And the Oscar for Original Song goes to...
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Hazel, you know, there is a lot to envy about your life. I don't know if you've ever thought about this. I have actually. I've thought about it a lot. Yeah. So much. But there is one thing that I am particularly jealous of. What are you jealous of? Well, it's the way that you've told me this. It's the way that you have carefully calibrated your entire adult life to see as many movies as possible. Right.

I have, yeah. I have designed my life to see all the movies that I possibly can, as many as I can. The world is my oyster. It really is. I'm so jealous. There was a time...

You know, before all the things that sort of suck up my nights and weekends. Now, there was a time when I would see a movie or a couple movies in a theater every week. And I really miss it. I do see movies at home. But, you know, it usually will take me several nights to watch a movie because I can only watch maybe 30 minutes or 45 minutes at a time. And then I get interrupted with something. So...

Like, it took me a week to watch The Irishman. Well, that's a very long movie. But yeah, sure, I get it. Well, one of the things that I've always loved maybe most about films is the music. The original scores, the songs...

And it is Oscar season, and on this episode, we're going to talk about the nominees for the best score and best song, who we think will win, who should win, and who got snubbed. Lots of snubs this year, I think. A lot of snubs. So many snubs. Let's just start by running down the nominees for best score. There were five films. One of them is the...

three and a half hour long era-spanning drama called The Brutalist. This one also took me about a week to get through. And it has an equally sprawling score by the composer Daniel Bloomberg. We'll talk about our predictions and the snubs in a bit, but straight up, I will say that of the nominees...

this is by far my favorite. I would agree. When I saw this movie in theaters, and it did have an intermission, it is such an insane, epic movie about immigrating to America in the aftermath of World War II. And it's this movie about American industrialism and trying to be a self-made man in this country and sort of the darkness that comes with that and what you have to sacrifice. And this score really lives up to the intensity of...

It just, it has this big sweeping epicness that is, I feel like no other movie this year sort of contains. Yeah, it's very grand. It's very gothic. You know, the film follows an architect and his work

wild vision that kind of spirals out of control. So steel and concrete, you know, those sorts of things figure into the story a lot. And the score kind of sounds like that. It's almost mechanical, but also organic. Yeah. Even the music that we're hearing right now, there is this sort of like, you feel like you're on a train. You feel like you're in the belly of a ship and the gears are turning. And, you know, and then the score has these really incredible moments where

It has these like big swooning kind of brass moments that honestly kind of, it kind of reminded me of the score to Chariots of Fire. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I can hear this. Yeah, this sort of like swinging upwards sense of promise to the score and just it works so well with the story. I actually thought of The Shining.

when I listen to it. Yeah. Because you know another theme of the film is madness. And there's a real undercurrent of horror in the score that reminded me of what Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkin did for The Shining.

Also, too, like, you know, this score, which, as you said, was composed by Daniel Bloomberg. I when I was looking at his list of bands and projects that he's done, I was like, oh, he was in Yuck. Like he was the frontman of Yuck, which was an indie rock band, you know, from like the early 2010s. And it's just really interesting to see the turn that his career has taken because this score just feels unique.

As an introduction to him as someone who scores films, just really impressive. Yeah, I was a Yuck fan and did not realize that Daniel Bloomberg was now. I mean, they broke up a few years ago. Yeah. And I was super bummed about that, but I didn't keep following Daniel Bloomberg and didn't know that he was scoring now. But great one, The Brutalist from Daniel Bloomberg. All right, next up, The Wild Robot, the animated film from DreamWorks. Chris Bowers is the composer for this one. ♪

I love this score. I feel like it is so playful and futuristic. And it's funny, I was listening to it and I was like, man, I really love this.

the percussion on a lot of these songs. And then I saw that Chris Bowers, who did the score, worked with the group Sandbox Percussion, who is this percussion group who kind of uses, you know, unconventional instruments like glass bottles and planks of wood and cowbells and things like that. And...

I really sort of understood the sense of adventure and wonder. I thought it was, it's an incredible score. - Yeah, I really liked this one too. I'm a big Chris Bowers fan and generally love his work. He does the music for "Bridgerton", that TV series. - Oh. - I really liked, he did "King Richard". I really liked what he did for that.

