My next 2017 movie music moment comes from the Pixar film Coco, which I remember more and more fondly over time.
The film is set in Mexico and centers around the Day of the Dead, when (in this movie’s universe) the ghosts of family members past return from the Land of the Dead to celebrate with their living loved ones. Through a series of hijinks I won’t get into, young Miguel winds up in the Land of the Dead and must orchestrate a reconciliation between a long-lost ancestor and his own family.
Continuing my pattern of looking back at 2017 well into 2018, this week I’ll highlight five of my favorite musical moments from last year’s movies.
Two of these picks are performed by characters in the films, one is played through headphones by a character in the film, one is a song used as score and the last is a traditional instrumental score (and a bit of a cheat, as I’ll explain when I get there).
Where possible, I’ll embed a clip of the actual scene as well as the original song.
Every time I hear Jimmy Buffett’s Songs You Know By Heart, I wonder why I don’t play it far more often. As much as I dislike the idea of greatest hits albums, I can’t help but feel that this particular collection is one of the best records I own.
I’ve heard other Jimmy Buffett songs over the years, either online or on the Sirius/XM Margaritaville station, but nothing that’s flipped my lid the way these 13 songs do.
Death Cab For Cutie’s 2003 album Transatlanticism is a record I’m sure I’d love if I took the time to listen. It is a melancholy break-up album that has received wide critical acclaim — exactly my cup of tea.
I’m not sure why I haven’t taken the time to get to know it. Probably just an accident of timing, which kept it out of my rotation when it first came out and then saw it filed away and overshadowed by a decade and a half of new musical discoveries.
My final video is the most ambitious of the bunch.
San Francisco rapper Watsky’s song ‘Exquisite Corpse’ is inspired by the word game of the same name, in which multiple writers add new verses to a poem in succession. Watsky recruited seven rappers to add verses to a story he kicks off with a reference to a post-apocalyptic hellscape (that thankfully still has a Sbarro).
Meet Me In Montauk 