Oscar Nominations And Countdown To My Own Top Films of 2012

So, we now have the nine films nominated for Oscar's Best Picture. This is always an exciting time for me, as I follow the whole awards season like many follow their favorite sports team. My favorite nominated movie hardly ever wins, but I still love to see what happens. And this year's been a particular... interesting group of nominees. Not so much in the Best Picture race, but some of the other categories are a bit of a mess. Here's this year's list:

Amour
Argo
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables 
Life Of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

Now, I've been working on my own Top Films of 2012 list for the last couple weeks and plan on posting it on Monday. As usual, I'm really passionate about the year's movies and love being able to reflect on which ones affected me the most.

Looking at the list above, I can say that--as it stands now--two of the nominated films are in my personal top ten, and three more are within the top twenty. However, there are also three I haven't seen yet. So that might change by Monday. Beasts Of The Southern Wild is the only one I actively dislike so far, so I suppose that's not too bad a ratio.

But what I really want to know, as a prelude to Monday's list, are your favorite films of the year. Leave your top three in the comments!! I'm very curious :)

Studio Killers - All Men Are Pigs

"This is no fairytale"

Studio Killers are back! Sort of. All Men Are Pigs has been floating around the internet for a year now in demo form, but now we've got the full, single version available for our listening pleasure. As anyone looking at my year end countdowns the past two years knows, I love the Studio Killers. It's sometimes frustrating that we have to wait so long in between releases, especially since I think an entire album by them would be beyond awesome. But the long wait's not all bad, I guess. It does make each song seem more exciting. All Men Are Pigs hasn't quite hit me as strong as their previous two singles did (yet), but I'm so happy that they're back again. The sing-song melody and trippy production/vocals are definitely intact, augmented with a strong 90's dance flavor. The beat is pretty irresistible.



(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear, support the artists. Preorder the single here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.

Girls' Generation - I Got A Boy

I feel like this is the first K-Pop single to really feel the boost post-Gangnam Style. This can be seen immediately in the crazy amount of youtube views the video has already received in the few days it's been available. But it's also the first real major comeback in the months since PSY's made it big globally. Girls' Generation have always been huge in their native Korea, starting with the addictively cheesy mega-smash Gee. I Got A Boy is far, far from that track's sound, and everyone and their mother in the blogosphere seems to have an opinion on it. It's incredibly divisive, courting passionate admirers and detractors. You can count me among the former. I adore the rapid shifts in style and sound (and the song has a lot of them). I wasn't sure the first time through, but it only took two listens for the track to really click with me. Structure-wise, it's a lot like the more experimental Girls Aloud tracks. Eight songs strung together as one, all in just five minutes. Enjoy! I'm gonna post the whole video below, because it's best experienced with the visuals.



(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear, support the artists. Buy the album here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.

Ace Wilder - Do It

"Let's set the night ablaze"

I was going to write about a different song today until I discovered this one over on the always wonderful scandipop. I've lamented a few times about how Sweden dropped the ball for me in 2012. They used to be my most reliable purveyors of excellent pop. And while there were definitely some incredible Swedish-borne tracks last year, this year has already started out more exciting. Between Darin and Maja Ivarsson's excellent Så Mycket Bättre material and now this track, my ipod's overflowing with newish Scandinavian stuff. Based on Do It, Ace Wilder is a popstar with a lot of potential. The song has quite rightly been compared to Icona Pop's fantastic I Love It, but it's almost like that track seen through the prism of a poppier artist like Linda Sundblad or Elin Lanto. As usual with Swedish pop, the melody is up front and center, and it's definitely a hooky, anthemic one. I am salivating to see what she's going to do next.



(Music posted for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear, support the artists. Keep up with Ace on facebook here. Follow me on twitter and facebook.