So many other great scores that he's done. And I agree, there are some really wonderful moments in this Wild Robot score. It supports the story really well. I think my biggest issue with it, and it's one that I frequently have with a lot of the best score nominees for the Oscars, is that maybe a little too safe. It kind of stays between the lines a little bit too much for me. You know, I'm always looking for something...

that's super unconventional. And this one's just a little bit too sort of traditional Hollywood score for me, but I do think it works really well with the film and I do enjoy his work. But let's talk about one that decidedly does not have a traditional Hollywood score and that's the film Amelia Perez. Maybe the most polarizing film nominated this year. And we can talk more about that, but the score is by Clement Ducal and Camille. ♪

Pondas! Refrigerador! Micro! Colchon!

So Amelia Perez is the most nominated film this year. 13 nominations, including Best Picture, along with Best Score and Best Song. We're going to talk about those in a little bit. But despite all of its nominations and all the buzz, I say it's polarizing because a lot of people really, really didn't like this film. Yeah, me included. I did not like this film. I did not care for it either. It had some moments...

I mean, but you look at Rotten Tomatoes. It's got a score of 17% from the audience. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, the critics' score is around 72%, but still not great. A lot of write-ups and reviews talking about how problematic the film is. But tell me what you thought about the music. Yeah. I mean, I think one of my problems with the film overall is that I feel like it's very kind of tonally bizarre to me. I feel like...

There are moments where it's very dark, but it's sort of played for laughs. And then there's moments where it's very kind of playful. And there's very little coherence to the film. And I feel like listening to the music of it, the score and the songs that we'll talk about later, I feel like it's also incoherent, basically. You know, a lot of this score, which I feel like there's very little of in the film because it is a musical and so much of the music of the movie is sort of songs, dialogue set to music.

I just feel like it doesn't match a lot of the moments in the movie. And I feel like, you know, I understand the techniques that they're using. Camille uses a lot of her like layered vocals in the score. There are these kind of moments of dark vocoded vocals and synths. And I just felt like the score sort of lended itself more to a horror film and, and,

You know, Amelia Perez, whether you liked it or not, it has these moments of resilience and hope and there's like a heroine in the film. And I don't know, I just felt like the score just didn't

capture what was really happening in the movie. Yeah, I like a really big swing in movies when it comes to music. I like it when a filmmaker takes chances, subverts expectations, which Amelia Perez does over and over again on multiple levels. You know, if a film suddenly becomes a musical or it starts off as in one genre and becomes a completely different genre, I'm down with that. I'm usually game to go along, but

Exactly what you said. There were just too many disconnects for me between the music and the story and the subject matter. It just did not come together for me. Yeah, I mean, I think the thing with Amelia Perez is, you know, across all of the music, the score, the original songs, there isn't a...

coherent language to me, like a musical language or mythology. You know, I think they pull in a lot of different genres and sounds and styles into the music of the movie. And so when I'm looking at it overall and I'm listening to it overall, I just I feel like it really just doesn't come together for me the way that most of the other scores in this category that we that we're talking about do. Yeah, I agree.

Okay, we've got a couple more nominees that we want to talk about, including composer Volker Bertelmann. Some people know him for the work that he does under the name Hauschka. He is nominated this year for the score he did for the film Conclave. Conclave

You know, as much as I love scores, and as often as I listen to them before I even see the movie, I very often will go in having no idea who did the score and not really paying that much attention to it. And if it's a really great score, there will usually be a moment where I'm like,

where it does get my attention so much so that it takes me away from the story for a moment and I think, well, this is interesting. And there was a moment like that when I was listening to this score where it really got my attention. And for this, I think it was the simple little moment when the strings do that little bend, that...

Yes. Yeah. And so I did look it up and then I saw, oh my gosh, of course, it's Volker Berthelman because I have really loved his work in the past. He won an Oscar for his score for All Quiet on the Western Front. But what did you think? I have to say when I saw Conclave in theaters, I didn't walk away thinking about the score the same way that, say, when I saw The Brutalists in theaters, like I left the theater and I was like, man, that score was amazing.

and definitive and incredible. But I...

When I listened to the score for Conclave in the lead up to doing this episode, it really kind of crept up on me how effective it is because, you know, Conclave is a movie about, you know, a bunch of cardinals locking themselves in the Vatican to try to elect the new pope. It's this kind of, you know, tense gossipy film, claustrophobic film, and this score really ratchets up the tension so effectively and I can hear it as

as you said in that moment with that kind of like long yawning string section but also that kind of like quick rapid fire like da da da da

of the score. Yeah, I wrote the word claustrophobic down too because it feels like the walls are closing in, which is kind of a theme in the film as well. And the way those strings bend kind of feel like a question mark. And there are so many questions hanging in the air throughout the film. I would not be unhappy if this one won. Me either. And I think it's interesting to talk about this score after talking about Amelia Perez because I think that this is a score that...

