somewhat unusual. So let's see what I make of it on a second listen (this trick totally failed to convince me of the virtues of Addison Rae earlier today). Well, well, well - Sombr at least intrigues on second listen. I'd struggle to describe it - it's kinda poppy indie with a woozy vibe to it, but it feels like it has depths to it and I reckon the more you listen to it, the more you pick up on. Intriguing indeed - I'd love to tell you more but that's all I got for the time ...
Read more

In your grace, I looked for some meaning - but I found none

Image
Continuing my trip up The Guardian's  50 best albums of 2025 . #3 :  Essex Honey - Blood Orange Dev Hynes’ fifth album as Blood Orange felt uniquely keyed into the fragmented, distracted headspace that comes after someone passes, in his case, his mother. Essex Honey’s restive nature was summed up in its painful opening lines, which you could read as the dying’s acceptance of death starkly contrasting the living’s ability to meet them on those terms: “In your grace, I looked for some meaning,” Hynes sings on Look at You. “But I found none, and I still search for a truth.” That search is wide-reaching: The Field refashions the Durutti Column’s Sing to Me as a racing hymnal made for the stereo of a Ford Escort. There are tough little Robert Rental-style post-punk gems in The Train (Kings Cross) and Countryside that bristle with frustration. Vivid Light is a plainly soulful duet with Zadie Smith; Life, featuring Tirzah’s unmistakable vocals, basks in languid, flute-dappled funk. T...
Read more