News of the soundtrack to The Hunger Games came out months before the movie was released, and the lineup suggested the album might be a greater artistic achievement than the film.
Produced by T Bone Burnett, who worked his magic a decade ago on the Grammy-winning O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, the record features contributions from Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, Arcade Fire, The Decemberists, Glen Hansard, Neko Case, The Civil Wars and Maroon 5, among others.
I’ve bought nine new albums so far this year and they’re split pretty evenly between mild disappointment and happy surprise.
Over the next nine days, I’ll feature a song from each of those albums and write a mini review of each. To satisfy my pathological urge to make lists, I’ll feature them in order from worst to best.
Gloria Estefan’s 1993 solo album (her third) is one of the only Spanish-language albums I own that isn’t by Shakira. Technically, it belongs to my wife (who can actually understand the lyrics).
This is a great example of an album — and a kind of music — that I’m perfectly happy to listen to live but I have no patience for over my speakers.
Often after I make a list on this blog of any sort, I spend the next few weeks rethinking what I put on it and running into things that might have fit better.
When today’s song popped up as a random iTunes selection, I immediately wondered how INXS’ Kick escaped my list of the best albums of the 80s.