Right.

Like he really wanted to sort of give himself this classic container to work in. And I feel like in a way, like the Conclave score, I can hear that sense of tradition and the regalness of the score in it, but also a sense of experimentation. Yeah, I agree. Conclave is the film from Volker Bertramen, his third nomination.

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Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. All right, we've got one more film that we want to talk about. It's one of the biggest films from last year, Wicked, the film adaptation of the musical Wicked from John Powell and Stephen Schwartz. ¶¶

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So anytime a musical gets nominated for Best Score, I'm always so confused. Yeah. Because on the one hand, it's like, well, wait a minute, all these songs have existed for years and years and years. They were written for the original stage production. But in this case, there's also a whole original score written just for the film outside of all of the musical songs that everyone knows. Yeah, it is kind of confusing to me why Wicked Score...

was nominated because if you look at the rules, a score can't be eligible if it's been diluted by the use of pre-existing music, which I think maybe that's, you know,

That's sort of depending on what you think dilution means. But also, a score can't be eligible if it's been diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs or any music not composed specifically for the film. When people think of the music of Wicked...

They're thinking of all of the classic songs from the musical that have obviously existed for, you know, years before the movie came out. Right. And so...

this score, you know, I think it's like a lovely serviceable score, but to me it's just connective tissue that sort of unites the big tentpole songs which occur so frequently in the film. And so it is a little confusing to me why this score was nominated just because I feel like the score is so secondary to so much of the other music in the movie. And maybe that's

Maybe that's rude of me to say, but I just, you know, there were other scores that could have been nominated in this category, and I'm just a little confused why Wicked score. You know, the songs, I guess the songs you can't nominate because they're already existed, but yeah, it's confusing to me. Yeah, I mean, the rules have changed a lot over the years.

A lot of people, of course, know John Williams for Star Wars and all his big blockbusters. But the first Oscar he won was for Fiddler on the Roof, which obviously was a musical and stage production before it was turned into a film. There used to be, very briefly, an awards specifically for musicals. It was Best Original Musical or Comedy Score, and it was introduced as an award in 1995, but pretty quickly discontinued in 1998-1999.

I will say I really like the work of John Powell. He is one of my favorite composers. He's done a lot of big blockbuster films, like The Bourne Identity, and he did the Han Solo film, part of one of the Star Wars films. My favorite, though, is a score that he did for the Michael J. Fox documentary that came out a year or two ago. Still a Michael J. Fox movie is what it was called. And you should totally check that out. Lots of really cool, interesting things that he does in that score.

But this is maybe a good time for us to make our predictions on who we think is going to win because I'm kind of thinking Wicked might pull it out for best score. I feel like the Academy cannot resist. They love musicals and everything about it. It checks so many boxes for them, you know, a beloved story, a beloved franchise, you know, beloved cast, a feel-good, family-friendly movie, a massive Hollywood production. I don't know. I will not be surprised if it wins.

I will be disappointed if it wins because I just, I mean, I just feel like I want a score that marks new territory and carves new path. And I think that Conclave will win. I think Bertelman has won before. And I feel like the brutalist score, as much as I love it, I think it might be a tad too out there for the Academy to award. I feel like...

Their scoring tastes can be a little conservative, but I would love to be pleasantly surprised, but I think Conclave will win. So if you had to say who should win, you'd pick The Brutalist? I think The Brutalist should win. Yes. Yeah. I agree completely. Yeah. Okay, before we get to the best song nominees, though, let's talk snubs real quick and the scores that they missed. Well, the biggest snub is DraftKings.

Dren Reznor and Atticus Ross for their score for Challengers, which is a huge hole to me. I'm very confused. ♪

Those are two people who have won twice for best score in the past for The Social Network and Soul. They also won the best score award for Challengers this year at the Golden Globes, and multiple critics associations have given them awards for best score this year. They were also nominated at the Grammys. I just feel like that is a score that, aside from being my favorite score of the year...

or of movies that came out last year, like aside from my personal preferences, it has been recognized in so many places. So for it to not even be nominated at the Academy Awards, I am really confused. - Absolutely baffling. I not only assumed they'd be nominated, but that it would win. - Yeah. - Before the nominees were announced, I couldn't believe it.

I was also surprised that Hildur Gunnardotter's score for the second Joker movie didn't get a nomination. She won for the score that she did for the first Joker film in 2020. But one I think that they really missed this year, and I doubt it was even on their radar, was the score for Baby Girl done by Christabel Tapia DeVere. ♪♪

Oh, it's so cool. He, you know, I talked about Cristobal Tapia DeVere last fall when we did that episode on horror film scores because he did the Smile films, which I really loved.

He is just so wildly inventive. He comes up with sounds that you can't identify. He does the most interesting things with them. And he does, it's all over this Baby Girl score. I love it. I kind of just feel like the Academy, they saw Wicked. They saw Amelia Perez. And they were like, those are musical movies. Those are movies filled with music. So we have to nominate the scores. And it's like, well, you don't have to. There are other scores out there.

So I don't know. There's just something kind of lazy about the score category this year to me. Yeah, I felt the same. All right, let's talk about best song nominees. One of the biggest changes this year is that the nominated artists...

artists will not be performing the songs during the ceremony. Yeah. So the Academy has decided this year, as you said, not to include performances of the original songs that are nominated in the broadcast. Instead, the Academy said that they want to spotlight the songwriters through, these are their words, personal reflections and behind-the-scenes insights that

And that there are going to be music moments in the ceremony, but they're not going to be those kind of performances that we know and expect. Obviously, songwriters have been mad about this. Diane Warren, who's nominated this year, spoke out about that and isn't very happy. It's not totally crazy for the Oscars to not include performances of original songs during the broadcast because in the past, sometimes they've switched it up. Like there was one year where Beyonce performed.

Three different original songs and she certainly didn't perform those songs in the films that were nominated. And so they cut things, they move things around. But I think this year it seems kind of weird to me not to do original performances, especially as much as we might not like Amelia Perez. Amelia Perez is nominated for two songs. I don't know. To me it kind of feels like the Academy wanted to ditch the original song

nominee performances to kind of make way for other musical moments of their own choosing in the show. Like there's kind of a rumor that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo might perform a wicked thing during the performance. That's just a rumor.

I don't know. It is consistent with some of the other things they've been changing up in recent years. You know, instead of showing clips of an actor's performance, you hear the actor reflecting on the role. Or they'll have somebody else talk about why that actor is important to them. They've been trying to mix it up. But I was pretty stunned to hear this because it's certainly one of the things that I've enjoyed most.

about watching the Oscars. And I think for a lot of people, it's the only reason they tune in is to see those performances. So, yeah. Yeah, I feel like the Academy wants those performances when they serve, like, ratings purposes. Like, obviously, I'm just Ken. Right.

was incredible. And so I don't know, I could see the Academy looking at the original song nominees this year and being like, well, we'd rather have a wicked thing or we'd rather have Timmy. These are just speculations. Timmy play a Bob Dylan music because he was really good at doing that in SNL. So I don't know. I'm just kind of being a cynic for what the Academy Awards wants from us from a show at the end of the day. Yeah.

Okay, five nominees in the song category. Let's start with the song by Diane Warren. You mentioned her because it just isn't the Oscars unless Diane Warren is nominated for Best Song. This one's called The Journey. It's performed by the singer Her, and it was for the film The Six Triple Eight.

All the times you thought you'd never make it through Felt just like the world just turned its back on you Didn't stop you All the times you could've given in and given up Times you didn't know if you were strong enough Still you got through Somehow all part of a journey

Diane Warren

nominated 16 times for a Best Song Oscar. How many has she won? Zero. Zero. None. She's won none. Well, she's not going to win with this song. I'm just telling you.

You don't think? Because I kind of thought, I mean, I'm not in love with it, but it feels like a solid contender to me. I mean, I think it's a contender for sure, but I just think it's kind of lazy. I don't know. I just feel like this, you know, lazy isn't the word. It's just kind of like completes...

the Oscar song assignment for me. You know, it's this ballad about, you know, people thought they could hold you back, but you're stronger than that and you can get through this. And, you know, her is an incredible vocalist and performer, but I just, this song is not wowing me. - To your point about it,

sort of meeting all the requirements for an Oscar nominee in this category. It has that classic ballad sound.

kind of an earworm melody and chord progression. It's very stirring and it fits the film sort of perfectly. But all of these things I'm saying are also, at least for the kinds of stuff that I'm looking for in a nominee, are also kind of strikes against it. And it's so consistent with a lot of the nominees in the song category every year. Yeah, it's a Warren special, you know? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

All right, let's talk about Amelia Perez again, because in addition to the score, it has two tracks nominated for Best Song. The first is Mi Camino, performed by Selena Gomez. Si me cago en la parranca, es mi parranca Si me doblo de dolor, es mi dolor Si me mando a sentimos cielo, es mi cielo Si me equivoco de camino, igual con salco

me

So I will say, as much as I didn't like this film and the score overall, I do think that there were some good songs in it. I do like Mi Camino. I think it's in a scene...

that is maybe one of the more popular moments in the film. You know, it's maybe just because it's a rare bright spot. There's a bitter sweetness to it. Yeah. There's this kind of nice synchronized dance that goes along with it. And overall, you know, it's one of the more uplifting moments in the film. And I should say too, as much as I rag on Amelia Perez, the performances in the movie are great. Like Selena Gomez is great. Zoe Saldana is great. And I think Selena Gomez is great on this song. I will say that listening to the song, I,

I did feel like it was a little generic. Like I couldn't, at one point I couldn't tell if it was plagiarizing something I had already heard or if it was just so generic that...

It sounded like something I had already heard. But I don't know, I like the message of this song, you know, and what it does for her character in the movie, the sort of declaration that she can't be held down and she's going to do things her own way, even if people judge her for it. I will say that I read that out of all the songs in Amelia Perez, most of them were written and recorded before the shooting of the film and that this

that this song was the one that they recorded after shooting. And I don't know, I kind of am speculating that in the process of making the movie, they were like, we got to have Selena Gomez sing a song. Like, yeah, she needs a song, which is true. She does need a song. Yeah. But yeah, I don't I don't know if it's giving out of all the songs from Amelia Perez. And in this category, I don't think it's Oscar worthy.

Yeah, I think between the two of them, the other one is the one that is the stronger contender. It's called El Mal and it's performed by Zoe Saldana. El Mal

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

You mentioned how great some of the performances were in the film. I thought Zoe Zaldana absolutely crushed this in the film. It's the best scene in the movie. Yeah, and I think, we're not talking about this part of the Oscars, but I think she probably will win the Oscar for her performance overall. Yeah, I mean, when I was talking earlier about the overall incoherence of Emilia Perez's music, the score, a lot of the music,

You know, a lot of the songs in Amelia Perez sort of just felt to me like dialogue, kind of sing-song, like dialogue kind of just lazily set to music. And I think the thing that I appreciate about El Mal, where I don't think it's like a perfect song, it feels like a song. It feels like a clear moment in that movie. And you can kind of take that song out of the movie and it really kind of stands on its own two legs.

I think it's kind of erratic. Like, I don't really... Is it a rock song? Is it a rap song? There's a lot going on in it. But I think Zoe Saldana's performance, her vocals in it, like, really make it. I don't know, really make it successful to me. And I think that it is the song that's going to win the Oscar, for sure. Yeah. I agree. You know, in this scene, Zoe Saldana, she's in a kind of a club or dining hall. She's basically...

Basically taking down every single person in the room, kind of moving between the tables. And it is an incredible performance. And I think to your point, it is probably that performance that's going to elevate this song to the point where it's going to win more than just the song itself. Yeah, it's the full package.

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All right, there are a couple more song nominees we need to talk about, including one from Elton John and Brandi Carlile. It's called Never Too Late. It's never too late for a wide open sleigh. A kiss from a stranger, a thousand first days.

You're a lineman, baby To hell with Devilsgate There's not a moment too soon If it's never too, never too late Oh, it's never too late To go shoot out the moon We'll go dancing in graveyard You can keep your balloon Be a runaway bride Trade in gypsies for grooms

So this one was for the documentary about Elton John, also called Never Too Late. I'm a lifelong Elton John fan. You know, he has done some of my all-time favorite songs. He's had some, definitely, he's had some clunkers. He can certainly be hit or miss. As incredible as some of his work is, I think he has a habit of getting super schmaltzy and overly earnest.

I feel all of that in this song. By far the best thing in it is Brandi Carlile. Yeah, she's doing a lot of heavy lifting in this song. I do feel like this is a clunker. There's one moment in it that I kind of wish they had...

more or explored more, which is kind of that line about like the years making jokes of all of us and kind of letting this, I was like, I kind of wanted more of that playful energy in the song, but overall it kind of just like the Warren and her song, it,

It just feels like it's checking a lot of Academy Award Oscar Ballad boxes to me. - I mean, the Academy cannot resist a legacy artist. - Yes. - You know, and this comes very late in Elton John's life and career, you know, and it does score or provide the score in part to a very remarkable story.

But I'm with you. It's just, again, it's just sort of a little too paint by numbers for me. Yeah. All right. One more song, though. And this is from the film Sing Sing. The song is called Like a Bird, performed by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada. Fly, fly, fly, fly.

i'll give you my word i try try try fly like a bird fly fly fly fly i'll give you my word i have faith but you're gonna see search for peace but no one speaks burn a bridge to light my way

I am not wildly in love with this song, but it is by far my favorite of the nominees. I'm the same. Totally with you. Yeah. And I think it's my favorite of the nominees because it doesn't sound like an Oscars ballad that's painting...

all the numbers. Like there's something really kind of like earthy and rooted and natural to this song. This feels like a song that I could hear on the radio. This feels like a song that I could hear outside of the context of the movie, outside of the context of being nominated. And I also just, you know, its message is quite simple. This idea of being a bird stuck in a cage. You know, the movie is about incarceration and

you know, but it works for me. Yeah. I think it's got a really nice mix of folk and gospel and it's a very pretty song. And like you said, it works even outside of the context of the film. For me, it's not going to win because of everything that you just said. It's like it does not check enough boxes, I think, for the Oscars. I would be thrilled if it did win and

And going back and seeing these songs performed live, this would be such a great one to see them do live. You know, I would so love to see a performance of this. I know. All right. So if we talk predictions, we both agree. I think it's going to be El Mal. Yeah. That'll win. Yeah. I think, you know, I don't want to get into all the different controversies surrounding the film Amelia Perez. People can read about those. I think it's going to tank a lot of the nominations that it got.

I think maybe Zoe Saldana could still win Best Supporting Actress. But I think this is one area where they'll kind of, I don't know, consolation prize. Throw them a bone. Yeah, I 100% agree. This is how they'll give it something. Yeah. And if you talk about who should win of the nominees, you'd go with Like a Bird? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I agree. Would love to see it surprise everyone. But in a year of so many misses and snubs...

Let's talk about some of the more glaring ones that we think they missed this year. Well, I think one song that they missed is this song called Claw Machine by the artist Sloppy Jane featuring Phoebe Bridgers. And it was a song on the soundtrack from a movie called I Saw the TV Glow. That movie had a soundtrack of mostly original songs written for the film from a wide range of indie rock, indie pop artists, artists.

And this song, Claw Machine, is sort of the central song of the movie. I saw the tea, sent in grown and grainy photos of my bedroom has no doors so I can never clue paint the ceiling black so I notice when my eyes are black so I notice when my eyes are

Somewhere south of Tallahassee, a teenage boy with a summer job. He's driving grown down to golf course. He's going home to a manicured woman.

It's so beautiful. And, you know, this movie, I saw this TV glow. I don't think it would have ever been on the Oscars radar, Academy Awards radar. But what this movie does with its soundtrack and with music, I really think is award worthy. Yeah. I don't know if the fact that it had a cover song on it. There was one cover song out of all of them. And there was one song that existed before the movie was made.

But I agree. I think it's the biggest snub in the song category this year because there were just so many tracks to choose from, too. I know. I mean, Claw Machine is near the top of my short list, but I really love the song Riding Around in the Dark by Floris. That's one of the songs on there. I love the King Woman song, Barry. None of these check any of those boxes we mentioned earlier, right? I mean, so I would love for them to surprise us some year and nominate some stuff like this, but...

They won't. But they won't. Hope dies last. Yes. But, you know, we talked about the film Challengers, that score and how it was totally snubbed. It also includes a song that everyone thought would be nominated called Compress Repress. One and one. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch. Touch me. Change, change. You and you.

I can feel that you touch, touch me.

So this is also by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. And, you know, there's so much just sweaty tension in this film. And this song just perfectly captures it, I think. Yes, I think as I previously said, Trent and Atticus have been snubbed in all of the categories this year. And I feel like they deserve to be nominated for this song as well.

All right, well, we'll go out on this thumper from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Do you have an Oscar-watching party or get together with friends and you'll make predictions and everything? I am having an—I'm doing an Oscar party where we're going to watch. And, yeah, I'm going to—I don't know if we're going to make—it's not that formalized. But, yeah, I always watch the Oscars with friends.

Yeah. I've gone to parties where someone's had ballots printed up. No. And we like check. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go all out. I don't do that anymore. My wife and I do, though, just before the winner's announced. We'll say who we think it's going to be. Oh, yeah. That's the extent of the work that I'll do. I'm not doing more work than that. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much, Hazel. Thank you. And for NPR Music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered. One, one, two, come.

Wait, wait, wait

I'm ready to go to the win.

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